Reading Time: 3 minutes

If you’re like me, you probably updated to iOS 11 the moment it came out. But after using it for a few days you begin to notice that your battery life just isn’t the same as it used to be. I am going to share with you 8 tips to extending your battery life on your iPhone.

1) Enable “Low Power Mode”.

Low power mode is the ultimate battery saving feature. This feature is meant to be used in extreme circumstances, it can be turned on whenever you need it. Low Power mode turns off “background app refresh”, it lowers the brightness of the screen, disables the “Hey Siri” feature and it saves energy by reducing the frequency your phone checks for new emails in the background.

  1. To enable it open the Settings app.
  2. Tap General → Battery
  3. Turn on “Low Power Mode.

Although low power mode will extend your battery life, your phone’s CPU will run slower and therefore this feature is generally a good idea when you know you will not be near a charger for an extended period of time. When your phone restarts or reaches a charge 60% or greater this mode will automatically turn off.

2) Enable low power mode shortcut in control center.

  1. When you swipe up from the bottom edge of your screen this will display command center.
  2. Go to settings ->
  3. Tap Command center → customize controls
  4. Look for “low power mode” and click the green “+” button to add it to your command center.

3) Turn off Location Services.

The GPS in the iPhone uses a lot of power and there is a good chance that most apps on your phone utilizes the GPS to be of any use. For example apps like Google Maps, Waze, the Camera and even Instagram. But if you really want to get the most out of your battery you can turn off the “Location Services”.

  1. You can do this by going to Settings.
  2. Tap Privacy -> Location Services.
  3. Turn the Location Services Off.

Another way to save energy with Location services is to decide which apps you want to disable location services for. In the same area where you choose to turn on or off Location services, you can select an app and choose from 1 of 3 options. Never, While Using or Always. Many apps automatically choose “Always”. I usually change this setting to “While Using”.

4) Check for Software updates.

A lot of the slow down in performance and poor battery life is actually a result of errors/bugs caused by the iOS 11 update. Apple is regularly patching the problems with incremental releases on a monthly basis. Make sure you’re running the latest bug fix.

  1. You can do this by going to Settings.
  2. Tap General -> Software Update.

It will check and let you know if a new update is available.

5) Avoid upgrading to iOS 11 — If you have the option.

For those of you who still have an iPhone 6 with an older version of iOS like iOS 10, its probably a good idea to keep iOS 10 and wait until reports show that the battery life issue has been fixed. As I’m writing this article there have already been 4 patches to iOS 11 so I am not going to hold my breath.

6) Enable “Reduce Motion”.

On the iPhone 6s I noticed that apps animations were very sluggish. Especially when I unlocked my phone or switched between apps. One way to smooth things out is to enable an Accessibility feature called “Reduce motion”

  1. You can find this feature in the Settings app.
  2. Tap General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion.
  3. Once you close the app you’ll notice that the fancy zoom effect is now simplified with the basic dissolve transition.

7) Turn off Background App Refresh.

The Background app refresh feature lets your apps get and send data, information, and notifications even when those apps aren’t currently open on your screen. When Low Power Mode is enabled, Background App Refresh is turned off for all apps, to extend battery life. For every app you have open, it will drain your battery faster. Turning off Background App Refresh will save energy and maximize your battery life.

  1. To do this go to Settings.
  2. Tap General → Background App Refresh.
  3. Turn off Background App Refresh.

The drawback of doing this is that you may notice that apps take a little longer to open.

8) Turn off Siri Suggestions.

If you find that search is running slow on your phone, one thing you can do is disable the Siri Suggestions. This feature allows siri to make suggestions in apps or when you use search, lookup and keyboard.

  1. To turn this feature off, go to Settings → Siri & Search.
  2. Scroll down and turn off “Search Suggestions”
  3. Turn off “Suggestions in Look Up”.

And there you have it. I hope you found these tips helpful. Now you can ditch the extra battery and use your phone as it was originally designed. If you have any additional tips that you found helpful, leave a comment below.


Originally published at perfecthq.com on November 3, 2017.