Can an iPhone overcharge?

With my iPod I always would just leave it charging as I didn’t want it to be low on battery when I went out. However after about a year of doing this the battery life had been greatly shortened sadly. It never overcharged and broke, it just had a greatly reduced battery life, I feel sorry for my brother who has it now :( this may be a one off experience however, wonder if the Apple KB has anything in it…mhmm….

I think it’s ok if you do the trickle charge all the time… however you should probably drain the battery to empty once a month

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

some good info from apple themselves

Exercise Your Machine

Lithium-ion batteries need to be used for maximum performance. If you don’t use your device often, be sure to complete a charge cycle at least once a month. Click the links below to add regular reminders to your iCal calendar.

It will only charge the battery until full. After that the battery is a stored power source while you run on AC (and I don’t mean astrochuck)

You can’t overcharge an iPhone, but Apple can certainly overcharge for the iPhone.. : )

…and don’t forget AT&T. the charge that keeps on taking.

As far as I know the older style NiMH batteries could be messed up if not charged correctly. However, the Lithium-ion batteries for the most part cannot be overcharged.

Now, I’m not condoning plugging in your phone for a month or anything on the basis of that advice!

Thanks everyone. This helped a lot.

Yes, we have an old iPod mini which is always plugged in, if you take it out it will play about 6 songs then die.