The fastest ways to extend your iPhone battery
Turn on Low Power Mode, reduce screen brightness, and close apps running in the background. These three steps alone will add hours to your battery life on most iPhones. Low Power Mode cuts performance slightly but extends battery by 20 to 30 percent — you turn it on in Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode, and your phone will prompt you when the battery hits 20 percent. Brightness drains battery faster than almost anything else; set it to auto-adjust in Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Brightness, or manually lower it to 30 to 40 percent for everyday use.
Background app refresh is the third major drain. Apps like email, weather, and social media check for updates even when you are not using them. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it off entirely, or toggle it off for individual apps you do not need constant updates from. Most people notice the difference within a day.
Key Takeaways
- Low Power Mode, reduced brightness, and disabling background app refresh will extend battery life by several hours without changing how you use your phone.
- Location services, push notifications, and Bluetooth drain battery when left on constantly; turn them off for apps that do not need them.
- Keeping your iPhone between 20 and 80 percent charge and avoiding extreme heat preserves the battery's long-term health and capacity.
- Older iPhones with degraded batteries may need a replacement; Apple's battery health tool in Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging shows when capacity has dropped below 80 percent.
Turn off location services for apps that do not need it
Location services use GPS, Bluetooth, and cellular data to pinpoint your position, and this combination drains battery quickly. You do not need location on for every app — most people use it only for maps, weather, and ride-sharing. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll through each app. For most, change the setting from "Always" or "While Using" to "Never," or leave it at "While Using" only for apps you actively need it for.
Maps, Uber, and weather apps are the exceptions; these genuinely need location to work. For everything else — social media, email, shopping apps — location serves only to track your movement for advertising. Turning it off for those apps saves battery and improves privacy at the same time.
Disable push notifications and use fetch instead
Push notifications wake your screen and trigger processing every time an app sends one. If you get 50 notifications a day, your phone is waking and working 50 times for something you might not care about. Go to Settings > Notifications and turn off notifications for apps you do not actively need alerts from. Keep them on for messages, calls, and calendar reminders — turn them off for news apps, games, and shopping alerts.
For email, switch from push to fetch. Push means your phone checks for new mail constantly; fetch means it checks every 15 or 30 minutes instead. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data and set it to "Every 30 Minutes" or "Hourly." You will still get your email, but your phone will not be checking every few seconds.
Keep Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off when you are not using them
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi search for connections even when you are not actively using them. If you wear AirPods or a smartwatch, Bluetooth needs to stay on, but if you do not, turn it off in Control Center (swipe down from the top right). The same applies to Wi-Fi — if you are away from home or the office, turn it off rather than letting your phone search for networks.
One exception: Wi-Fi actually uses less battery than cellular data when you are connected to a network. If you are at home or work, keep Wi-Fi on. If you are moving between locations or outside, turn it off so your phone stops searching.
Reduce screen timeout and disable dynamic wallpapers
Your screen is the single biggest battery drain on an iPhone. The longer it stays on, the faster your battery empties. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock and set it to 30 seconds or 1 minute instead of 5 minutes. Your phone will turn off the screen faster when you are not using it, and you will barely notice the difference.
Dynamic wallpapers and animated lock screens also drain battery because they require constant processing. Switch to a static image in Settings > Wallpaper. The difference is small compared to screen brightness, but it adds up over the course of a day.
Check battery health and replace the battery if it has degraded
iPhones have a built-in battery health tool that shows how much capacity your battery has lost over time. Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and look at the "Maximum Capacity" number. If it is below 80 percent, your battery has degraded and will not hold a charge as long as it did when new. At 80 percent capacity, most people notice their phone dies an hour or two earlier than it used to.
Apple replaces iPhone batteries for a flat fee — usually $69 to $99 depending on the model — at any Apple Store or authorized repair shop. If your phone is still under warranty or covered by AppleCare+, the replacement may be free. A new battery restores your phone to near-original battery life and is cheaper than buying a new phone.
Avoid extreme heat and keep your battery between 20 and 80 percent when possible
Heat damages lithium batteries permanently. Do not leave your iPhone in direct sunlight, in a hot car, or near a heater for extended periods. Even a few hours in high heat can reduce battery capacity. If your phone gets hot during normal use, it is usually fine, but if it is too hot to hold comfortably, let it cool down before using it again.
Charging habits also matter for long-term battery health. Lithium batteries last longest when kept between 20 and 80 percent charge. If you charge your phone to 100 percent every night and let it drain to 0 percent regularly, you are wearing out the battery faster. If your iPhone supports optimized battery charging (Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging > Optimized Battery Charging), turn it on — it learns your charging patterns and slows charging to 80 percent until you need the phone, then finishes the last 20 percent closer to when you wake up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does closing apps in the background actually save battery?
Closing apps manually does almost nothing. Modern iPhones manage background processes efficiently, and force-closing apps actually uses more battery because your phone has to reload them from scratch next time. The real drain is background app refresh, which you can disable in Settings. Focus on that instead of closing apps.
Will using Dark Mode save battery on my iPhone?
Dark Mode saves battery only on iPhones with OLED screens — iPhone 12 and newer. OLED pixels produce their own light, so black pixels use less power than white ones. On older iPhones with LCD screens, Dark Mode makes no difference to battery life. If you have a newer iPhone, turning on Dark Mode in Settings > Display & Brightness will extend battery by a small amount.
Is it bad to leave my iPhone plugged in overnight?
Modern iPhones have optimized battery charging that stops charging at 80 percent and waits until closer to morning to finish, so overnight charging is safe. Older iPhones without this feature will stay at 100 percent all night, which does wear the battery slightly faster over months. If your phone supports optimized charging, turn it on and charge overnight without worry.
What is the difference between Low Power Mode and turning off background app refresh?
Low Power Mode reduces processor speed and limits some features like animations and downloads, extending battery by 20 to 30 percent. Background app refresh only stops apps from checking for updates in the background. Use both together for maximum battery life, or use Low Power Mode alone if you want to keep background refresh on for specific apps like email.