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Do you leave location services on?

The Game 161

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
31,451
20,686
UK
I've noticed i've left it on my ipad for a few days and not noticed much difference in battery life. Anybody tend to use stuff like apple maps? not sure if to use this or google maps as I found i haven't used apple maps in a while.

I always thought it would hurt battery life by alot having it on but don't think i've noticed a big difference.
 
I've also been wondering this same question, I've kept it on for a day and I haven't noticed much of a difference either on my iPhone 6.
 
Yeah, I enable it only for Maps, Google Maps, Waze, Uber, Find My iPhone and Dark Sky (a very localized short term weather app). My experience has been that leaving location services on runs the crap out of the battery but YMMV.
 
Just the name "Location Services" creeps the hell out of me. And I see no actual benefit in using it.
 
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No, I don't leave my Google maps open and online with location services so it can drain the battery.

I do leave location services on, but I limit which app can use it.

When I need Google maps to work, I turn it on for google maps.

I notice no difference in the ipad battery going down with it on or off.
 
Keeps location services on for selected apps, like weather app "living earth", google maps, safari, TripView, stock weather app.
Then, I use restriction to lock the settings so new app cannot automatically gain access to my locations, or keep asking for permission.
 
I leave it on. My iPhone is jailbroken and I have too many tweaks/apps needing location data (such as Forecast).

The default for Location Services is to check for location data every 15 minutes. It switches off when done. I routinely go to bed with no less than 80% of battery every day and I get up at 5:30am and go to bed between 10pm and 1am.

But I'm also not using my iPhone to stream video/music and play games so that may be the difference.
 
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Pakaku said:
Just the name "Location Services" creeps the hell out of me. And I see no actual benefit in using it.
Click to expand...
Well, it's not like maps and in particular navigation work all that well without that kind of thing.
 
i keep it on all the time now. i used to only turn it on when i needed it. maybe i'll try that and see if theres a difference in battery
 
I keep it on for most apps that have the "while using" option. Facebook seems to ignore that, I leave it off for that unless I want a location tied to a post such as a photo. I leave it off for some news apps and other apps that have location-based ads just for privacy.
 
Just a select few. Google maps, weather/radar, exercise apps, find my iPhones and some speed test apps.

Like others have said, if there is no option to limit use to only while using, it does not get turned on, like waze for example. Downloaded it, deleted it.
 
update: i turned location services off overnight and nothing changed with battery life.
 
I've never disabled location services on iOS devices. It doesn't seem to affect battery life like it sometimes can on Android devices.
Hal~9000 said:
For privacy reasons I only allow location services for the following:
- Maps
- Siri
- Find my iPhone

Everything else gets turned off.
Click to expand...
I allow a lot more apps than that access to my location, but I'm not stupid about it. Apps like Camera get access so I can see where I took pictures later on, Flixster so I don't have to manually search my zip code when I buy movie tickets, my speedometer app and Pokémon GO because that's the only way they work, etc.

Some apps that don't get access to my location are Dictionary, because why does a dictionary need to know where I am? Facebook, because I don't want my location getting attached to any of my posts allowing people to track me, and Shazam, for the same reason as Dictionary.

I also don't allow any apps to always have access to my location. They only get access while I'm in the app.
 
Have always been very selective on which Apps gets location services, never really had out of norm battery life. Would suggest to at the very least have location for Find My iPhone on.
 
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