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rockitdog

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 25, 2013
2,721
1,238
Just curious if anyone has any tips they can share with everyone for helping to extend their daily iPhone battery life. I've lost 30% battery in about 2 hours with low-moderate (HSPA+/ non-LTE) useage. Help tips would be greatly appreciate- thanks! :confused:
 

Ann P

macrumors 68020
Jun 29, 2009
2,311
9
California
buy another smart phone, razr maxx gives 2 days full use, bb q10 gets nearly 30+ hrs,

And this answers the question how? Smh.

On topic, going into Privacy > Location Services > System services and then turning off all options except for Cellular has helped me heaps.

Put your Mail accounts on manual and fetch if possible. Also found that turning Find My iPhone helps, if you don't use that service. Be sure to calibrate your battery at least once a month; run it down to 1-5% and all the way back to 100.

Looking forward to other tips!
 

aDRock1154

macrumors 65816
Nov 15, 2011
1,396
9
Ohio
And this answers the question how? Smh.

On topic, going into Privacy > Location Services > System services and then turning off all options except for Cellular has helped me heaps.

Put your Mail accounts on manual and fetch if possible. Also found that turning Find My iPhone helps, if you don't use that service. Be sure to calibrate your battery at least once a month; run it down to 1-5% and all the way back to 100.

Looking forward to other tips!

Have you had any issues with turning all of these off? I only had 2-3 turned off to help...
 

Pinkstiletto66

macrumors 6502a
Dec 12, 2010
501
1
New York City.
If Find my Iphone is off, wouldn't it now work if lets say you lose it? I turned off almost everything and it helps. I turn off data when not using it and it last long. Looking for a widget that makes doing that easier.
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Turn off everything in location services that you don't think needs to know your location.

Set email to fetch at the longest duration you feel is ok for your work/lifestyle.

Turn off all notifications you don't want.

Turn off all widgets (weather, stocks).

Set brightness to manual and the lowest you are comfortable with.

Turn things off you don't use like Bluetooth and wifi.

Siri > raise to speak off

Location services > system services > all off except cell network search (never had that effect my battery).

Most of all light usage. Keep the phone charged with a car charger so you don't have to worry about it as much.
 

Shockwave78

macrumors 65816
Jul 10, 2010
1,082
60
Learn how auto brigthness works..

You have to initially tailor it to each lighting level

When your outside in sunlight - set it
When your outside and cloudy - set it
When your in your house with lights on - set it
when your in a dark room - set it

This is how auto brightness works now, made a huge difference in battery life for me once i started doing this.
 

3rd Rock

macrumors 6502
Aug 10, 2012
459
1
Over here
Some tips to save Battery

Turn off LTE. Battery drainer.

Check your cell signal.

If you're in an area of weak signal, or at the edge of LTE or 3G support, your iPhone's radio could be screaming away on full power just trying to stay on the network, or switching between connection types, and wasting a lot of power. If you have bad reception, consider a micro-cell at home or at work. If you're at the edge of LTE, turn it off in Settings and stick with 3G until you get to a place with better coverage.


SIRI’s

Turn off Siri's Raise to Speak. Go to Settings, General, Siri. Readers keep telling us this has helped them with battery life due to accelerometer issues.


Kill power hungry apps.

Double-click the Home Button to activate the multitasking dock, hold your finger on an app to enter "jiggly" mode, and kill any apps that might be running in the background, especially VoIP (like Skype), streaming audio (like Pandora), or navigation (like TomTom).

Lower Screen Brightness

Use WiFi at home. However, turn off WiFi/4G LTE when out > Settings >
WiFi network > and toggle ON or OFF. WiFi on, but turn off "Ask to
join networks" part so it just connects when home.

Turn off anything in "Settings" that you don't use or need. Turn back on if needed

Do a Google search for any information to save battery on a iPhone 5
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
Learn how auto brigthness works..

You have to initially tailor it to each lighting level

When your outside in sunlight - set it
When your outside and cloudy - set it
When your in your house with lights on - set it
when your in a dark room - set it

This is how auto brightness works now, made a huge difference in battery life for me once i started doing this.

Can anyone confirm if this is true? If it is, I just learnt something new today.
 

Looon

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2009
685
2
I know this doesn't answer the question but its related: I've had 3 separate iphone 5's and had no issues with my battery even in low service areas
I actually switched back to it from a s3 because of the better battery and I really don't think that I'm so lucky that I somehow managed to get the only 3 iphone 5 units with great batteries so whats the deal?
 

JRoDDz

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2009
1,927
183
NYC
Have you had any issues with turning all of these off? I only had 2-3 turned off to help...


I have had these all turned OFF since iOS 6 came out. Have had no problems whatsoever. Turning anything on here just puts additional drain on your battery and helps Apple's crowd sourced traffic and cell network databases.
 

aDRock1154

macrumors 65816
Nov 15, 2011
1,396
9
Ohio
I have had these all turned OFF since iOS 6 came out. Have had no problems whatsoever. Turning anything on here just puts additional drain on your battery and helps Apple's crowd sourced traffic and cell network databases.

Makes me feel even better. I've had Setting Time Zone, Diagnostics and Usage, Location based iAds, and Genius turned off for a while.

I'll have to disable the rest on my wife's phone too. I'll do anything to get better usage.
 

iNotion

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2008
306
185
Singapore
If you turn off most of the iPhone5 features, what's the point of getting one in the 1st place?

I believed the latest firmware iOS 6.1.4 has something to do with my battery draining for no reason...
 

aDRock1154

macrumors 65816
Nov 15, 2011
1,396
9
Ohio
If you turn off most of the iPhone5 features, what's the point of getting one in the 1st place?

I believed the latest firmware iOS 6.1.4 has something to do with my battery draining for no reason...

Turning off some System Services is hardly most features. Everything else is on for me, although I feel like 6.1.4 made my battery worse also.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,454
21,841
Singapore
I basically just leave everything on; else what's the point of owning a smartphone?

If you are experiencing excessive drain, the problem could be some rogue app like Google Now or push notifications being enabled on multiple mail apps (do a hard reset or delete the app) or poor 3G (in which case turn it off or switch telcos).

I am not sure if calibrating your battery helps (drain to 0%, then charge back to 100%), but you could try that. Or at worse, get a morphie battery case?

Can't think of anything else that might impact battery life so excessively.
 

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Turning LTE off will have little to no effect in an iPhone 5. That is just disabling its use not its hardware. However if you are constantly switching between 3G and LTE or barely hanging onto a very week LTE signal then disabling it can help.

----------

I basically just leave everything on; else what's the point of owning a smartphone?

If you are experiencing excessive drain, the problem could be some rogue app like Google Now or push notifications being enabled on multiple mail apps (do a hard reset or delete the app) or poor 3G (in which case turn it off or switch telcos).

I am not sure if calibrating your battery helps (drain to 0%, then charge back to 100%), but you could try that. Or at worse, get a morphie battery case?

Can't think of anything else that might impact battery life so excessively.

Shouldnt really be any rogue apps that iOS won't suspend. If so its something you are purposely running or iOS is messed up and unable to suspend a task.

------------

Also I found closing apps from multitasking doesn't make a difference. I haven't closed any in about 2 weeks and there are 30 apps in there and my battery almost seems better then its been. That might be in my head but its certainly not worse.
 

JRoDDz

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2009
1,927
183
NYC
If you turn off most of the iPhone5 features, what's the point of getting one in the 1st place?

I believed the latest firmware iOS 6.1.4 has something to do with my battery draining for no reason...

Features? How is sending Apple traffic information a feature for you? Or sending them locations of cell sites? These are "features" I can do without and get better battery life.
 
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