Turn on Low Power Mode before your battery drops to 20 percent
Low Power Mode is the single fastest way to extend your iPhone's runtime. It reduces performance slightly and disables some background activity, but most people do not notice the difference in daily use. The key is turning it on early — at 50 percent battery — rather than waiting until your phone warns you.
To enable it, open Settings, tap Battery, and toggle on Low Power Mode. You can also add it to Control Center (Settings > Control Center > Battery) so you can turn it on with one tap from your lock screen. When Low Power Mode is active, the battery icon turns yellow.
Low Power Mode cuts background app refresh, reduces mail fetch frequency, and lowers screen brightness slightly. On a typical day, turning it on at 50 percent can add two to four hours of use before you need to charge.
Key Takeaways
- Low Power Mode activated at 50 percent battery extends runtime by two to four hours and is the fastest single change you can make.
- Screen brightness and display settings consume the most power; setting brightness to auto-adjust and using dark wallpapers saves significant battery life.
- Background app refresh, location services, and push notifications drain battery even when you are not using your phone — disable them for apps that do not need them.
- Keeping your iPhone between 20 and 80 percent charge during storage and avoiding heat during charging preserves long-term battery health.
- Older iPhones and those with degraded batteries benefit most from these changes; check your battery health in Settings > Battery > Battery Health to see if replacement is worth considering.
Reduce screen brightness and enable auto-brightness
Your screen is the largest power consumer on your iPhone. Lowering brightness and letting the phone adjust it automatically based on ambient light saves more battery than almost any other single setting.
Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and toggle on Auto-Brightness. This setting reads your environment and dims the screen in dim rooms and brightens it in sunlight, so you are not running at full brightness all day. Then manually set the slider to around 40 percent as your baseline — auto-brightness will adjust from there.
If you want even more savings, switch to a dark wallpaper and enable Dark Mode (Settings > Display & Brightness > Dark). iPhones with OLED screens (iPhone 12 and newer) use less power displaying black pixels, so dark mode on these models can extend battery life by one to two hours per day.
Turn off background app refresh for apps that do not need it
Background app refresh lets apps update their content even when you are not using them — this is useful for mail, messages, and weather, but wasteful for games, social media, and news apps that you check manually.
Open Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You will see a list of every app with permission to run in the background. Toggle off the ones you do not need constant updates from. Keep it on for Mail, Messages, Calendar, and any navigation app you use, but disable it for entertainment and social apps.
Disabling background app refresh for five to ten apps typically adds one to two hours of battery life per day, depending on which apps you use most.
Disable location services for apps that do not need your location
Location services use your phone's GPS, cellular, and Wi-Fi data to pinpoint your position. This drains battery quickly, especially for apps running location in the background.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services. You will see every app that has requested location access. Tap each app and choose "Never" or "While Using" instead of "Always." Keep "Always" only for Maps, your navigation app, and any emergency or health app you rely on. For most other apps, "While Using" is enough — they can access your location only when you have them open.
Turning off background location for five to ten apps can add one to three hours of battery life, depending on how often those apps were checking your position.
Disable push notifications and fetch mail less frequently
Every time your phone receives a push notification, it wakes the screen and uses power to display it. Mail apps that fetch new messages every few minutes also drain battery by connecting to the network repeatedly.
Open Settings > Notifications and review which apps send you notifications. Disable notifications for apps you do not need alerts from — keep them on for Messages, Phone, and Calendar, but turn them off for news, shopping, and social apps. Then go to Settings > Mail and change Fetch New Data from "Every 15 Minutes" to "Every 30 Minutes" or "Hourly." If you do not need real-time mail, set it to "Manually" and fetch only when you open the Mail app.
Reducing notifications and mail fetch frequency typically saves 30 minutes to one hour of battery life per day.
Keep your iPhone cool and avoid charging in hot environments
Heat damages your battery's long-term health and causes your phone to use more power to cool itself down. Avoid leaving your iPhone in direct sunlight, in a hot car, or near heat sources while charging.
If your phone gets hot during use, close apps, enable Low Power Mode, and move to a cooler location. If it overheats while charging, unplug it and let it cool before charging again. Charging in a cool room extends both your daily battery life and the overall lifespan of your battery.
Over time, heat damage reduces your battery's capacity — the amount of charge it can hold. You can check this in Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging. If your Maximum Capacity has dropped below 80 percent, your battery is degraded and will not last as long, even with all these settings optimized.
Check your battery health and consider replacement if capacity is below 80 percent
Your iPhone's battery degrades over time. After 500 full charge cycles (roughly one year of normal use), most batteries drop to 80 percent of their original capacity. At that point, you will notice shorter runtime even with all power-saving settings enabled.
To see your battery's current health, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and look at Maximum Capacity. If it shows 80 percent or higher, your battery is still in good condition. If it is below 80 percent, the battery is degraded and will not hold a charge as long, no matter what settings you change.
If your Maximum Capacity is below 80 percent and you use your phone heavily, battery replacement may be worth considering. Apple and authorized repair shops can replace your battery for a fee. A new battery will restore your phone's runtime to near its original performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does closing apps in the background actually save battery?
No. Closing apps manually does not save battery because iOS suspends apps automatically when you switch away from them. The only exception is if an app is actively running in the background — in that case, disabling background app refresh for that specific app saves battery. Constantly closing and reopening apps actually uses more power than leaving them suspended.
Will using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data save battery?
Yes, but only slightly. Wi-Fi uses less power than cellular data, so if you are in a location with both available, staying on Wi-Fi saves roughly 10 to 15 percent more battery than using cellular. However, if Wi-Fi signal is weak, your phone works harder to maintain the connection and may use more power than cellular would. Strong Wi-Fi is the advantage.
Does turning off Bluetooth when I am not using it save battery?
Turning off Bluetooth saves a small amount of battery — roughly 5 to 10 percent per day if you have multiple devices connected. If you use wireless headphones or a smartwatch regularly, the convenience of leaving Bluetooth on usually outweighs the battery savings. Disable it only if you do not use wireless devices.
Can I use a third-party battery case or power bank instead of changing settings?
Yes. A power bank or battery case adds hours of runtime without changing how your phone works. However, battery cases add weight and bulk, and power banks require charging themselves. Optimizing your settings costs nothing and works on any iPhone, so most people start there. Use a power bank for travel or heavy-use days, and use settings changes for everyday battery life.
Why does my battery drain faster in cold weather?
Cold slows the chemical reactions inside your battery, so it cannot deliver power as quickly. Your iPhone may shut down at 20 percent battery in cold weather even though the battery is not actually empty — it will power back on once it warms up. This is temporary and does not damage the battery. Warm your phone in your pocket or indoors, and it will resume normal operation.