iPhone Battery Drain: 9 Proven Tips to Fix Quickly

Basil Rathbone

• Filed to: Fix iPhone System • Proven solutions

With all the smartphones getting even smarter, battery functioning is limited to merely a couple of hours these days before it needs to be charged again. If you are one of the several users whose iPhone battery drains too fast, these tricks could help you resolve the issue.

Part One: Why Does My iPhone Battery Drain So Fast?

The performance of the battery decreases as your iPhone ages. This is absolutely normal, and if your phone is old, probably it’s time to gift it a new power source.

On the other hand, if your phone is new but still consumes more than normal battery, a few possible reasons could be:

• Apps– Although most apps available on the App Store are trusted and reliable, incompatible ones or those with the bugs may unnecessarily use your iPhone’s hardware resources, and drain its battery faster than usual.
• Updates– If you recently updated your iOS, its new and/or updated features might put additional load on the battery thus causing it to drain faster. This usually happens if your iPhone model is the last or second last in the list to receive the latest iOS update. Your phone battery may also drain faster if you’ve upgraded to a pre-release (beta) version of iOS that has lots of bugs and instabilities in it.
• Settings– Badly configured settings can also be the culprit for extensive battery consumption. Misconfigured auto-brightness, unnecessary or unintentionally enabled Personal Hotspot, or even improperly configured display settings to name a few.

That being said, it is a good idea to check your iPhone for the issues/misconfigurations discussed above, and ensure that none of them is main cause of trouble.

Part Two: 9 Tips to Help You Solve iPhone Battery Drain

After ruling out all the possibilities discussed in Part One, if your iPhone battery still drains rapidly, the following tips might help you fix the problem:

Tip 0: Simple Restart

This is not a tip but a simple and straightforward method to fix many common issues that your iPhone (or any other iDevice) encounters without any explainable reason or out of the blue. While rebooting your iPhone requires the traditional method of long pressing the Sleep/Wake button and following the on-screen instructions, the process is slightly different in iPhone 8 and above models. This new method is described below, just in case:

• Press and release the Volume Up.
• Quickly press and release the Volume Down.
• Long press the Sleep/Wake.
• Slide the message bar that says slide to power off.
• Once your iPhone is turned off completely, you can press (or long press as per your phone model) the Sleep/Wakebutton again to power it back on.

Tip 1: Check Your iPhone’s Battery Usage and Health

Checking your iPhone’s battery’s health lets you decide whether it needs a replacement, or is it merely the misconfigured settings that are consuming more than required power. To check your battery health:

• Go to Settings from the Home.
• Tap Battery.
• Tap Battery Healthon the Battery.
• Check the Maximum Capacity status of the battery.

Note: Any number between 75% and 80% with the ‘Your battery is currently supporting normal peak performance.’ description under the Peak Performance Capability section is acceptable. You may need to replace the battery if the values are otherwise.

Tip 2: Turn On Low Power Mode

The Low Power Mode automatically configures your iPhone settings to consume less than normal power, thus extending the battery’s working duration. To turn on Low Power Mode in your iPhone:

• Go to the Battery window as explained in Tip 1.
• Turn on the Low Power Modetoggle switch.

Tip 3: Disable/Turn Off Some Resource Intensive Features On Your iPhone

The recent versions of iOS are full of smart features that eliminate the need of having any other gadget to deal with your daily tasks. However, because many such programs consume excessive amount of power to function properly, leaving them enabled can drain your battery fast.

That said, it is advisable to disable the options you use less often, or don’t use at all. You can follow the instructions given below turn off the unused features on your iPhone:

3.1 Turn Off Bluetooth

• Go to the Settings window from the Home.
• Tap Bluetooth.
• Turn off the Bluetooth toggle switch from the Bluetooth.

3.2 Disable Location Services

• Go to Settings > Privacy> Location Services.
• Tap the Location Services toggle switch.
• Tap Turn Off on the confirmation box that pops up at the bottom of the screen.

3.3 Disable Background App Refresh

• Tap General from the Settings
• Tap Background App Refresh.
• Tap Background App Refreshon the next window.
• Tap Offto disable the feature on your iPhone.

3.4 Turn Off App Suggestions

• Tap Siri & Search from the Settings.
• Scroll down to the SIRI SUGGESTIONS.
• Turn off the Suggestions in Search, Suggestions in Look Up, and Suggestions on Lock Screentoggle switches.

3.5 Disable App Messages Pushes

• Tap Notifications from the Settings
• Tap Show Previews.
• Tap Neveron the next window.

3.6 Disable Wi-Fi When You Don’t Need It

• Tap Wi-Fi from the Settings
• Turn off the Wi-Fi toggle switch.

3.7 Disable Motion & Animations

• Go to Settings> General.
• Tap Accessibility.
• Tap Reduce Motion.
• Turn on the Reduce Motion toggle switch.

3.8 Disable Personal Hotspot

• Go to Settings> Personal Hotspot.
• Turn off the Personal Hotspot toggle switch.

3.9 Disable Dynamic Backgrounds

• Go to Settings> Wallpaper.
• Tap the image currently set as your wallpaper.
• Ensure that the Stilltab is selected at the bottom of the Wallpaper Preview
• Tap Setto disable Dynamic Background.

Note: You should also disable Dynamic Background from the Lock Screen. To do so, you can tap the image next to the wallpaper on the Wallpaper window, and follow the steps explained above.

3.10 Turn Off Data Push

• Go to Settings> Passwords & Accounts.
• Tap Fetch New Data.
• Turn off the Push toggle switch to disable data push on your iPhone.

3.11 Turn Off AirDrop

• Go to Settings> General.
• Tap AirDrop.
• Tap Receiving Off on the next window when it comes up.

3.12 Shut Down Apps Less Often

Although you can force quit the apps by double-pressing the Home button on iPhone 8 and earlier (or swiping up the Gesture Bar to the center and holding down the screen for a moment in iPhone X and above) to get to the App Switcher mode and swiping the thumbnails of the apps upwards individually, this approach makes the apps consume more battery while relaunching. If your iPhone is draining out battery fast, you should avoid force closing the apps to save some power.

Tip 4: Remove Apps that Cause iPhone Battery Drain

Any power consuming app that you don’t find useful can be removed from your iPhone to reduce battery usage. Therefore, your first step in this approach should be to identify the battery-eating app(s), and then removing it/them from your device altogether. You can follow the below steps to get this done:

• Get to the Battery window as explained in Tip 1.
• Scroll down to the BATTERY USAGE BY APP
• Notice which app is consuming more amount of battery and see if it is useful.
• Get back to the Home.
• Long-tap any app until all the icons start wiggling.
• Tap the Delete(X) icon at the top-right corner of the battery consuming app icon.
• Tap Deleteon the confirmation box that pops up next to remove the app from your iPhone.
• Repeat steps 6 and 7 for all the apps you want to remove.

Tip 5: Reset All Settings

Resetting all your iPhone’s settings is yet another smart approach that lets you take all its configurations back to default and start over. The process is simple and is explained below:

• Go to Settings> General > Reset.
• Tap Reset All Settings.
• Tap Reset All Settings on the confirmation box that pops up at the bottom.

Tip 6: Restore Your iPhone

With several installs, uninstalls, and frequent changes in the settings, your iOS may get messed up over time and might need some of overhauling. You can follow the steps below to restore your iPhone back to factory defaults to reduce battery consumption:

6.1 Back Up Your iPhone

• Connect your iPhone to your Windows or Mac computer.
• Launch iTunesif it doesn’t start automatically.
• Click the phone icon from the top of the interface.

• From the Backupssection of the Summary window, select the This Computer radio button.
• Check the Encrypt local backup.

• Type and retype a strong password in the corresponding fields.
• Click Set Passwordand wait while your iPhone is backed up to your local computer.

6.2 Disable Find My iPhone

• Go to Settings.
• Tap Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store from the top.
• Tap iCloud.
• Tap Find My iPhonefrom the APPS USING ICLOUD

• Tap the Find My iPhone toggle switch.
• Enter your Apple ID password when prompted.
• Tap Turn Off.

6.3 Restore Your iPhone

• Get back to the iTunes’ Summary.
• Click Restore iPhonefrom the upper section in the right window.

• Wait while iTunes restores your iPhone.

6.4 Restore from Backup (Optional)

Note: This step is optional, and you should only follow this if you’re sure that your iPhone’s settings and data weren’t the reason behind unusual battery drain.

• Once the iOS is restored, get back to the iTunes’ Summary
• Click Restore Backup from the Backups.

• Ensure that the latest backup is selected in the Restore From Backup box.
• Click Continue to restore your iPhone from the backup.

Tip 7: Update/Downgrade iOS On Your iPhone

If your iOS is outdated, updating it to the most recent version might resolve the battery issue. Likewise, if you notice that the updated iOS is the culprit, downgrading it to a previous, more stable built could do the trick. Both the processes are explained below for you to pick the one that suits your needs:

Update iOS

• Connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network.
• Go to Settings> General > Software Update.
• Tap Download and Installto update the iOS on your iPhone.
• Note: If no update is available, ‘Your software is up to date.’ message is displayed on the Software Update.

Learn more details about upgrade to iOS 13

Downgrade iOS

• Go to https://ipsw.me/, select your iPhone, and download the .ipsw file for the iOS version that worked efficiently.
• Connect your iPhone to your Windows or Mac computer.
• Back up your iPhone to iCloud or your local computer as explained in Tip 6.
• While still on the iTunes’ Summary window, press and hold down the Shift key and click Restore Now.

• Use the iTunesbox to locate and select the .ipsw file you downloaded in Step 1.
• Click Openand wait while iTunes installs the stable version iOS on your iPhone.

• Once done, follow the on-screen instructions to set up your iPhone.
• Reconnect your iPhone to your computer and get back to the Summary window on iTunes.
• Restore your iPhone from backup as explained in Tip 6.

Tip 8: Replace the Old Battery with a New One

If all the above tips fail to resolve the issue, you may need to replace your iPhone battery. Although the replacement process is simple, it is always good to let the professionals do their job.

Tip 9: Ask for the Battery Replacement Program

If your iPhone is still under warranty or its model is eligible for Apple’s Battery Replacement Program, you should contact their Customer Support Team and ask for the formalities. You can visit this link to check your iPhone’s warranty status and eligibility for the Battery Replacement Program.

Conclusion

Using your iPhone smartly and turning off the unnecessary apps is the best way to reduce the number of charging cycles and increasing the battery life. Nevertheless, the fact that your phone’s battery ages over time remains inevitable, and needs to replaced when the time comes.

Apple assumes that your phone’s battery’s health is decreased to 80% approximately after 500 charging cycles. With that said, you can follow the tips given above to configure your phone to reduce its consumption, even it you do not notice any fast battery drains.