Everyone that owns an iPhone has had this problem. Half of it is your own fault, half of it can be prevented by changing some settings on your phone. I know, I know, it’s not my fault! Yes, in this case, it most likely is. So, how do I fix that little problem?
This was written with iOS7 in mind but some of this is available in older versions as well.
I’m Killing My Battery?!
Stop Leaving Your Apps Open!
Alright, it’s not all your fault. It may barely be your fault. But this one is a killer regardless. Since Apple has introduced the “multitasking” feature (I use the term multitasking very loosely) iPhone users have left everything they have ever used on their phone open in the background. With Background App Refresh (I talk about later on) turned off your phone will suspend background apps in most cases. But even so, closing everything you’re not using is a good habit to get into.
Press the Home button twice, as if you were double clicking a mouse.
This should show you a list of everything currently open on your phone. For the apps you would like to close, slide them upwards. Quick hint: if you use two fingers, one per app, you can close more than one app at a time.
My Phone Is Committing Suicide?!
Turn On Auto-Brightness
The iPhone has a light sensor on the front of it. You may have noticed that when you put your phone up to your ear to answer it, the screen blacks out, when you move it away, it reappears! It’s as if there is a little phone gremlin flipping a switch every time you lift the phone to your face. There isn’t. I know, I ruined that fantastical notion, I’m sorry!
Turning on the Auto-Brightness will adjust the screen brightness depending on the amount of light present. This will only up the brightness, which kills the battery a bit quicker, when in darker rooms.
Settings
Brightness & Wallpaper
Auto-Brightness On
Turn Down Screen Brightness
After that last one, it should go without saying, turning down your brightness will keep the battery going that little bit extra.
Settings
Brightness & Wallpaper
Turn Reduce Motion On
One of the features I like quite a bit, that a lot of people don’t even realize exists (or that is turned on by default) is the motion feature. If you tilt your phone on different angles watch the icons and the background. They will move at slightly different rates. Turning on Reduce Motion will get rid of this.
Settings
General
Accessibility
Reduce Motion
Don’t Use Dynamic Backgrounds
Very similar to the Motion feature, Dynamic Backgrounds give you moving background images. General rule of thumb, anything moving all the time is probably going to kill your battery.
Settings
Wallpapers & Brightness
Choose Wallpaper
Don’t choose Dynamic
Turn Off Location Services
Location Services take advantage of your built-in GPS. Because you are constantly moving, it is constantly sending and receiving data. Turn this off to save some battery and only turn it on when you’re using it.
Settings
Privacy
Location Services
Turn Off Other Location Settings
Some other Location settings that the phone uses may be draining your battery and most likely you don’t use them anyways.
Turn off Diagnostics & Usage and Location-Based iAds.
Settings
Privacy
Location Services
System Services
Turn off Diagnostics & Usage and Location-Based iAds
Background App Refresh
Refreshing apps in the background, even when you aren’t using them is a HUGE battery drainer. If you don’t mind having the app refresh only when you open it up, turn this off. At the very least, turn this off for some of your apps.
Settings
General
Background App Refresh
Don’t Automatically Update Apps
In iOS7 there is a feature that will automatically update any apps when a new version is released. Turns out, this kills your battery.
Settings
iTunes & App Store
Updates
Turn Off AirDrop/Bluetooth
AirDrop lets you share things between phones and it uses Bluetooth to accomplish this. Two recommendations, turn off Bluetooth and AirDrop until you actually need it.
Bluetooth
Settings
Bluetooth
AirDrop
Slide open Control Center from the bottom of your screen
Turn off the AirDrop icon
Spotlight Search
Spotlight is constantly indexing the data on your phone so that when you search, it’s available instantly. Turn off the sections you don’t need it to index or in other words, the sections you don’t search.
Settings
General
Spotlight Search
No More Kamikaze Battery
Going through your phone and dealing with these things should allow you to get that one last email in before your phone kicks the bucket. If you know of any other options or tips that can help save some of that precious battery life, feel free to comment below!
The information posted about auto-brightness is actually incorrect. The screen dims in darker rooms and gets brighter when you step into sunlight and other bright areas. If it were the other way around then you couldn’t see your screen when outside. On top of that, using auto-brightness actually drains battery even quicker than just having your phone on a low brightness setting constantly. Having auto-brightness on while lowering the brightness manually is pointless because the second you step into a brightly lit area, it will go all the way up to 100% again to accommodate.