macOS Sequoia Won’t Stop Saying My iPhone Battery Is Low — Even When It’s Fully Charged

When I’m away from home, I usually use my iPhone’s cellular connection to get my Mac online — it’s a quick and reliable way to stay connected. I try not to use public Wi-Fi networks, as they may not be fully secure. However, rarely, this, using the iPhone Hostspot, can produce issues, especially with newer macOS updates.

If you tether (means sharing your phone’s internet connection) your Mac to your iPhone using Personal Hotspot, you may have run into a frustrating bug in macOS Sequoia. Every few minutes, a notification pops up warning that your iPhone’s battery is low — even if your phone is fully charged and plugged in.

I’ve seen it. And so have hundreds of other users. The warning appears whether you’re connected via USB or Wi-Fi, and it makes no difference if your iPhone is at 10% or 100%. The notification often includes a suggestion to disconnect from the iPhone to “preserve battery life,” even though your phone might be charging from your Mac at that exact moment.

See also: iPhone Hotspot Not Showing Up on Other Devices

What’s Causing It?

This bug seems to have started in macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 and has continued through multiple updates — including 15.3.2 and even 15.5. What’s bizarre is that it’s not just the battery status that macOS gets wrong. It also misreports your iPhone’s cellular signal. Some users report seeing 3G or even 1x in the hotspot menu while their iPhone is clearly connected to 5G or LTE with full bars, as you can see in the screenshot below:

The bug appears to affect a wide range of devices — everything from Intel-based Macs to the latest M3 MacBook Pros, and iPhones ranging from the 13 Mini to the 16 Pro Max.

The good news that it doesn’t actually interfere with your hotspot connection, but the constant notifications are distracting, especially if you rely on tethering for work or school. Some users get these popups every couple of hours. Others say it happens every few minutes. Either way, it’s disruptive. There’s no setting in macOS to disable or silence these specific warnings.

We previously covered a similar topic on how to turn off Low Data Mode for your hotspot.

Things You Can Try

This notification is clearly wrong, and you can safely ignore it. Just check your iPhone to see the actual battery and signal status.

Here are a few temporary workarounds people have tried:

• Charging the iPhone from a different power source (like a wall outlet) instead of the MacBook. This sometimes reduces the false warnings — but not always.
• Restarting both devices after the warning starts appearing. Some say it delays the popups for a while.
• Turning off and back on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both the Mac and iPhone. This trick is mostly anecdotal but worth a shot.
• Disabling sound notifications systemwide as a last resort to at least stop the alert noise (System Settings > Notifications).
• Reset network settings on your Mac and iPhone. We’ve explained how to reset network settings on your Mac, and you can do the same on your iPhone as well.

See also: Instant Hotspot Not Working? Fix