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14 iPhone Settings That Will Kill Your Battery

Devon Taylor (@DevonTaylor113)

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Whether you have a shiny, brand new iPhone or are still rocking one from a few generations ago, one of the most frustrating things about these amazing devices is that the battery runs low way too fast. Unless you get the chance to plug your phone in on your lunch break, there’s a good chance it will be dead sometime around dinner time. Forget to charge it overnight? Forget it! Plan for a day without Twitter and Angry Birds.

Here are 14 small battery saving tips that may not seem like much by themselves, but when you combine a bunch of them together you should see a noticeable difference in how long your power lasts.

14. Auto Brightness

Apple has a setting called auto-brightness, that is supposed to adjust your screen for you. But if you turn it off and start adjusting it manually (there is a handy slider in the control center), you can keep your screen only as bright as you need. Since your screen is the number one consumer of a battery power on your phone, keeping it as dim aspossible will go a long way.

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13. Turn Off Some Location Services

Some location services are handy, like when you need to use Apple or Google Maps. But not everything needs to know exactly where you are. You can turn off location services for specific apps, especially if you don’t need a record of where every picture was taken or every tweet was typed.

12. Dynamic Wallpapers / Parallex

Dynamic wallpapers and parallex are a cool iPhone feature that makes your homescreen seem more fluid, as it makes your wallpaper and your app icons move independently from each other. It is also completely useless for anything other than aesthetic appearance. Don’t pick a dynamic wallpaper and turn off motion to help your battery last longer.

11. Bluetooth/WiFi

This tip is simple enough, but a lot of people forget about it. If you aren’t using bluetooth or WiFi regularly, turn it off! Otherwise your phone is constantly searching for WiFi signals or bluetooth devices to connect with.

10. Disable App Auto-Update

Another feature introduced in iOS 7 was automatic app updating. That means you don’t have to manually update all your apps from the App Store anymore. But if your phone decides to update when you are away from a charger, the downloading and updating process will suck up valuable juice. Update your apps when you are at home or the office.

9. Fetch Email Less Often

If you use the stock Mail app, your phone is probably set to push new emails directly to your phone. That means your iPhone is constantly connected to your mail server, which wastes battery. If you can handle not seeing emails right away, change your phone to fetch emails every 30 or 60 minutes. If you really don’t care, just check your email manually when you know you have time to read and respond.

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8. Auto-lock Sooner

Your iPhone autolocks itself if you set it down for a few minutes. But there are six different settings, ranging from one-to-five minutes, plus the option of ‘Never’. The shorter you set this, the sooner your screen shuts off when you are not using your phone. That means less wasted battery.

7. Turn Off Fitness Tracking

Another recently added feature of iOS is the health and fitness tracking. It will keep track of how many steps you’ve taken or how far you’ve run. But if you’re not worried about tracking your fitness (or just don’t need your phone to do it), then disabling this feature will help save you some juice throughout your day.

6. Don’t Send Diagnostic Data to Apple

You would have chosen to do this when you first set up your phone, but you probably don’t remember. Sending anonymous data back to Apple can help them improve their future products but it will also cost you some battery life uploading it. If you’re really desperate to have a longer lasting battery, turn this off.

5. DON’T Force Close Apps

Force closing apps from the app switcher is a pretty commonly cited fix for battery problems. But that’s not true. Apple’s software is specifically designed to manage these apps in an optimal way. Having to relaunch closed apps from scratch actually takes more processing power and will burn your battery faster.

4. Turn off Air-Drop

Much like disabling bluetooth, turning off your Air Drop unless you are actively using it will have a positive effect on your battery. It will also save you from getting random photos sent to you as pranks, if you haven’t disabled that feature.

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3. Limit Background App Refresh

This is a feature introduced in iOS 7 that is supposed to make your phone faster by preloading info before you even open an app, especially one that you use often. However it does take its toll on the battery, so turning it off will gain you a few extra minutes of battery life.

2. Turn Off Photo Stream

Photo stream and iCloud photo library are great features for backing up and sharing your photos with your other devices. The problem is that all that photo uploading can sink your battery quite quickly. Turn it off, especially if you don’t also own a Mac or an iPad that needs those photos. Your battery will thank you.

1. Disable Unnecessary Vibrations

Your phone probably vibrates a lot. When you receive a text or a phone call. If you keep your phone on silent a lot, it will vibrate every time you get a notification, even if it’s a new Tinder match or your latest game begging you to come play it again. Turn these unneeded vibrations off to conserve your battery.

Devon Taylor (@DevonTaylor113)

Devon has been writing about random things online since 2013. His favorite video game is Rocket League, his favorite TV show is The Sopranos, and he hated the last season of Game of Thrones. Follow him @DevonTaylor113.