15 Ways to Save Your iPhone's Battery
For the 99.9% of Americans who suffer from Low Battery Anxiety, a few sneaky culprits could be draining your phone's juice without you even realizing it. These tricks are so useful in saving battery life, even Wonder Woman would approve.
1. Watch how hot or cold your phone gets.
Extreme temps make your phone work harder to perform and can drain your battery life in doing so. Apple recommends keeping your device between 32 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit for it to operate best.
2. Don't close your apps.
You may have heard that clearing 'em out will save battery life, but it's a myth. Frequently swiping up to close apps actually uses up more battery power and makes your phone run slower.
3. Use low power mode.
It's simple: Go to Settings > Battery and select Low Power Mode. You'll hardly notice a difference, but the feature turns off battery drainers like mail fetch, automatic downloads and certain visual effects. It also lowers your phone's brightness.
4. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on the go.
When these features are left on, your phone uses up precious battery life by searching for a connection. You can quickly turn these on and off in iOS 11 by swiping up and tapping the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth symbols in the upper left box.
5. But do connect to Wi-Fi when it's available.
Using 4G or LTE soaks up the most battery, so it's worth it to manually log onto a Wi-Fi network when you can. Do this by going to Settings > Wi-FI and manually choosing a network.
6. Find out which of your apps are using the most battery.
Go into Setting > Battery for a list of apps that are draining your phone the most. There could be seldom-used apps that are sucking away your battery life unnecessarily.
7. Turn down your brightness.
It makes looking at your phone easier on your eyes and is a super simple way to save battery life. Just swipe up in iOS11 and you can drag the level down to your heart's desire.
8. Turn off Bluetooth while you're at it.
You likely don't need it on unless you are pairing your phone with another device (like wireless headphones). You can toggle it off by swiping up and clicking the button with two triangles in the upper left box.
9. Look out for Background App Refresh.
This feature is great for keeping your apps up to date automatically, but it's also a secret battery killer. You can disable and manually update your apps by going to Setting > General > Background App Refresh and choose "Off."
10. Turn off notifications for non-essential apps.
Chances are you don't need notifications from that game you play when you're bored, and the constant alerts are wiping the life from your phone. Go to Setting > Notification to choose your preferences for each app.
11. Ditch vibrate mode.
It sounds unreal, but having your phone set to buzz for every call, text or notification drains your battery much more than silent or loud mode. Switch to one of the latter to extend your phone's life.
12. Always install iOS updates.
Yes, a major one (looking at you, iOS 11!) might kill your battery at first, but updates often include fixes that will solve these juice-sucking bugs. You can see if there is a new update by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
13. Pair with an external battery or charging phone case.
Plug your phone into these portable accessories on the go to for a full charge in a pinch. The Good Housekeeping Institute loves the Mophie portable power station ($43, amazon.com). The brand also offers a charging case ($65, amazon.com) you can put right on your phone.
14. Check your battery's performance.
Go to Settings > Battery and scroll all the way to the bottom. You'll see two numbers: One for standby and one for usage. The usage number should be way lower. If it's not, that's a sign that your phone might not be resting like it should. You can test this by locking your phone for 5 minutes and then checking again. (Ideally your phone shouldn't be doing anything during this time, which means you'll need to restart if you get a call, text or notification.) If your standby time is 5 minutes higher, that's a good sign, but if your usage time has bumped up a minute or more, you might have a battery drain issue. If this is the case, make a Genius Bar Appointment to figure out what's causing the issue.
15. Make sure your computer has power when you plug in your phone.
If it's in standby or sleep mode and not actively charging your phone, it could be draining the device's battery.
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