13 Tips For Saving Phone Battery

Connor Rowe posted an article about this in 2010, (https://www.pennpoints.net/?p=1838) but I thought it would be a good idea to write an update for the newer technology of recent years.

We all know cell phone battery life can be a nuisance to consumers. You pull out your phone at halftime of a football game, and you’re somehow at 20%. No big deal, right? It should be able to last until the end of the game. But as you go to text your friend during a timeout in the fourth quarter, the phone is magically at 3%, and by the end of the game, it’s dead. Here are seven tips to help you preserve battery (and where to find them):

  1. Turn down brightness; turn off auto-brightness. Everybody probably knows this one by now, but it bares repeating. The iPhone has a light sensor that adjusts the brightness automatically. Turning this off and adjusting brightness manually can boost battery life. (Control Center)
  2. Turn off wi-fi unless you’re connected to it. If you’re not connected to wi-fi but it is on anyway, your phone will constantly search for signals, and doing this can drain your battery. (Control Center)
  3. Turn ON “Reduce Motion”. On iOS 7 and up, the phone’s background moves when you move the phone itself. Although its a cool feature, its also a good way to drain your battery unnecessarily. (Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion)
  4. DO NOT be fooled into thinking quitting background apps saves battery. iOS instantly suspends apps that are in the background, meaning they don’t waste any battery at all. And if you have a large amount of apps in the background, it can actually waste battery to go through and quit all of them.
  5. Turn off Background App Refresh. This feature of iOS 7+ automatically updates apps based on when you usually open them. This feature is very useful but obviously, it can drain battery life very quickly. (Settings > General > Background App Refresh)
  6. See what apps are using the most battery. A new feature in iOS 8 is telling you what apps have used the most battery in the past 24 hours or 7 days. (Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage)
  7. While playing music in the car or on the bus, turn on airplane mode. Unless you’re playing music using a third-party music playing app (Spotify, Pandora, etc.) or iRadio, your iPhone doesn’t need the internet to play music from the Music app. (Control Center)
  8. Avoid letting your phone die. Intentionally draining your battery from 100% to 0% can damage the battery since the iPhone has a lithium-based battery. These batteries are meant to be charged early and often, so utilize short discharges and frequent charging.
  9. Turn off Location Services. Location services for some apps serve little to no purpose in most apps, such as Snapchat and Twitter. Turning off Location Services on some apps that it is not needed for can help boost battery life. (Settings > Privacy > Location Services)
  10. Turn off Bluetooth. Your phone may be able to connect to other electronic devices via bluetooth. If you have your phone connected to any of these devices and you aren’t using them at the moment, you should turn bluetooth off to boost battery. (Control Center)
  11. Always try to keep your phone at a regular temperature. Nothing damages your battery like exposing it to high temperatures. Don’t leave your phone in your car on a hot, sunny day. Furthermore, if you let your phone get very cold, it can also damage your battery. To help keep your phone at a cool, regular temperature, you can take your phone off while charging, and if you’re desperate, just put your phone in the refrigerator. I’ve had to do that a few times.
  12. Turn off “Fetch New Data”. If you have this setting on, your phone will automatically access the network to refresh the app. Apps like Mail can kill your battery if you have this on, since it will refresh automatically either every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or every hour. (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data)
  13. Put it down. Lastly, this is the number one fool-proof way to make your battery last longer. Go outside. Do your homework. Read a book. Do something that doesn’t involve sitting around and looking at your phone.

Obviously, doing these things will not double your battery life, but these simple and easy tips should help keep your phone from dying on those Friday nights.