What's YOUR best trick for battery life?

[hafr]

Sorry for the confusion, let me try again. There are three main things that reduce lithium ion cell life:

• Number of cyces (500 is ideal)
• Age since manufacter (they start to deteriorate before coming out of the factory)
• Time spent away from ideal/storage voltage (4.0 volts)

There’s not much to be done about cycles, its simply how much you need the device. There’s nothing to be done about age, its simply how long you’ve had it + how old it was when you bought it. But that last one can be helped. Lithium ion cells operate between about 3.0 and 4.2 volts. Depending on the nature of the particular chemestry and design of the device, 0% may be anywhere between 2.5v and 3.5v. 100% is 4.2v across most systems and chemestries. But all lithium ion cells prefer being around 4.0v most of the time. Above this voltage reduces cell life and below this voltage reduces cell life. Charging a cell to 4.1v instead of 4.2v, for example, can double the cell’s life while only sacrificing about 10% of the cell’s per charge runtime.

The problem is that Apple doesn’t offer a ‘charge to 4.0v’ option, nor even the ability to know which % shown equals 4.0v. When you plug it in before a trip, it charges to 4.2. When you leave your iPad plugged in over the weekend, it charges to and stays at 4.2 for a weekend. When you leave your MacBook plugged for an entire month, it charges to and stays at 4.2 for an entire month. The more you do this, the sooner and farther your cell's capacity will fall. To reduce exposure to 4.2v, I unplug my devices as soon as they are charged. Natural use then reduces time above 4.0 and increases time near 4.0.

The best trick for keeping a battery healthy is unplugging power as soon as you hit 100%.

I've got two iPod touch, 4th gen, that I bought at the same time. One has been in a dock since I bought it, always on, used pretty much daily. The other was used by my wife, no more than a few hours per week, never being charged even overnight, and almost never hitting 0 %. We went on holidays earlier this year and brought both (I never bring smartphones on holidays, I get too distracted and the kids suffer, but I still want to play games and such in the evenings ).

The one that had been in the dock kept a charge a lot better than the wife's.

I've got an MBP, bought in 2011, that is plugged in pretty much 24/7 and used as a desktop computer. It still lasts me a full working day (about six hours) in the library when I need to do research. 93 % battery health after 283 cycles according to CoconutBattery.

My old, trusty 3GS still has (according to iBackupBot) 90 % battery health (1081/1200) after 542 cycles, and I've always charged it overnight, and kept it in the charger when I'm at the desk.

I might be lucky, but in case it really was that bad to charge the phone overnight, wouldn't Apple advise against it?

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That's not really true either. While it might still have a bit to charge in that last 100%, it certainly isn't something that takes even close to 1 hour, nor is it an amount of charge that will result any real noticeable lengthening of ("per-charge") battery life.

According to iOS 6 (that still had the plug), it took about 20 minutes to charge to full after hitting 100 %. Doing this increases the time it takes for the meter to hit 99 % after taking it off the charger, so even if it doesn't make a huge difference at the end of the day, it's definitely something that can make one believe that it does.

 

[recklesslife85]

I usually have Twitter, Messages, Phone running in the background, yet my phone drains pretty quickly...

Is there a way to longate my battery life on iOS 7?

Thanks

Best trick is not to use the phone. No better battery life trick. Being serious, just use the phone and charge it when your near a mains even if its at 60% or more it doesn't matter.

 

[sbailey4]

That's not really true either. While it might still have a bit to charge in that last 100%, it certainly isn't something that takes even close to 1 hour, nor is it an amount of charge that will result any real noticeable lengthening of ("per-charge") battery life.

Well I challenge you to do the test. Charge to 100% then immediately unplug and see how long it takes to drop to 99 or less (just use standby to be fair). The do as I mentioned and try again. It will last longer if you allow it to stay on charge for a while longer past 100%. Some of those battery utilities will show you this as a visual (yeah yeah I know those things don't improve battery or make battery better etc etc.) But honestly you can see a difference if you leave it on a bit after 100% to fully charge it.

 

[C DM]

Well I challenge you to do the test. Charge to 100% then immediately unplug and see how long it takes to drop to 99 or less (just use standby to be fair). The do as I mentioned and try again. It will last longer if you allow it to stay on charge for a while longer past 100%. Some of those battery utilities will show you this as a visual (yeah yeah I know those things don't improve battery or make battery better etc etc.) But honestly you can see a difference if you leave it on a bit after 100% to fully charge it.

That's not really a test of much given that battery percentage is an estimate/approximation based on voltage and can be fluctuate even more between small percentage changes. A better measure (although still not exact as it can differ under different circumstances) is to unplug as soon as you get to 100% and use it that day until it dies vs. unplugging it some time after it hits 100% and using it the same way that day until it dies. All things being pretty much equal (although they never really are) it's not likely you will notice a meaningful difference, at least not really one that would be worthy of you worrying about unplugging it right after it hit 100% or some time later every time you charge the phone.

 

[iMas70]

I plug my phone in a lot. It's just a normal way of life. When I get in the car I plug it in. When I get home, I also plug it in. I try to keep the battery as close to 100% as possible so those times when I am away from a way to change it, I'll haven enough. But now, with the chargers being smaller than years ago, I carry a wall charger in my car. So if I really need to, I can just toss that and a cable in my pocket. There is always and outlet somewhere (unless your in the woods).

 

[OneMike]

Minimize apps running that are not being used.

 

[ajay96]

Used safari for a few mins, constant twitter refreshing, 3G always on with wifi for a half of the standby time. All on a 4S. I'm very pleased.

 

[jredecop]

my top tip :


Turn off the battery % and enjoy your iphone.

#

 

[sbailey4]

Image

Used safari for a few mins, constant twitter refreshing, 3G always on with wifi for a half of the standby time. All on a 4S. I'm very pleased.

Something a little fishy here. Why is there a 1 on the battery switch? Seems that may have been in a beta?

 

[wepiii]

I'm pretty happy with mine.

Background refresh off except Navigation Apps

Privacy/Location Services - Off for apps I don't need using GPS

Privacy/Location Services/ System Services - All off

Spotlight - All off

Notification Center - Only what I actually need in NC, everything else all off.

Everything else on...

 

[Oui]

The best trick for keeping a battery healthy is unplugging power as soon as you hit 100%.

Absolute false information here.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

 

[Carlanga]

location services and any backgrounding... brightness down also helps a good chunk

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The best trick for keeping a battery healthy is unplugging power as soon as you hit 100%.
....

This is not the 90s, you are wrong. Battery composition has changed, the more plugged in the better for capacity hold throughout the years. For someone that calls themselves ElectronGuru I'm disappointed.

 

[sunking101]

To preserve battery, these are my favorite tricks:

1) Turn off wifi
2) Turn off 3G/LTE
3) Turn brightness down to 0 and don't use auto brightness
4) Turn off all parallax and do not use live wallpaper
5) Turn off dynamic update/auto update apps/notifications
6) Turn off background app refresh
7) Don't use any GPS apps at all
8) Don't make phones calls on the iPhone
9) Do not facetime or iMessage period
10) Don't use any apps

iPhone should last nearly 24 hours this way! You're welcome!

You forgot to engage airplane mode too

 

[Blorzoga]

The best trick for keeping a battery healthy is unplugging power as soon as you hit 100%.

Tricks for elongating runtime on a given cell (as you've suggested) is about reducing load. Turn off as many antenna as you can, turn down screen brightness, and have as little going in the foreground and background as possible.

Unplugging at 100% has zero to do with (e)longating battery life.

 

[Cayennr]

Not leaving Skype or Google Maps running in the background, disabling parallax effect, removing unnecessary items from notification center, allowing only few apps to use location services. I get around 5 hours usage and around 15 hours standby on my iPhone 5, 3G and Wi-Fi, no LTE coverage where I live. Using for browsing the net, messaging, email, phone, reading. No gaming.

 

[dragonjinse]

Well I challenge you to do the test. Charge to 100% then immediately unplug and see how long it takes to drop to 99 or less (just use standby to be fair). The do as I mentioned and try again. It will last longer if you allow it to stay on charge for a while longer past 100%. Some of those battery utilities will show you this as a visual (yeah yeah I know those things don't improve battery or make battery better etc etc.) But honestly you can see a difference if you leave it on a bit after 100% to fully charge it.

I agree with this! Do it so many times!

 

[R.Stoychev]

My top tip :


Turn off the battery % and enjoy your iPhone.

The best tip I have ever read around here Thats right people should use their phones, not doing stupit things for 20 more min battery life

 

[dekadent]

Something a little fishy here. Why is there a 1 on the battery switch? Seems that may have been in a beta?

Very fishy indeed. Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> On/Off Labels

 

[C DM]

The best tip I have ever read around here Thats right people should use their phones, not doing stupit things for 20 more min battery life

Sometimes some of those things are not that stupid. Sometimes there is actually something that could be eating away at battery life quite a bit for some. Ignoring the issue won't get it resolved.

 

[inselstudent]

The best trick for keeping a battery healthy is unplugging power as soon as you hit 100%.

Don't think so. My iPhone 4, which I charged each night for roughly 6-11 hours was still perfect even after nearly 30 months of usage. Capacity was at 90% when I sold it a few days ago (that's what I describe as perfect anyway)

Tips for battery life:
Turn off services you don't use (location based stuff, Siri, refresh in background, Bluetooth)

Keep the light as low as it's still comfortable to use

And I also keep wifi on all the time, but it may be wiser in your case to turn it off if not needed or if you don't have wifi available anyway

 

[isprocket]

Each ios upgrade, each new phone Apple comes out with, this conversation about battery life is being talked about. Currently there may be two or three other threads about this same problem of battery life.
Apple, if your listening, put an end to the need for this reoccurring discussion by FIXING IT. Give us a bigger battery or a better operating system next time.
Apple's mission statement has always been focused on the "experience" of Apple product ownership. This is not the experience we hoped for.

 

[matt larsson]

This is the battery drain fix for 4s on ios 7

Network setting and sett it on manual instead of defult automatic net search .
Valaaaaa ....
There u go .
Enjoy this fix and pls let me know .

 

[ajay96]

Something a little fishy here. Why is there a 1 on the battery switch? Seems that may have been in a beta?

I have the on off labels turned on

 

[stepandy]

My iPhone's 5 battery under iOs 7 improved quite considerably compared to iOs6.

Under 6, battery would barely last 8-10 hrs whereas under 7 it would go 24 and the some.

I am not using my phone any differently after the update.

Go figure

 

[DeLoMan]

http://m.kiss107.com/articles/tech-news-478321/4-ways-to-increase-your-battery-11668330/

This seems to help:

"Now that you've installed iOS 7 with all of its new bells and whistles, you realize that new features come at a price - battery life. There is an extremely noticeable decrease in battery life based on consistent running of background processes.

To help you with having the newest software, and still having good battery life - we've put together 4 things you can do to help increase your battery life.

1) Disable Background Motion

The dynamic wallpapers and 3D parallax in iOS 7 are extremely visual effects, but also are very big battery killers. If you are willing to give us these two new effects, you will be on your way to a more efficient battery life.

Disable this by going into Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion



2) Stop Location Based Services

Almost every app you install will request access to your location. This along side location tracking, the compass, along with iAds for local advertisement placement all use the GPS to determine your location. They all also cause a decrease in battery life. Turning these features off, will make sure your phone isn't always trying to determine your location.

This is how you stop location based services: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services

Make sure Location-Based iAds, Popular Near Me, Compass Calibration, Diagnostics & Usage, and Traffic is turned off.



3) Background Application Refresh

In iOS 7 comes the addition of background application refresh, this allows some of your apps to automatically update themselves with you are not using them. It's a great feature if you hate updating your apps, but also causes your phone to always be pinging the app store to search for new updates. If you are willing to give up this feature you will increase your battery life.

Turn off this feature here: Settings > General > Background App Refresh



4) Disable AirDrop

AirDrop is the new file sharing option for iOS 7. It allows you to instantly drop files between any other iPhone 5, 5C, or 5S running iOS 7. While it is a handy feature, it is consistently looking for other devices that could be around you. This causes a much higher usage of your phone and battery.

Disable this feature open up the control center by swiping up from the bottom of your screen, click AirDrop, and then Off."