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Jackster1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2015
7
0
Hi. I received an iPhone 5s for Christmas and am thrilled. However, I know that I won't use/need a lot of the apps that come installed on the phone. I'm new to the iPhone and I'm a basic cell phone user: make calls, send/receive texts, take pictures, internet, read books, and I would like it to sync with my iPad/MacBook Pro. That's about it. I don't play games or listen to music on a cell phone. I want to clean up/disable anything that is unnecessary for me that might use up battery time or run in the background, but I don't want to do something that will interfere with the phone's functionality. Can anyone direct me to a good site that will show me how to get my new iPhone down to the basics I need? Thanks much.
 
Hi. I received an iPhone 5s for Christmas and am thrilled. However, I know that I won't use/need a lot of the apps that come installed on the phone. I'm new to the iPhone and I'm a basic cell phone user: make calls, send/receive texts, take pictures, internet, read books, and I would like it to sync with my iPad/MacBook Pro. That's about it. I don't play games or listen to music on a cell phone. I want to clean up/disable anything that is unnecessary for me that might use up battery time or run in the background, but I don't want to do something that will interfere with the phone's functionality. Can anyone direct me to a good site that will show me how to get my new iPhone down to the basics I need? Thanks much.

You cannot remove any stock applications or 'disable' them.

However you can do the following to conserve battery:

1. Don't keep brightness on high...only put it as high as you need at that time.
2. Settings > General > Background App Refresh > OFF
3. Turn off all radios not being used...so if you aren't near wifi, turn it off. It will continue to search for networks in the background while on. (Same with other networks...if you aren't in an area that has LTE, turn it off...however if you have it available, turn it on as it can actually help battery life.)
4. Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Choose wisely what applications you allow to have your location. I have turned off ALL system services locations and have had no ill effects since doing so.
5. Settings > Notifications > Turn off notifications for things you don't use or don't need instant notifications for. I actually have most of my apps to just notify me of a notification via a badge...so I get a number badge on the app but nothing else.
6. I have parallax turned off on my wallpapers...you can easily do this by tapping the "perspective zoom: on/off" when setting your wallpaper. This will relax the movement of the wallpaper when tilting the phone around which can help with the battery life.
7. iCloud - only turn on what you use. I mainly use iCloud for contact backups, iCloud Drive since I have a MacBook, and to sync safari tabs, reminders, calendars, keychain, and find my iPhone. Everything else is off. I back up to my computer every once in a while, including photos.

Hope this helps!

:apple:
 
Every year apple likes to give us an extra app you can't get rid off:

iOS 1: weather and stocks
iOS 2: App Store
iOS 3: Compass App
iOS 4: Game Center
iOS 5: newsstand
iOS 6: Passbook
iOS 7: FaceTime as separate app
iOS 8: health

The best solution I found was to just make use of them. Looks like iOS 9 will bring some fitness apps you won't be able to remove.
 
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