You can show your iPhone’s battery on a Mac in three places: Find My, Finder and iPhone Mirroring. Each one shows a battery icon, and each has a condition. macOS has no single place to see or check the exact percentage. Here is what each one needs, and how to get the number in your menu bar.
Find My
Find My works from anywhere, with no cable.
- Open the Find My app on your Mac.
- Click Devices.
- Select your iPhone. A battery icon is under its name.
Your iPhone must be signed in to the same Apple Account, with Find My turned on, and it must be online. You get an icon, not a percentage, and the level can be a few minutes old.
Finder, with a cable
When your iPhone is connected with a cable, Finder shows its battery.
- Connect the iPhone to your Mac and unlock it.
- Open a Finder window and select the iPhone in the sidebar.
- Look at the top of the window. A battery icon is next to the name.
The first time, tap Trust on the iPhone and enter its passcode.
iPhone Mirroring
If you use iPhone Mirroring, the mirrored screen has the iPhone’s own status bar, with its battery in the corner.
- Open the iPhone Mirroring app on your Mac.
- Look at the top right of the mirrored screen.
iPhone Mirroring needs a recent Mac, a recent iPhone and the same Apple Account on both. It is not available in every region.
What macOS does not show
- No exact percentage. Find My and Finder show an icon.
- Not in the menu bar. Each way means opening an app.
- Not in the Batteries widget. On a Mac, that widget shows the Mac and its Bluetooth accessories, not your iPhone.
- No history, and no alert when your iPhone gets low while it is in another room.
iPhone not showing in the Batteries widget on a Mac
This is normal. The Batteries widget on a Mac lists the Mac and the Bluetooth accessories connected to it. An iPhone is not a Bluetooth accessory of your Mac, so the widget leaves it out. An iPad is missing for the same reason. No setting in macOS adds it.
Here is what works instead:
- Find My shows a battery icon for the iPhone, with no cable.
- Finder shows a battery icon while the iPhone is connected.
- The Batteries widget on the iPhone shows the iPhone and the accessories connected to it.
- A battery monitor for Mac can read the iPhone over Wi-Fi and show it in its own widgets.
The guide to the Batteries widget on a Mac has a table of the devices it shows.
Show the iPhone battery percentage on a Mac
Find My and Finder show a battery icon, with no number. iPhone Mirroring shows the iPhone’s own status bar. To put the number in that status bar:
- Open Settings on the iPhone.
- Tap Battery.
- Turn on Battery Percentage.
That still means opening an app each time. The next section keeps the percentage in the menu bar.
The percentage is the charge now. For the condition of the battery, see how to check iPhone battery health and cycle count.
Show iPhone battery in the menu bar, over Wi-Fi
BatteryBud shows your iPhone’s exact percentage in your Mac’s menu bar. The setup is cable, Trust, Wi-Fi. You need the cable once.
- Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a cable, and unlock it.
- Tap Trust on the iPhone, then enter its passcode.
- In Finder, select the iPhone in the sidebar and click General.
- Turn on Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi, then click Apply.
If the iPhone is not in the Finder sidebar, choose Finder > Settings and select CDs, DVDs, and iOS Devices.
After that you do not need the cable. The iPhone and the Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network. BatteryBud reads the iPhone over Wi-Fi, keeps a history of its level, and records its battery health and charge cycles. It can also alert you when the level drops below a number you pick.
If an Apple Watch is paired with that iPhone, BatteryBud shows the watch too. The iPhone reports the watch’s level, so the watch needs no setup, and it updates when the iPhone does.
There is one limit. A locked iPhone that is not charging can drop off Wi-Fi. BatteryBud then shows the last level and when it last saw the iPhone.
The same setup works for an iPad. See how to check your iPad battery from a Mac.