Apple reveals three iPhone settings you can change today to instantly fix battery ‘draining too quickly’
DON’T let your iPhone’s battery run dry because of a few rogue settings.
Apple has revealed three tricks in a special memo, urging people to tweak settings “if the battery in your iPhone drains too quickly”.
They’re all easy changes to make, won’t massively affect your iPhone experience, and Apple says they’ll “extend battery life”.
So if you’re constantly running out of iPhone juice, try these settings as soon as possible.
IPHONE BATTERY TWEAK #1
The first setting is auto-brightness, which is a no-brainer.
Your screen is one of the most power-draining parts of your iPhone.
And the brighter the display, the faster your battery will run down.
You could keep manually setting it to very low brightness, but that’ll get tiring very quickly.
Instead, use auto-brightness, which will lower the brightness when you don’t need it high – raising it only when you’re in a bright place.
You can use Auto-Brightness by going to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
Then simply toggle Auto-Brightness on.
IPHONE BATTERY TWEAK #2
The second feature also relates to your display: it’s Auto-Lock.
Apple says this can be a massive help if “your iPhone is often idle”.
It’ll lock your iPhone after a set amount of time, also switching the screen off.
If Auto-Lock isn’t active then if you set your iPhone down and forget to lock it, it’ll keep draining battery.
The effect this will have depends on your habits. If you’re already a militant locker then it won’t make a massive difference.
To set it up, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock.
You can then select the length of time you’d like your iPhone to wait inactive before it locks itself.
The current options include:
- 30 seconds
- 1 minute
- 2 minutes
- 3 minutes
- 4 minutes
- 5 minutes
- Never
If you select the last option on the list, you’ll be warned: “Your iPhone may use more energy with this setting.”
For the best battery life savings, choose 30 seconds.
IPHONE BATTERY TWEAK #3
Apple’s final tip is to adjust which apps have access to your location in the background.
There are plenty of reasons why you’d want an app to be able to access your location.
And sometimes, you’d want an app to keep using your location even when you’re not looking at it.
However, some apps might be monitoring your location in the background in a way that you might be unhappy with.
In that case, you’ll want to set those apps to only track your location “While In Use”.
You can change that for specific apps by going into Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
WHY DO BATTERIES GET WORSE OVER TIME?
Here's what you need to know
- Most gadgets run on lithium-ion batteries
- Over time, the amount of charge this type of battery can hold gets smaller
- That means you need to charge your device more often because they hold less charge
- Batteries have two electrode points – the cathode and the anode
- To charge a battery, the ions inside the battery are forced from the cathode to the anode
- When you use a battery, it moves in the reverse direction
- This process wears away at the structure of the anode, reducing its ability to function correctly
- But the process also builds up a kind of salt on the cathode when charging
- As this build-up grows, the battery will accept less charge over time
- It’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 full charge-cycles will reduce a battery’s maximum capacity by roughly 20%
Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun
You can also see which apps are using up battery life in the background by going into your settings.
Just go to Settings > Battery and then look at the list of apps at the bottom to see which ones are using your juice in the background.
You can see battery usage and even background activity.
Use this information to decide which apps are worth revoking background location permissions for.
Why does heat damage batteries?
Here's what you need to know...
- Hot temperatures can cause permanent damage to batteries
- That’s because batteries contain fluids, and work through chemical reactions
- When heat is applied to a battery, the fluid inside starts to evaporate
- This damages the internal structure of the battery
- Components like the voltage indicator can be affected by heat
- This can allow batteries to charge at too high a rate, which can lead to a loss of electrolytes
- This can reduce battery life over time
- As batteries heat up, chemical reactions inside will also occur faster
- Excessive chemical reactions can reduce long-term battery life