Battery

Storage, Charging & Power-Saving Settings for Your iPhone

Physical Maintenance

Keep Your iPhone

Cool

You've probably heard that letting your battery drain helps keep your battery healthy. This is true for some batteries, but not lithium batteries. When it comes to your iPhone, temperature is more important. High temperatures can slow it down and damage the battery. You can reduce your iPhone's temperature safely by removing the case and turning off the device for a while. When you're not using your iPhone, make sure it's stored someplace below 90 degrees.

Check Your Cables

Having the correct cable isn't just a matter of Lightning versus USB cables. You want a cable that's Made for iPhone (MFi) certified. Some third-party cables simply don't work well, especially the cheap ones. When your wire starts to fray or fall apart, it's time for a new one. If you have proprietary cables and you're still having trouble, gently clean the charging port of your iPhone with a toothpick to remove fuzz or dust.

Long-Term Storage

If, for any reason, you want to store your iPhone long term, these steps will ensure your battery stays in good health. Your battery should be at about 50 percent for long-term storage. If you store your iPhone on empty, you risk returning to an iPhone that can't hold a charge. Keeping your battery at 100 percent can decrease its capacity too. Make sure the temperature is cool and steady and the air is dry.

Battery Replacement

Eventually, if your iPhone is running slow and crashing often, it might be time to replace your battery. You can confirm this by going to the Settings app. Tap Battery, then select Battery Health. If your battery's maximum health is below 80 percent, then it's time for a visit to an Apple authorized service provider. Replacing the battery costs a fraction of what you'd pay for a new iPhone. You can expect to spend between $49 to $60 on a replacement battery.

Smart Habits

Stay Connected

Whenever possible, keep your iPhone in Wi-Fi range. When you're not connected to Wi-Fi, your iPhone switches to cellular. This causes your iPhone to search for cell towers, which uses up your battery faster. Similarly, if you've enabled Wi-Fi on your iPhone but you're out of range, your iPhone will search for a Wi-Fi connection. In this case, you can turn off Wi-Fi in your Control Center. As much as possible, when you're using internet, stay near a router to conserve battery.

Turn Off Background App Refresh

Constantly updating apps like Mail and Weather when you're not using them is a real drain to your battery. To disable Background App Refresh, open the Settings app and tap General. Select Background App Refresh. From here, you can disable the feature for individual apps or for all apps. Personally, I disabled this feature, and have found the extra app load time to be minimal and worth the battery savings.

Enable Low Power Mode

When your battery drains below 20 percent, your iPhone will ask if you'd like to switch to Low Power Mode. This feature might slow you down a little, but it will also make your iPhone last longer. It works by reducing all the background tasks your iPhone usually performs like Automatic Downloads and uploading to iCloud Photos. You can toggle this mode on and off from Control Center by selecting the battery icon.

Reduce Your Widgets

The widgets in your Today View like Weather, News, and Calendar refresh regularly, draining your battery. These are the notifications you see when you swipe all the way to the right from your Home or Lock screen. Disabling any of these widgets will conserve your battery. In the Today View, scroll to the bottom and tap Edit. Tap the red icon to the left of any active widget to disable that widget.

Dim Your Display

Your iPhone is set to Auto-Brightness by default. This causes your screen to adjust its brightness relative to the environment. While enabling Auto-Brightness is better for battery than leaving your screen at max brightness, an even better option is to set your brightness level low and leave it there. To do this, open Settings and tap Accessibility, then select Display & Text Size. At the bottom, toggle off Auto-Brightness. If you need to make adjustments, you can raise and lower the brightness level manually from Control Center.

Adjust Your Auto-Lock

The faster your iPhone's Auto-Lock engages, the less battery your iPhone uses. Of course, having your iPhone go dark while you're reading an article is annoying. You can set your Auto-Lock to your preferred wait time using the Settings app. Select Display & Brightness, then tap Auto-Lock. From here, you can select the amount of time you'd like your iPhone to remain idle before the display goes to sleep.