The iPhone is considered a great feat in not only advancing some of the cellular features that have already been a part of cellular phones, but to also be the forefront of the creation of some of these features. However, one thing that comes with these added features and advancements is a weak battery life. The batteries can only take so much and when you couple in the applications that individuals love to hoard, the battery most likely won’t even last half the day. This doesn’t have to happen. Today, we will take a look at fourteen reasons why your iPhone’s battery life is horrible and steps you can take to fix this.
You’re Not Limiting Location Services
You’d be surprised by the number of applications that are making use of location services and you don’t even need to make use of it. By going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, you will be able to select which applications you would like to have make use of location services. By doing this, you will be able to prevent your iPhone from having to continuously check to see the location you are in and pinging this information to the requesting applications.
Your Mail is Always Fetching
Similar to the issue with locations, mail that is set to fetch means that your iPhone continuously check your mailbox server, waiting for a new message. Once one arrives, your iPhone is notified and you are able to choose whether or not to check the email or not. By going to Settings > Mail, Contacts, and Calendars > Fetch New Data > Manually, you are able to have your iPhone check your mailbox only when you manually go to your iPhone Mail app and refresh.
Your Apps Are Always Running
iOS 4, your iPhone has been able to run multiple apps at the same time. Also commonly known as multi-tasker, we can colloquially call it “battery-killer”. Multitasker may be useful when you need to switch between multiple applications around the same time. However, it becomes a nuisance when you find yourself failing to quit an application for a long period of time, unnecessarily. You can alleviate this problem by double-tapping the home button, and swiping the screen card up to quit. You can even use multiple fingers at the same time to quit multiple apps at once.
Your Screen is Too Bright
It is obvious that having a bright screen can kill your battery. However, many individuals fail to understand or acknowledge this. As a result, they will find themselves with their battery lives dying faster. Instead, swipe up the Control Center of your iPhone and bring the brightness a bit lower. In addition, to prevent your iPhone from automatically changing the brightness again, go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness > and toggle off Auto Brightness.
You Think Airplane Mode is Only for Traveling
Airplane Mode was enacted on phones to prevent them from automatically connecting to a network that allegedly according to some in the FAA affect the radar of airplanes. However, Airplane Mode doesn’t have to be used just for that. You can find yourself making use of Airplane Mode in any situation where you won’t be making use of a cellular network. Whenever I’m on the metro or my battery is below a certain level, I enable Airplane Mode to extend my iPhone’s battery life. You can as well by swiping up control centre and tapping on the airplane on the top left.
You Have Automatic Downloads On
On the iPhone, you are able to have it so that your applications from the app store automatically update whenever there is a new update. However, with your iPhone constantly checking to see if there is a new update, along with the other applications which are already updating, you can find yourself with a battery life that is constantly being used up. To prevent automatic downloads from the App Store or even the iTunes store, among others, go to Settings > iTunes and App Store, and toggle which applications you’d like to have automatic downloads for and those you don’t.
You Have Apps Refreshing
Background App Refresh is one of the biggest battery killers. Background App Refresh is when you have applications that constantly update its information so that when you open the application, even when it’s not in the multi tasker, you are able to have the application completely updated with new information that will be pinged once you open the application. To turn this feature off, simply Setting > General and toggle it off.
You’re Push Notifying Your iPhone
Aside from fetching, push notifications is another culprit for poor battery life with iPhones. With push notification, you are able to be notified if a new alert hits your phone, which will allow you to answer or ignore it. If you have some applications where this is completely unnecessary, go to Settings > Notification Center > and edit which applications you’d like to have notify you through push notification.
You Have AirDrop Continuously On
AirDrop is a feature that allows individuals to send photos, videos, and other multimedia to other iPhones in the same vicinity. Depending on the speed of one’s personal network connect, this may be faster than sending by email or MMS because AirDrop doesn’t make use of the cellular network. You can toggle AirDrop off by going to the Control Center and pressing AirDrop and select “off”.
You’re Using Parallax
Parallax is an effect on the iPhone that creates an illusion of floating applications. This is a move introduced in the a couple of iOS generations ago. It may look nice, but its unnecessary and in the end, all it does is just drain your battery life. To turn Parallax off, simply go to Settings > General > Accessibility > turn on “Reduce Motion”. This may make iOS 7 less dizzying for you as well!
You’re Not Limiting Spotlight Search
Spotlight Search is a feature that most iPhone users don’t even make use of. It is when you slide your finger down from the middle of the screen and you are able to search for applications, contacts, messages, and more. Most individuals simply ignore this feature, but because it is constantly updating with new information, it is always making use of your battery life. To turn certain things off of Spotlight Search, simply go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search and toggle which applications you don’t care to have included in Spotlight Search.
You Continuously Run Bluetooth
Bluetooth is an aspect of the iPhone that isn’t as useful as it would have been in the past. With the advancement and creation of features and applications that now do the jobs that bluetooth once did, it can be a feature that you can find yourself turning off without a care. To do so, simply bring up the control centre and click on the Bluetooth symbol which is located to the right of the WIFI symbol.
You Have Too Many Apps
Chances are, you may not find the problem being that you have too many applications in multi task, you might simply have too many applications on your iPhone in general. This is the time to make an iPhone clean-out and look at the applications that you find you aren’t making use of anymore and delete them from your life.
In addition, you could use the method of simply deleting all apps from your iPhone and starting anew. You will download an app when you find you need to make use of it and give it a deadline. Each day the app isn’t in use adds to the deadline timer. Once an app reaches its deadline, for example a month of non-use, delete it!
You Aren’t Extending Your Battery
Chances can also be that you just aren’t extending your battery as much as you should. When your battery is at 20%, do you continue to use your phone as normal or do you make adequate precautions, such as the ones mentioned above? If not, then this may be the time to include them in. You may also have an iPhone that dies quickly because you aren’t making use of the products out there, like Mophie brand products, which allow you to have an iPhone case that extends your battery for a couple of hours. Look into investing in these products!
Let us know in the comments below which reason you feel hits home the most for you. Let us know if you have any other tips for extending your battery life to its fullest that weren’t mentioned in the article.
Featured photo credit: TBreak.ae via tbreak.ae
