Need to Squeeze More Life Out of Your iPhone"s Battery? Try This.
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This tip only applies if you have a Mac running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or higher and an iPhone running iOS 8 or higher. If you do, though, and both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, calls can be placed and answered through your Mac using your phone's cellular connection. This basically turns your Mac into an extension of your iPhone. It's a great feature (I use it all the time at home), but it drains battery life, too.
To turn it off:
AirDrop, the wireless file-sharing feature Apple introduced in iOS 7, is really cool and really handy. But in order to use it, you need to turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and set your phone to be looking for other AirDrop-enabled devices. As with any feature that uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the more you use it, the more battery you'll drain. To save juice on your iPhone or iPod touch, keep AirDrop turned off unless you're using it.
Find it in:
As we've learned throughout this article, any time you're uploading data, you're running down your battery. So, you should make sure that you're always intentionally uploading, rather than automatically doing it in the background. Your Photos app can automatically upload your images to your iCloud account. This is handy if you want to share or backup right away, but it also sucks battery life. Turn off auto-uploads and only upload from your computer or when you have a full battery instead.
Find it in:
Sending diagnostic data to Apple—anonymous information about how your device is working or not working that helps Apple improve its products—is a helpful thing to do and something you choose during your device set up. In iOS 9, you can also choose to send data to developers.
Regularly automatically uploading data uses battery, so if you have this feature turned on and need to conserve energy, turn it off.
Find it in:
Your iPhone can vibrate to get your attention for calls and other alerts. But in order to vibrate, the phone has to trigger a motor that shakes the device. Needless to say, this uses battery and is unnecessary if you've got a ringtone or alert tone to get your attention. Instead of keeping vibration on all the time, just use it when necessary (for instance, when your ringer is off).
Find it in:
If you're really serious about conserving battery life, and don't want to turn off all these settings one by one, try a new feature in iOS 9 called Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode does exactly what its name says it does: it shuts down all non-essential features on your iPhone in order to conserve as much power as possible. Apple claims that turning this on will get you up to 3 hours.
To enable Low Power Mode:
When you talk about tips for saving battery life on your iPhone, perhaps the most common one that comes up is quitting your apps when you're done with them, rather than letting them run in the background.
This is wrong. In fact, regularly quitting your apps in that way can actually make your battery drain faster. So, if saving battery life is important to you, don't follow this bad tip.
For more about why this can do the opposite of what you want, read this.
Believe it or not, but the more often you charge a battery, the less energy it can hold. Counter-intuitive, I know, but it's one of the quirks of modern batteries.
Over time, the battery remembers the point in its drain at which you recharge it and starts to treat that as its limit. For example, if you always charge your iPhone when it's still got 75% of its battery left, eventually the battery will start to behave as if it's total capacity is 75%, not the original 100%.
The way to get around your battery losing capacity in this way is to use your phone as long as possible before charging it. Try waiting until your phone is down to 20% (or even less!) battery before charging. Just make sure not to wait too long.
If all else fails, just get more battery. A few accessory makers like mophie and Kensington offer extended life batteries for the iPhone. If you need so much battery life that none of these tips help you enough, an extended life battery is your best bet. With one, you’ll get days more standby time and many hours more use.
Related: 9 Battery Cases for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
Not all ways to save battery life involve settings. Some of them involve the way you use the phone. Things that require the phone be on for long periods of time, or use a lot of system resources, suck the most battery. These things include movies, games, and browsing the web. If you need to conserve battery, limit your use of battery-intensive apps.
Want tips like this delivered to your inbox every week? Subscribe to the free weekly iPhone/iPod email newsletter.
21. Disable Cellular Calls Through Other Devices
This tip only applies if you have a Mac running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) or higher and an iPhone running iOS 8 or higher. If you do, though, and both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, calls can be placed and answered through your Mac using your phone's cellular connection. This basically turns your Mac into an extension of your iPhone. It's a great feature (I use it all the time at home), but it drains battery life, too.
To turn it off:
- Tap the Settings app
- Tap FaceTime
- Slide iPhone Cellular Calls to off/white
22. Turn AirDrop Off Unless You're Using It
AirDrop, the wireless file-sharing feature Apple introduced in iOS 7, is really cool and really handy. But in order to use it, you need to turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and set your phone to be looking for other AirDrop-enabled devices. As with any feature that uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the more you use it, the more battery you'll drain. To save juice on your iPhone or iPod touch, keep AirDrop turned off unless you're using it.
Find it in:
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center
- AirDrop
- Off
23. Don't Automatically Upload Photos to iCloud
As we've learned throughout this article, any time you're uploading data, you're running down your battery. So, you should make sure that you're always intentionally uploading, rather than automatically doing it in the background. Your Photos app can automatically upload your images to your iCloud account. This is handy if you want to share or backup right away, but it also sucks battery life. Turn off auto-uploads and only upload from your computer or when you have a full battery instead.
Find it in:
- The Settings app
- Photos & Camera
- My Photo Stream
- Move slider to off/white
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24. Don't Send Diagnostic Data to Apple or Developers (iOS 9)
Sending diagnostic data to Apple—anonymous information about how your device is working or not working that helps Apple improve its products—is a helpful thing to do and something you choose during your device set up. In iOS 9, you can also choose to send data to developers.
Regularly automatically uploading data uses battery, so if you have this feature turned on and need to conserve energy, turn it off.
Find it in:
- Settings
- Privacy
- Diagnostics & Usage
- Don't Send (for Apple)
- Move the Share With App Developers slider to off/white (for third-party apps)
25. Disabled Unneeded Vibrations
Your iPhone can vibrate to get your attention for calls and other alerts. But in order to vibrate, the phone has to trigger a motor that shakes the device. Needless to say, this uses battery and is unnecessary if you've got a ringtone or alert tone to get your attention. Instead of keeping vibration on all the time, just use it when necessary (for instance, when your ringer is off).
Find it in:
- Settings
- Sounds
- Vibrate on Ring
- Move to off/white
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26. Use Low-Power Mode (iOS 9)
If you're really serious about conserving battery life, and don't want to turn off all these settings one by one, try a new feature in iOS 9 called Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode does exactly what its name says it does: it shuts down all non-essential features on your iPhone in order to conserve as much power as possible. Apple claims that turning this on will get you up to 3 hours.
To enable Low Power Mode:
- Tap Settings
- Tap Battery
- Move the Low Power Mode slider to on/green
27. One Common Mistake: Quitting Apps Doesn't Save Battery
When you talk about tips for saving battery life on your iPhone, perhaps the most common one that comes up is quitting your apps when you're done with them, rather than letting them run in the background.
This is wrong. In fact, regularly quitting your apps in that way can actually make your battery drain faster. So, if saving battery life is important to you, don't follow this bad tip.
For more about why this can do the opposite of what you want, read this.
28. Run Down Your Battery As Much As Possible
Believe it or not, but the more often you charge a battery, the less energy it can hold. Counter-intuitive, I know, but it's one of the quirks of modern batteries.
Over time, the battery remembers the point in its drain at which you recharge it and starts to treat that as its limit. For example, if you always charge your iPhone when it's still got 75% of its battery left, eventually the battery will start to behave as if it's total capacity is 75%, not the original 100%.
The way to get around your battery losing capacity in this way is to use your phone as long as possible before charging it. Try waiting until your phone is down to 20% (or even less!) battery before charging. Just make sure not to wait too long.
29. Buy an Extended Life Battery
If all else fails, just get more battery. A few accessory makers like mophie and Kensington offer extended life batteries for the iPhone. If you need so much battery life that none of these tips help you enough, an extended life battery is your best bet. With one, you’ll get days more standby time and many hours more use.
Related: 9 Battery Cases for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
30. Do Less-Battery-Intensive Things
Not all ways to save battery life involve settings. Some of them involve the way you use the phone. Things that require the phone be on for long periods of time, or use a lot of system resources, suck the most battery. These things include movies, games, and browsing the web. If you need to conserve battery, limit your use of battery-intensive apps.
Want tips like this delivered to your inbox every week? Subscribe to the free weekly iPhone/iPod email newsletter.
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