We’ve all been caught short by an unexpectedly low mobile phone battery, particularly after streaming music or browsing the web on 4G, which leaves us in the lurch in sticky situations.
Read on for the 10 best hints and tips at extending its battery life for as long as possible – at least until you can get to a charger.
1. Turn off your Bluetooth
Leaving Bluetooth activated on your iPhone for connecting to wireless headphones and speakers may use minimal battery, but when you’re desperate, every little helps. Visit Settings > Bluetooth and toggle to off to do so.
2. Stop Flashing
Turning the flash off on your phone camera when taking pictures can help to minimise battery expenditure.
3. Turn off Live Photo or Dynamic Wallpapers
Apple’s Live Photo technology may look cool when you set a picture as your lock screen wallpaper, but it can add to battery drain throughout the day. The same goes for Apple’s pre-loaded dynamic wallpapers, so go to Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a new wallpaper > Stills or a picture from camera roll.
4. No more pushing
Turning off push notifications, such as Instagram and Twitter notifications, is a quick way to stop battery loss.
Open Settings > Notifications and choose the individual apps to turn off their notifications.
5. Exit light
Turn down the brightness of your display by pulling up the Control Centre (swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen) and adjusting the scale. Open Settings and ensure Auto-brightness is turned off by opening Display & Brightness and toggling it to off.
6. Bye bye Wi-Fi
One of the biggest drains of battery life is your phone’s antenna, which is constantly checking for nearby cellular and Wi-Fi networks. If you don’t need to access the internet, turn Wi-Fi off while you’re not actually using it to save power.
7. Invest in a power pack
It may sound obvious, but portable power packs or iPhone cases with in-built chargers can can to keep you going at the end of the day.
If you’re running iOS 9 or above, you can also turn on Low Power Mode under Settings > Battery and toggling on Low Power Mode, which will temporarily reduce power consumption.
8. Reduce email push
Like notifications, pushing emails to your phone can quickly zap your power.
Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts & Calendars and check how often you’re getting your emails sent through.
Turn the push toggle off, and set the Fetch schedule to fetch emails manually, meaning you won’t be notified of what’s coming through unless you expressly open the email app.
9. Turn off background refreshing
When your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi or using data, apps will attempt to refresh their content. Turning off these apps can help to preserve your battery life.
Open Settings > General > Background App Refresh and toggle it off. Alternatively, select the apps you’d like to stop refreshing and turn them off individually.
10. Enter Airplane mode
In truly desperate situations, activate Airplane mode. You won’t be able to receive calls or texts or use the internet, but it will preserve your battery until you need it.
Airplane mode can also prevent your phone from searching for an internet connection in rural areas, which can quickly use significant amounts of battery life.
Once you start charging your phone, leaving Airplane mode activated can help it to charge more quickly, too.