IOS: How to Keep Your IPhone Running at Dangerously Low Battery Levels
In the past, when I went out late into the city, I played an inspiring game: “How long can I keep my phone running so I can listen to music on the way home?” I would switch my phone to airplane mode, turn down the brightness, and hope that this is enough until I get back to my apartment. Since then, Apple has improved the way you work with your battery, although it doesn’t do everything it can to keep your phone turned on. There are a few more tricks that can help you keep your iPhone as long as possible. Below are nine reliable options:
Low power mode is your friend
When the battery level drops to 20% (and then to 10%), you will be prompted to turn Low Power Mode on or off. Turning on the power saving function will decrease the screen brightness; disable features such as Airdrop, iCloud sync and Continuity; minimize system animations; and reduce the performance of the device. You will see the battery icon change from black to yellow. When you charge your phone again, the power saving mode will turn off.
If you’re no longer working, turn on Low Power Mode in Settings> Battery before your phone gets close to 20% to start saving power after the jump.
Disable background activity
Background activities such as notifications, downloading podcasts, updating weather forecasts, and receiving messages from apps consume energy throughout the day. Go to Settings> General> Background App Refresh and disable this feature.
Decrease brightness
Dimming your screen is an easy way to squeeze a little more longevity out of a dying battery. Go to Settings> Display & Brightness and from there you can use your device’s brightness slider. Tired of dimming your screen just to make it look as bright as day outside? Make sure Auto Brightness is off! Right below the brightness slider.
Stop trying to sample
Your phone, hourly or minutely, is likely to update certain apps (such as Mail) in the background. Nice trick for people with completely discharged batteries, but a danger for those in the red. Tap Settings> Mail, Contacts, Calendars> Get New Data and turn off Push. You should also set the Fetch option to Manual so that you only get email, contact, or calendar updates when you’re actively looking for them.
RIP LTE
LTE is great, but in terms of power consumption it is far from ideal. As a subway driver, I can feel my iPhone heating up as it frantically searches for a cellular signal between stations. To limit heat and power consumption, simply turn off your LTE connection in favor of a slower 4G connection. If you know you are not going to use your cellular data, you can also turn on airplane mode.
You can turn off LTE data by going to Settings> Cellular> Cellular Data Options> Turn LTE On. Disabling will force your phone to use a slower 4G network.
Turn off wifi, bluetooth
Using a Wi-Fi connection uses less power than a traditional cellular connection, but if you’re out and about, you’re probably far away from any network you know. Bluetooth communication is also a problem for law enforcement agencies. You can choose two connection options in the settings and disable them easily.
Reduce automatic blocking time
Since your phone is just a screen, turn it on as little as possible to save some power. You can control how long your screen stays on in standby mode by adjusting the auto-lock setting. The shortest interval is 30 seconds, which is ideal for getting on and off the phone. Go to Settings> Display & Brightness> Auto Lock and select the 30 Seconds option.
Disable location services
Turning off location services will prevent your phone’s GPS from stealing your juice and prevent other apps from accessing this feature when energy conservation is of paramount importance. Go to Settings> Privacy> Location Services and hit the switch.
Select flight mode
Air mode. Your last resort when the electricity is low and you are far from outlets, or your first choice if you have already arrived at a destination with no outlets. After turning on airplane mode in settings, you can activate connections such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth if you need to connect to something while conserving power.