MacValley | The MacValley blog

The Four Things That Kill Your iPhones Battery The Fastest

We’ve all been there, trapped in that horrible zone known as dead battery land. You're trying to upload a critical Instagram post on your iPhone that will set social media ablaze and wham, your battery dies.

As all iPhone aficionados can affirm, we have an insatiable appetite for battery life. The more we have the more we want. While there are plenty of tricks out there on the Cloud, we’ve narrowed it down to four key problems that remorselessly drain your iPhone battery the quickest.

1. Screen Brightness Isn’t Your Friend

One of the biggest factors influencing your iPhone's battery life is its screen brightness. If you have your life on your phone and you leave it set to full brightness as a default, then you're undoubtedly burning through around three hours of your battery’s life as opposed to switching it to a less power-hungry half brightness.

So, try entering the twilight zone and set yourself on the path to prolonged battery life by adjusting your screen’s brightness down while still being able to view the centre of your universe, your screen. Activate your iPhone's Auto-Brightness function enables it to adjust automatically to your current levels of ambient light.

To change your brightness levels, go to your control centre then adjust the slider to your preferred brightness.

2. Feral Apps

Another key setting to check if you have battery life issues are your background apps. These can refresh even if you’re not viewing the app. This enables these apps to periodically confirm your location, automatically update its status and send push notifications. Enabling this constant refreshing seriously pounds your battery life as they are running even though they’re not in plain sight.

Check your app settings and disable the Background App Refresh function for all those apps you don't need to refresh continuously. However, remember some apps such as instant messenger apps, cloud storage services and step or activity monitoring apps need background refresh to be enabled, so be take care choosing which feral apps to reign in. However, disabling background activities for most apps will extract greater battery life.

To change your Background Refresh on an iPhone go to Settings >> General >> Background App Refresh. Once you’re there, scroll down to select which apps you prefer Background Refresh enabled and which ones you don’t.

3. Hordes Of Notifications Swamping Your Lock Screen

Now some apps are constantly pinging you with notifications. If you're not active on your iPhone when the notification comes in and your iPhone is locked, that notification will wake up your display.

This causes your iPhone’s display to constantly switch on, draining your battery even while your iPhone is locked. OK, it's a slow drain but when you're struggling with battery woes every little scrap of battery life counts, right?

You can deactivate these hordes of notifications on an app-by-app basis. Simply go to Settings > Notifications then walk through your apps list, deactivating notifications on individual apps.

4. Putting Your Battery Life In The Freezer

Thanks to the delicate electrolyte, anode and cathode chemical reactions within your iPhone’s lithium-ion battery, it's important that you avoid exposing your baby to extreme temperatures where possible.

Never absent-mindedly leave your iPhone to swelter in the open sunlight or boil in a hot car as heat accelerates the chemical reactions that cause your lithium-ion battery to dump capacity. These chemical reactions work by breaking down your battery’s electrolyte thus curtailing the number of accreted lithium ions attached to the anode, resulting in your battery having less capacity every time it's subjected to hot temperatures.

Exposure to cold can also shorten your iPhone's battery life temporarily and in some instances even power it down. Nothing smashes your battery life as much as the cold. When subjected to cold temperatures, the liquid inside your battery can freeze solid. While your battery life should revive when warmed its not a great look for your battery life.

Try to keep your iPhone at around an ambient room temperature of 20°C (70°F). This is the optimal charging temperature. However, as we don't all live in climate-controlled environments, we can push this to a range of 5°C to 45°C (41°F-113°F). Temperatures outside this range are bad news for your battery. Charging your battery at temperatures below 0°C (32°F) can permanently damage the battery.

Final Observation

Many things can drain your iPhone battery. It may even need replacing. However, if it doesn’t need replacing, tracking down the cause of your poor battery performance can make all the difference. After all, your life is on your iPhone isn’t it?

Author’s Bio

Alex Morrison has worked with a range of businesses giving him an in depth understanding of many different industries including home improvement, health care and business IT support. As the owner of Integral Media, he is now utilising his knowledge and experience with his rapidly increasing client portfolio to help them achieve their business goals.