The most common reason your iPhone battery dies quickly is background app refresh
Your iPhone runs tasks in the background even when you are not looking at the screen. Apps check for messages, read photos, refresh news feeds, and track your location — all while the display is off. If many apps have permission to do this, your battery drains noticeably faster than it should.
The second most common reason is screen brightness set too high. Your display uses more power than any other component in the phone. If you have automatic brightness turned off and the slider is set above 50 percent, or if you are using your phone outdoors in sunlight, the screen alone can drain a full battery in four to six hours of active use.
A third reason is location services running constantly. Apps like maps, weather, and fitness trackers request your GPS location repeatedly. GPS is power-hungry, and if multiple apps have permission to access your location in the background, the battery will drop faster than normal.
Key Takeaways
- Background app refresh is the single largest drain on most iPhones — turning it off for apps you do not actively use can add two to four hours to your battery life.
- Screen brightness above 50 percent uses more power than all background processes combined, so lowering it or enabling auto-brightness is the fastest way to see results.
- Location services, especially GPS, drain the battery quickly — check which apps have permission to access your location and disable it for apps that do not need it.
- Battery health degrades over time, and an iPhone with less than 80 percent battery health will drain noticeably faster than a new phone, even with all settings optimized.
- You can see exactly which apps are using the most power in Settings > Battery > Battery Usage, which shows the past 24 hours or past 10 days of drain.
How to check which apps are draining your battery
Open Settings, then tap Battery. You will see two options: Battery Usage and Battery Health. Tap Battery Usage first. At the top, you can toggle between "Last 24 Hours" and "Last 10 Days." The 10-day view is more useful because it shows patterns rather than a single day's spike.
The list shows every app ranked by how much power it used. The percentage next to each app is the share of total battery drain, not the percentage of your battery that app consumed. An app showing 15 percent means it was responsible for 15 percent of all the power your phone used during that period. Scroll through the list and look for apps you do not use often but that are using more than 5 percent of your battery. Those are your targets.
Tap any app in the list to see a breakdown of how it used power — whether it was running on screen, running in the background, or using location services. This tells you whether to disable background refresh for that app, restrict its location access, or uninstall it entirely.
Turn off background app refresh for specific apps
Background app refresh is the easiest setting to adjust and often makes the biggest difference. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You will see a toggle at the top to turn it off for all apps at once, but a better approach is to leave it on and disable it only for apps that do not need it.
Scroll through the list and turn off the toggle next to apps you do not check frequently. For example, if you use a news app once a week, turn off background refresh for it. If you use a fitness app only during workouts, turn it off. Keep it on for apps you rely on for notifications, like messaging apps, email, or calendar.
This single change can add two to four hours to your battery life if you have many apps with background refresh enabled. The downside is that those apps will not update their content until you open them, so you might miss a notification or see stale information. That trade-off is worth it for most people.
Lower your screen brightness and enable auto-brightness
Your display is the biggest power consumer on your phone. If you have it set above 50 percent brightness, lowering it to 40 or 50 percent will extend your battery life by one to three hours per full charge. The easiest way to manage this is to enable auto-brightness, which adjusts the screen based on the light in your environment.
Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and toggle on Auto-Brightness. This setting uses your front-facing camera and ambient light sensor to dim the screen indoors and brighten it outdoors. It takes a few days to adjust to the change, but most people find they do not notice the difference after a week.
If you spend a lot of time outdoors or in bright environments, auto-brightness will keep your screen brighter than you might prefer indoors. In that case, you can manually lower the brightness slider to 40 or 50 percent and leave auto-brightness off. The battery savings are significant enough to be worth the minor inconvenience.
Restrict location services for apps that do not need them
Location services, especially GPS, use a lot of power. Some apps request location permission but do not actually need it — or they need it only while you are actively using the app, not in the background. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and scroll through the list of apps.
For each app, you have three options: Never, While Using, or Always. Set most apps to "While Using" so they can access your location only when you have the app open. Set it to "Never" for apps that do not need location at all, like a calculator or note-taking app. Leave it on "Always" only for apps you genuinely need to track your location in the background, like a navigation app or a family tracking app.
Turning off "Always" for even two or three apps can add one to two hours to your battery life, depending on how often those apps were requesting your location.
Check your battery health to see if the battery itself is aging
Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging. Look at the "Maximum Capacity" percentage. This number tells you how much charge your battery can hold compared to when it was new. A new iPhone has 100 percent maximum capacity. After two or three years of normal use, it typically drops to 80 to 90 percent. After four or five years, it may be 70 to 80 percent.
If your maximum capacity is below 80 percent, your battery is aging and will not hold a charge as long as it did when new. This is normal wear and tear, not a defect. If it is below 50 percent, the battery is significantly degraded and you may notice the phone shutting down unexpectedly at low battery levels.
If your battery health is poor and you have tried the other steps in this guide without improvement, replacing the battery is the most effective solution. Apple and many third-party repair shops offer battery replacement for iPhones. The cost varies by model but is usually between $50 and $100.
Other settings that affect battery drain
Enable Low Power Mode when your battery drops below 20 percent. This setting reduces performance and background activity to extend your battery life by several hours. You can also enable it manually at any time by going to Settings > Battery and toggling on Low Power Mode. When it is on, your phone will run slower and some features like automatic downloads and mail fetch will be disabled, but you will get significantly more time before the battery dies.
Disable push notifications for apps you do not need to hear from when ready. Each notification wakes up your phone and uses a small amount of power. If you have dozens of apps sending notifications throughout the day, the cumulative drain is noticeable. Go to Settings > Notifications and turn off notifications for apps you do not actively use.
Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you are not using them. These radios use power even when you are not actively connected to a device or network. If you spend most of your day in one location with a strong Wi-Fi signal, leaving Wi-Fi on uses less power than using cellular data, so keep it on. But if you move between locations, turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you do not need them can save battery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does closing apps in the app switcher save battery?
No. Closing apps does not save battery because apps in the background are not actively running — they are suspended in memory. Closing them forces your phone to reload them from scratch the next time you open them, which actually uses more power. The only exception is if an app has a bug that causes it to run constantly in the background, but that is rare.
Will turning off Wi-Fi and using cellular data instead save battery?
No, it is the opposite. Wi-Fi uses less power than cellular data because Wi-Fi radios are more efficient. If you have a strong Wi-Fi signal, leaving Wi-Fi on and using it instead of cellular will extend your battery life. Turn off Wi-Fi only when you are in an area with a weak signal, because your phone will drain the battery searching for a connection.
Can I use a third-party battery app to improve my battery life?
Third-party battery apps cannot access the same low-level system settings that Apple's built-in battery tools can. They may show you information about battery usage, but they cannot actually improve your battery life beyond what the native iOS settings already do. The built-in Battery Usage tool in Settings is more accurate and useful than any third-party app.
Why does my battery drain faster in cold weather?
Cold temperatures reduce the chemical reaction inside your battery, which temporarily reduces its capacity. Your iPhone may show a lower battery percentage in cold weather and shut down at a higher battery level than normal. This is not permanent damage — the battery will return to normal capacity when it warms up. Avoid leaving your phone in very cold environments for extended periods.
Should I leave my phone plugged in overnight?
Modern iPhones have optimized battery charging, which slows down charging after 80 percent to reduce wear on the battery. Leaving your phone plugged in overnight is safe and will not damage the battery. If you want to minimize long-term battery degradation, you can enable Optimized Battery Charging in Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging, which learns your charging patterns and avoids charging to 100 percent until you need it.