Iphone 5 battery running down when not in use

4. Close Out Your Apps

iOS 9 App Switcher

Once every day or two, it’s a good idea to close out your apps. In a perfect world, you shouldn’t have to do this and most Apple employees will never say that you should. But the world of iPhones is not perfect – if it were, you wouldn’t be reading this article.

Iphone 5 battery running down when not in use

Don’t Apps Close When I Go Back To The Home Screen?

No, they don’t. They’re supposed to go into a “dormant” mode, loaded in memory so that when you reopen them, you pick up right where you left off. We don’t live in iPhone Utopia: It’s a fact that apps have bugs.

ads

A lot of battery drain issues occur when an app was supposed to close but didn’t. Instead, the app crashed in the background and your battery beings to drain without you even knowing it.

A crashing app can also cause your iPhone to get hot. If that’s happening to you, check out my article called Why Does My iPhone Get Hot?  to find out why and fix it for good.

How To Close Out Your Apps

Double-click the Home Button and you’ll see the iPhone App Switcher. The App Switcher allows you to see all the apps that are stored in the memory of your iPhone. To browse through the list, swipe left or right with your finger. I bet you’ll be surprised by how many apps are open!

To close an app, use your finger to swipe up on the app and push it off the top of the screen. Now you’ve really closed the app and it can’t drain your battery in the background. Closing out your apps never  deletes data or causes any negative side-effects – it can only help you get better battery life.

How Do I Know If Apps Have Been Crashing On My iPhone? Everything Seems Fine!

If you’d like proof, go to Settings -> Privacy -> Diagnostics & Usage -> Diagnostic & Usage Data. It’s not necessarily  a bad thing if an app is listed here, but if you see a lot of entries for the same app or any apps listed under LatestCrash. you might have a problem with that app.

5. Notifications: Only Use The Ones You Need

Notifications: OK or Don’t Allow?

We’ve all seen the question before when we open an app for the first time: “App  Would Like To Send You Push Notifications”, and we choose OK or Don’t Allow .  Few people realize how important it is to be careful about which apps you say OK to.

Iphone 5 battery running down when not in use

When you allow an app to send you Push Notifications, you’re giving that app permission to keep running in the background so that if something happens that you care about (like receiving a text message or your favorite team winning a game), that app can send you an alert to let you know.

Notifications are good, but they do drain battery life. We need to be notified when we receive text messages, but it’s important for us to choose which other apps are allowed to send us notifications.

How To Fix Notifications

Settings -> Notifications

Go to Settings -> Notifications and you’ll see a list of all your apps. Underneath the name of each app, you’ll see either Off or the kind of notifications that app is allowed to send you: Badges, Sounds, or Banners. Ignore the apps that say Off and take a look through the list. As you go, ask yourself this question: “Do I need to receive alerts from this app when it’s not open?”

If the answer is yes, leave everything as it is. It’s absolutely fine to allow some apps to notify you. If the answer is no, it’s a good idea to turn off notifications for that app.

To turn off notifications, tap the name of the app and turn off the switch next to Allow Notifications. There are other options in here too, but they don’t affect your iPhone’s battery life. It only matters if notifications are off or on.

Iphone 5 battery running down when not in use

6. Turn Off Your Phone Once A Week (The Right Way)

It’s a simple tip but important nonetheless: Turning your iPhone off and back on again once a week can resolve hidden battery-life issues that accumulate with time. Apple would never tell you that because in iPhone Utopia, it wouldn’t.

In the real world, powering off your iPhone can help resolve issues with apps that have crashed or other, more technical problems that can occur when any computer has been on for a long time.

A word of warning: Don’t hold down the power button and the home button at the same time to shut down your iPhone. This is called a ‘hard reset’, and should only be used when absolutely necessary. It’s akin to powering off a desktop computer by pulling the plug out of the wall.

How To Turn Off Your iPhone (The Right Way)

To power off your iPhone, press and hold the power button until “slide to power off” appears. Swipe the circular power icon across the screen with your finger and wait as your iPhone shuts down. It’s normal for the process to take several seconds. Next, turn your iPhone back on by pressing and holding the power button until you see the Apple logo appear.

Next, we’ll cover Background App Refresh  and you’ll  decide which apps can use your data to download content even when you’re not using them. You’ll save a lot of battery life (and some data) simply by choosing the ones you need. I’ll show you how .

Related posts

  • 5 Ways To Cut The Battery Drain On Your Android Phone Have you ever glanced at your Android phone halfway through the day, only to notice that the battery charge is already half gone and you...

  • iphone 4s battery percentage jumping around iPhone 4s battery percentage jumping around location: apple - date: February 12, 2012 Noticed this morning my phone shut off with 6% battery left....

  • Rumor: iPhone 5 Battery Bumped up 10 mAh What other tweaks does Apple have in store for the iPhone 5's battery life? VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN GALLERY An alleged new battery shot has leaked out for...

  • Weekly Mod: How to replace a battery in an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS If your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS is no longer holding a charge, and always running out of power, replacing the battery is a...

  • iPhone 4S gets torn down, reveals slightly bigger battery and Sony camera sensor You knew it was only a matter of time before iFixit got its hands on the new iPhone 4S and skillfully tore it...