8 not so well known power tips that all iPhone users should know to extend the battery life

Once again the Facebook iPhone app comes under fire as reports are circulating around the web showing how the app drains the battery of the iPhone. Facebook is said to be working on a fix but in the mean time people are reluctantly uninstalling the app in order to try and extend the life of their phone.

Before you uninstall Facebook, give these 8 not so well known power tips a try and see if you can save power on our iPhone in other ways:

1. Vibrator is bad

When you set the phone to vibrate every time you receive a call or a new message arrive, the phone’s software instructs the hardware to shake and vibrate. This action requires serious battery power and unless absolutely necessary this feature should be switched off and an annoying ringtone should be put in place like everyone else.

Under Settings>Sounds> set the Vibrate on Ring and Vibrate on Silent to off.

2. Spotlight Search

Spotlight is the system’s way of indexing and referencing all the information that you have on our phone. So whenever you search for that message from that someone on some day, Sportlight will work out what you are looking for and offer you suggestions.

This is a great service however the constant indexing of every app and every activity is unnecessary.

Under Settings>General>Spotlight Search disable those apps that don’t need to be searched.

3. Low Power Mode

In iOS 9 there is a Low Power Mode which reduces the power used by the phone which in turn allows the battery to last longer. When the iPhone battery level drops to 20 percent you will  be prompted to activate the Low Power Mode which will be switched off again when the phone’s battery is charged to past 80 percent.

You don’t have to wait until the phone’s battery drops to the 20 percent mark as you can activate it by going to: Settings > Battery and turn on Low Power Mode. This is especially useful during day when you know that you need to stretch the phone’s battery such as conference days or days that involve travel time.

Note: When the Low Power Mode is on email is no longer fetched, Siri doesn’t work, apps are not refreshed and some visual effects are disabled.

4. Standby Power ?

When the phone’s screen is on standby, the phone should technically use less power then when the screen is on and active. But does it ?

Tap into Settings > General > Battery and look at the bottom where it has the Battery Usage info. Make a note of the Standby time ad then switch the phone’s screen off. Wait 10 minutes without touching your phone. Then, switch the screen on and check the Standby time. If the phone is working correctly, then the Standby time should increase by approximately 10 minutes.  If the Standby time does not increase by roughly the 10 minutes then there could be an app that is preventing your phone from going into sleep mode.

5. Air Drop Off

We all know to switch off Bluetooth and WiFi when we don’t need it. However there is one more option that should be disabled whenever it is not in use – Air Drop. This is a great facility to share documents and files between contacts and between the iPhone and the Mac however it doesn’t need to be active all day.

Swipe up from the bottom of the phone to open the Control Centre and ensure that Air Drop is off until you need it.

6. The Time is Now

Unless you are a frequent world traveller or travel within a country that has several time zones, there is no point in having the phone get its time from your location. While this only uses a small amount of power it does require your Location Services to be on (ie the GPS) and that does draw power.

Settings>General>Date & Time> Set Automatically to Off and just enter your location.

7. Background Refresh

On the iPhone we are able to open several apps at the same time and switch between them. The apps in the background continue to receive information and refresh their data while we use with the primary app in the foreground. This constant refresh uses your Data which strains the battery until the app is closed.

You can control which apps are allowed to automatically refresh by going to Settings>General>Background App Refresh and set the apps that are allowed vs. the apps that should not use this feature.

8. Keep Quiet

As we keep our music on our phones, it easy to forget that playing music when the volume is set to “loud” can easily drain the battery. Having the equaliser on to get the best sound out of each track is also a battery drainer.

Tap on Settings>Music and scroll to the bottom where you will see EQ. Ensure that it is set to Off.

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