Tech Experts Share Their 5 Favorite Tips for Making an iPhone Battery Last Longer

iPhones are more clever and multi-functional than ever. Our iPhones help us stay connected, surf the web, check our emails, and download our favorite apps. If only our iPhones could make it to the end of the workday without running out of battery. Is your iPhone not holding a charge? Don’t worry, there are a few simple tips for increasing your iPhone’s battery life and performance.

Tech experts help iPhone users resolve their iPhone issues, from what to do if their Touch ID stops working to how to increase their iPhone’s storage capacity. So if you’ve been asking yourself, “How can I make my iPhone battery last longer?”, check out some iPhone battery-saving tips from these tech experts. Each expert shared five simple tips, including ones that may not be obvious to the average iPhone user. 

Anthony Buonaspina, BSEE, BSCS, CPACC | CEO and Founder| LI Tech Advisors

  1. Location Services. Look out for any apps that ask to always use your location and switch that app’s usage to only use while the app is in use or never.  This will extend your battery life and also reduce your cellular data use as well.
  2. Keep track of which apps use the most battery. Open your iPhone’s Settings app and tap Battery. There you will find a list of which apps are utilizing the most battery power over the last 24 hours up to the past 10 days.  It will also allow you to check your overall battery health.  
  3. Avoid extreme temperatures. If the phone overheats, the battery will not last as long and if it goes over 95° F (35° C) it can permanently damage battery capacity.  Temperatures below 32° F (0 ° C) can temporarily reduce battery life. If you live in a climate with cold temps, keeping your iPhone closer to your body in an inside pocket can help extend battery life by keeping it warmer.
  4. Enable low power mode.  Low power mode will minimize the power drain by limiting such functions as mail fetch in the background, reducing display brightness, Airdrop, and iCloud sync.
  5. Update to the latest software. Always keep your phone up to date with the latest IOS version so that you can take advantage of any new updates for conserving battery power.

Ashu Singhal | Co-Founder and President | Orion Networks

  1. Turn off location services. Each app can use location services and unnecessarily hog up a lot of power. You can turn it off, especially for apps that you don’t use often or don’t want to share your location with. Go to Privacy>>>Location in Settings to turn it off for all apps or each app individually.
  2. Turn on low power mode.  Low power mode ensures the iPhone reduces background activity like mail fetch or downloads. You can find it in Settings>>Battery.
  3. Keep screen brightness to a minimum. Screen brightness, especially the larger the screen, requires quite a bit of battery power. A slight reduction in screen brightness might not be as noticeable, but can increase your battery life by a huge margin. 
  4. Enable dark mode. Enabling dark mode through setting >> Display & Brightness, will help ensure considerably less battery power spent on screen time. 
  5. Turn off auto-update or remove the unused apps. Go to Settings>> App Store and make sure Automatic updates are turned off, especially for Cellular data. iPhone requires more battery power when downloading data and turning this off and updating apps only during charging can help ensure you are getting your full battery life for core usage. 

Cameron Call, CISSP |Technical Operations Manager | Network Security Associates, Inc.

  1. Stop fidgeting. Check yourself on how much you fidget with your phone. Monitoring your screen time (iPhone) can help you quantify how much you do it.
  2. Leave your phone in low power mode all the time. It will take itself out once you charge the battery. Just remember to re-enable it.
  3. Audit apps that are allowed to run in the background. The more apps that are running, the more the battery will get used without you on your phone. Especially the heavy-hitting apps that use location services.
  4. Reduce notifications. Limiting the amount of apps that give you notifications will save on power used when receiving these alerts, displaying them, buzzing your phone and sending out alerts to any peripherals.
  5. Get a new battery. While not an option for everyone, a new battery on iPhones is anywhere from $49-$69 with similar pricing for androids. Certainly much cheaper than a new phone.

Jeremy Kushner | CEO | BACS Consulting Group, Inc.

  1. Excess heat is a real problem when it comes to long-term battery life. This is especially true when charging your iPhone.  In the event that you find the iPhone generating more heat than expected during the charging cycles, make certain that you have temporarily removed any protective cases.  This will help reduce heat build-up and extend the battery life.
  2. Screen brightness really plays a heavy role in draining battery life quickly. This can easily be remedied by going into the Control Center and reducing the brightness.  Additionally, if you have Auto-Brightness turned on in the Accessibility settings, you might want to disable this, as this will also lead to shorter battery life.
  3. Turn on Low Power Mode. Although this will not extend battery life until the battery is already at 20% capacity, it will allow you to eke out additional juice if you are trying to prevent your iPhone from dying altogether.  This setting can be found in battery settings.  Do keep in mind that low power mode will temporarily diminish some functions of the phone, so it is still in your best interest to try to get it charged back up at this point in time.
  4. Turn off push notifications for any and all apps that are not providing timely information for you.  Of course, push notifications can be very useful, but if you are receiving push notifications by default from apps that are not of high priority, you are causing the phone to regularly wake up and drain battery life.  These notifications can be modified by going into Notifications settings and then turned off, where relevant.
  5. Last but by no means least, is to regularly review the apps that are running in the background on your iPhone. We have seen dormant background apps drain a fully charged battery in less than an hour, so it is important to regularly close these out if you are experiencing battery life issues.  These can be reviewed by swiping up from the bottom of the iPhone screen and then pausing in the center.  This will give you a view that allows you to swipe from left to right to see all the running background apps.  Any apps that are open but not in use should be closed out.  This can be achieved by swiping up rapidly on the app you would like to close. 

Jon Fausz | Director of Operations | 4BIS.COM, Inc.

  1. Number one is to make sure the iPhone and apps are always updated. Apple is constantly making changes to the iPhone and one of those is improved battery life. Cameras and battery life are really the only things that modern phones compete in. They all have relatively the same features. If Apple can continue to extend battery life, then it will help against the competition.
  2. The next is your brightness settings. Apple recommends turning on auto-brightness to dim your screen. Screen brightness uses a lot of battery. Go to Settings > Accessibility and tap Display & Text Size. From there, turn on Auto-Brightness.
  3. If you really need battery life, consider low power mode. This is a feature on the iPhone that reduces display brightness and optimizes performance for low power usage. However, there are downsides. Mail does not automatically download and features such as AirDrop and iCloud sync are disabled. If you will not be near a charger for a long period of time, this can be a lifesaver. This can be enabled by going to Settings > Battery.
  4. Another tip is to review the battery usage information. This is also in Settings > Battery. From there, you can see applications using a large amount of batter and close them. You can also uninstall unneeded apps.
  5. Low cell coverage or no coverage kills your battery very fast. Your iPhone will always be searching for a better signal. This takes a lot of power. If you find yourself in this scenario, put your phone into airplane mode until you have a better signal. Also, consider connecting to wireless networks. WiFi uses less battery than cellular, so connect to WiFi networks often.

Kenny Riley |Technical Director | Velocity IT

  1. Avoid overcharging your battery. iPhones, like laptops, use lithium-ion batteries and overcharging these batteries puts unnecessary stress on them and will shorten their lifespan. Once your battery is fully charged at 100%, take it off the charger.
  2. Turn on low power mode. Your iPhone will automatically prompt you to enable low power mode once your battery hits 20%, but you can enable it manually. Low power mode reduces unnecessary background activities like downloads and mail fetching. Low power mode also lowers the brightness of your display after inactivity more quickly. Tap Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode to enable low power mode.
  3. Turn off location services. Location services are helpful when it comes to using apps that provide you with data based on location, such as Apple Maps or Yelp, but can wear your battery down quickly. You can turn off location services entirely by navigating to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
  4. Lower your screen brightness. Your iPhone will automatically adjust its brightness out of the box based on the lighting from which you are using your device. While this is helpful in many situations, using your device at the maximum brightness settings will drain your battery quickly. You can manually adjust your brightness by going to Settings > Display & Brightness
  5. Use Wi-Fi when possible. Using WiFi on your iPhone consumes less power than your cellular network for data. To maximize battery life, use WiFi whenever possible, such as at home or work.