Nothing is more annoying than watching your iPhone battery drain 20% in an hour while you’re barely using it. My iPhone 13 was dying by 3 PM every day, and I was convinced the battery was worn out.
Turns out, it was my settings. After going through everything below, my phone lasts a full day again. Most fixes take under a minute each.
First, go to Settings > Battery and check battery usage by app. If one app is eating 40% of your battery, you’ve found your culprit — deal with that app first, then work through the settings below.
1. Turn Off Background App Refresh
This is the number one battery killer most people have never heard of. Background App Refresh lets apps fetch new content even when you’re not using them — your news app updating headlines, your shopping app checking prices, all silently sipping power around the clock.
- Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
- Tap Background App Refresh at the top and select Off — or leave it on Wi-Fi only if you prefer a middle ground.
Just turn it fully off. Apps still update the moment you open them, and this one change gave me noticeably better battery life.
2. Enable Low Power Mode (and Leave It On)
Low Power Mode reduces background activity, mail fetch, and visual effects — and on modern iPhones you barely notice the difference in everyday use.
- Go to Settings > Battery.
- Toggle on Low Power Mode.
Pro tip: add it to Control Center for one-tap access. Go to Settings > Control Center, tap the green + next to Low Power Mode. I toggle it on whenever I leave the house and my phone easily stretches through the evening.
3. Lower Your Screen Brightness
Your display is the single biggest power draw on any phone. Running at full brightness all day is like leaving every light in your house on.
- Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center and drag the brightness slider down to around 50–60%.
- Then go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size, scroll to the bottom, and make sure Auto-Brightness is on — it dims the screen automatically in dark rooms.
Half brightness is perfectly readable indoors. You’ll need more in direct sunlight, but that’s the exception.
4. Tame Location Services
Dozens of apps want your location “always” — and the GPS radio is a notorious battery hog. Most apps work perfectly fine with location set to “While Using” or even “Never.”
- Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
- Go through the list app by app. For anything that doesn’t genuinely need your location (games, shopping apps, random utilities), set it to Never.
- For maps and ride-share apps, While Using the App is plenty — “Always” is almost never necessary.
Also tap System Services at the bottom and turn off iPhone Analytics, Routing & Traffic, and Improve Maps.
5. Switch Email from Push to Fetch
Push email means your iPhone maintains a constant connection to the mail server, waiting for new messages. It’s convenient, but it keeps the radio awake. Fetch checks on a schedule instead.
- Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data.
- Turn off Push at the top.
- Set the schedule to Every 30 Minutes or Hourly — or Manually if you only check email a few times a day.
I switched to hourly fetch and can’t tell the difference. Emails still arrive — they just wait up to an hour.
6. Turn Off the Always-On Display
If you have an iPhone 14 Pro, 15 Pro, or 16 Pro, your screen never fully sleeps — it just dims. It looks cool, but it’s a constant slow drain.
- Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
- Tap Always On Display and turn it off.
Your lock screen goes fully dark like older iPhones. The screen still wakes when notifications arrive — it just doesn’t glow all day.
7. Manage Your 5G Connection
5G is fast, but the 5G radio uses noticeably more power than LTE — especially if you’re in an area with weak 5G signal, where your phone works overtime hunting for a connection.
- Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Voice & Data.
- Choose 5G Auto (uses 5G only when it won’t hurt battery much) or LTE if you want maximum battery life.
For scrolling, messaging, and email, you won’t feel the difference between 5G and LTE.
8. Silence Unnecessary Notifications
Every notification wakes your screen, buzzes the vibration motor, and lights up the display. If you get 100 notifications a day from apps you barely care about, that’s 100 tiny battery hits.
- Go to Settings > Notifications.
- Go through your apps and turn off Allow Notifications for anything non-essential — games, shopping apps, news apps you don’t read.
I cut mine down to messages, calls, email, and banking. Screen stays dark, battery lasts longer, and I’m less distracted.
9. Turn Off Raise to Wake
Raise to Wake lights up your screen every time you pick up your phone — including the dozen times a day you grab it just to move it. Each wake is a little sip of battery.
- Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
- Toggle off Raise to Wake.
You can still wake the screen with a tap. Takes a day to adjust.
10. Update to the Latest iOS
Apple regularly includes battery and power-management improvements in iOS updates. Running an old version can mean missing out on real efficiency gains — and occasionally, a buggy release is the actual cause of sudden battery drain.
- Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
- If an update is available, install it (preferably overnight while charging).
Note: right after a major update, battery may drain faster for a day or two while the phone re-indexes. That’s normal — worry only if it persists past 48 hours.
11. Check Battery Health and Use Optimized Charging
If your iPhone is a couple of years old, the battery itself may be degraded. Apple shows you exactly where you stand.
- Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging.
- Check Maximum Capacity. If it’s below 80%, Apple considers the battery worn — no settings tweak will fully fix that, and a battery replacement is worth considering.
- Turn on Optimized Battery Charging (or set a Charge Limit of 80% on iPhone 15 and newer) to slow down future wear.
If yours is below 80%, be honest — that’s a battery replacement, not a settings problem.
12. Use Dark Mode and Reduce Motion
Two small tweaks that add up. On iPhones with OLED screens (iPhone X and newer, except the SE), dark pixels are literally turned off — Dark Mode genuinely saves power.
- Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and select Dark.
- Then go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and turn on Reduce Motion — it disables the parallax and zoom animations.
Reduce Motion makes the phone feel snappier — animations are just work your processor does for no reason.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need all twelve. The three that matter most: turn off Background App Refresh, fix Location Services, and switch email to Fetch. Those three alone transformed my battery life.
A phone that lasts all day changes how you use it — no more anxious battery math at 4 PM. Twenty minutes well spent.