12 Ways to Improve iPhone battery life

There are complaints about rapid battery drain and battery life with every new OS update. This specific problem affects different models of iPhones to varying degrees. Battery drain problems of iPhones caused by bugs can’t be helped until the company provides updates to address this issue. Still, there are steps to cut down on hidden sources and to maximize your battery life that might be causing excess drainage. 

1. Limit how and when often applications access your location 

For privacy reasons, you should check your location settings to limit the applications that use/access your location. 

You can check your location services settings by opening up the settings app. You can review the list and edit each application settings in the list by tapping on the app name. 

2. Turn on ‘Low Power Mode’

The best setting to enable if you are concerned about your iPhone battery life is the ‘Low Power Mode.’ It lowers your screen’s brightness after inactivity more quickly, and it cuts down on the background activity as well. 

When the iPhone battery life is 20%, a popup to enable low power mode will come up. Ask Siri to turn it on or allow it through Control Center by clicking on the battery icon. 

3. Use WiFi whenever possible. 

To maximize battery life, you should connect to WiFi whenever possible as it uses less power than a cellular connection. WiFi should be activated at work or home, saving cellular data and battery life. 

4. In Low Signal Areas, activate Airplane Mode. 

Your iPhone is draining battery trying to connect or looking for a signal when you are in an area with a low signal or no cellular coverage. It is best to activate Airplane Mode if you experience inadequate cellular coverage since you probably can’t do much with a low signal anyway. 

It will save your iPhone battery by preventing it from endlessly searching for a signal until you can get to a location with a much better connection. 

5. Limit Background Activity 

Both third and first-party applications use background applications refreshing features to update even when they are not open to doing things such as downloading updates and loading mail messages. Hence, they are ready to use at all the time. 

Turning it off can make your battery last longer as Background Application Refresh can significantly impact battery life. You can select which applications can refresh in the background or turn off Background Application Refresh. 

6. Limit Notifications 

To save a little bit of battery life, cutting down on the number of notifications that applications are sending is good. It will drain your iPhone battery every time your phone makes the connection and your display lights up; if you have applications inundating you with notifications + a glut of notifications is just plain annoying. 

You can adjust your notification settings in the Settings app and tap on Notifications. Go through each application and change whether an app can send you notifications by merely tapping on the toggle. 

7. Turn Down Device Brightness 

You can only have your iPhone screen brightness turned all the way up if you are in direct sun or a bright room. But, if you do not need a bright display, you can dim it to save your iPhone battery life. 

Brightness can be controlled through the Display and Brightness section of the Settings application or through the Control Center on the iPhone by using the brightness toggle. 

To ensure your screen is not overly bright in darker rooms, it is a good idea to turn on the auto-brightness setting, but some manual adjustments are needed in the sun and the brighter rooms. 

8. Turn off Raise to Wake and Adjust Auto-Lock 

For turning off your iPhone display after a short period of inactivity, it is a good idea to set the Auto-Lock on display as low as you can tolerate. 

You can select ranges from 30 secs to never, but the lower end will help preserve battery life by cutting down the display when it is not needed. 

Turning off Raise to Wake can help save battery, though it may make features such as Face ID less convenient. This should be a last resort as a Raise to Wake is a rather convenient option. 

9. Limit Use of Widgets 

Plenty of widgets in your Today View or on Home Screen could well be a battery drain culprit. You might want to consider deleting widgets that need to update to be useful – geo-location or weather widgets regularly. 

You can long-press on a widget from the Today View or your Home Screen to delete it, then select Remove Stack or Remove Widget from the dropdown menu. 

10. Avoid Google Chrome 

Google Chrome has a repo of being a battery hog among some circles. It is worth giving Safari a shot if you are having battery drain issues, and you tend to do a lot of browsing in Google Chrome. Apple’s Safari has been streamlined for better performance so that you can spend less time in the browsing process. 

As a general rule, it is better to stick with native Apple applications over 3rd party alternatives. Apple’s code will usually be optimized to run more efficiently on its hardware. 

11. Erase Network Settings 

Resetting your iPhone network settings can also clear up battery drain and battery life issues. You will be asked to re-enter your WiFi passwords, and no data will be lost. 

12. Turn Off Screen Time 

Screen Time, i.e., Apple’s usage monitoring feature, can be turned off to save battery successfully. You can do this by clicking on the Settings app and tapping on Screen Time. Select Turn Off Screen Time after scrolling down to the bottom of the screen. 

Conclusion 

There are many iPhone battery-saving guides and tips on the Internet. The tips mentioned above should be employed judiciously. The reason being that turning off any feature on your iPhone may or may not be the most desirable way to save battery.