THE real reason your iPhone battery life is draining might be tucked away in the Settings app.
There are loads of explanations for why you might be running out of charge quickly – but there’s a key cause that many people miss.
Your iPhone has a special process to keep apps from draining your battery when they’re not in use.
In fact, it’s so good at it that Apple says you don’t need to swipe apps closed to save battery. You should only “force quit” an app if it’s not working properly.
But there is a a special feature called Background App Refresh that some apps use.
This lets them perform functions in the background, which puts strain on your battery.
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Some of this will be necessary.
For instance, your email app needs to be checking for emails so that it can notify you when a new one comes through.
Lots of apps will have functions that depend on background app refresh.
But there might be some apps that you simply don’t need refreshing in the background.
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Importantly, some apps will be doing this more than others – and you can find out how much.
As well as that, you can put a stop to it.
BACKGROUND APP REFRESH
First, you’ll want to identify which apps are actually draining your charge in the background.
For that, go into Settings > Battery and then scroll down to Battery Usage.
Now tap View All Battery Usage and you’ll be able to see a long list titled Battery Usage By App.
This will show you how much charge your apps have been using up individually.
And on top of that, they’ll each show how much time they’ve been active in the background – if at all.
What you’re looking for here are apps with very high background usage that you hardly use or care about.
These are prime contenders for shutting off Background App Refresh on those specific apps.
Take note, and then head into Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
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This is where you can turn Background App Refresh on or off for individual apps.
Just tap the toggle on the right of each app to change the setting.
At the top, there’s also an option to decide whether you want Background App Refresh to function at all, on Wi-Fi, or on Wi-Fi & Mobile Data.
A sensible option might be Wi-Fi-only if you’re always low on battery life.
But if you notice that some apps that you actually need seem to stop working properly then you can re-activate them just by going back into settings.
