While iOS 8.0 has some great new features, some users who updated to the new version are experiencing battery drain issues. Apple’s operating system updates are known to cause minor battery issues, which are usually resolved quickly with the next update. Before iOS 8.0.1 comes out, you can take the following steps to extend the battery life of your iOS device.
(See also: How to extend battery life in iOS 7.1)
Check battery usage
The first thing you can do to reduce battery consumption is to close the apps that use your battery the most. We did experience fairly noticeable battery drain even when the device wasn’t in use, but turning off the battery hog will buy you some extra time. You can check this by:
- Settings > General > Usage > Battery usage.
- Now tap “Last 24 Hours” or “Last 7 Days” (if you just switched to iOS 8, you may see a different number, but the counter stops at 7 days) to see which apps are using the most battery.
- Based on what you see, you can take steps to reduce battery consumption. For example, if you find that Mail is consuming a lot of battery life due to background activity, you can change the background refresh settings, which we’ll discuss below.
(See also: NDTV Gadgets staff picks their favorite new iOS 8 features)
exhibit
Most of the battery of an iOS device is drained by the display. Here’s how to make sure your screen doesn’t use more power than it needs.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center.
- A slider above the music player helps control brightness. Slide it all the way to the left to keep it to a minimum. Indoors this should actually be good enough, but in bright areas you’ll need to adjust the settings to improve readability.
- The auto-brightness feature in iOS keeps the screen at the appropriate brightness level based on ambient light. However, it consumes a bit of battery power, and if you want to maximize battery life, you’ll want to set the brightness to its lowest setting and turn off auto-brightness. If the battery is low, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Brightness > Off.
- Make sure your device’s screen isn’t on for longer than it needs to be. Go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock. Now choose the minimum value – 1 minute on iPhone, 2 minutes on iPad.
- You can also turn off the cool parallax effect, which may not be as cool when the battery is drained. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Turn On.
(See also: How to upgrade to iOS 8 when you can’t install because it requires GB of storage)
wireless connection
When you’re outdoors, your iPhone or iPad is constantly switching from LTE to 3G and even to Edge. We’ve found that controlling mobile data usage can significantly extend battery life. Here’s what you can do.
- Go to Settings > Mobile. If you are using a WiFi network, you can toggle the “Mobile Data” switch to “Off.” There is an Enable LTE switch below Mobile Data. You can also turn it off unless you are one of the few people in India who currently has 4G access.
- Now scroll down to the heading “Using Mobile Data:”. This is a list of all apps that are allowed to use mobile data on iOS devices. There is an on/off switch next to each app. For apps that don’t require mobile data, you can turn them off. Most games don’t require it, nor do fitness apps.
- Under each app’s name, you’ll see how much mobile data it has used so far. Check the apps that use the most mobile data and see if you can disable it for those apps.
- You can also prevent apps from using mobile data to download updates. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Use Mobile Data > Turn Off.
- You can also turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, and AirDrop when you’re not using them. Doing this is easy – just swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center and turn off WiFi and Bluetooth. Tap AirDrop and select Close to close it. Remember to turn WiFi back on when you get home or arrive at the office.
(See also: Six iOS 8 extensions not to be missed)
location services
Another area that consumes a lot of power is the device’s GPS. Multiple apps want to access your location, resulting in almost constant battery drain. There are some cool new location options in iOS 8 that let you save battery. Check these steps to find out how.
- If you don’t want any apps to use your location, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Turn Off Location Services.
- If this doesn’t work for you, scroll down to the list of apps. In iOS 7, you can allow or block location access. In iOS 8, you can choose to only allow apps to access your location when you’re using them.
- In Settings > Privacy > Location Services, tap any app in the list. Most apps have three options: Never, While the app is in use, and Always. For apps, tap Never to disable location access; tap While the app is in use if you want the app to have location access when you’re actively using it.
- Go back to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and tap Share My Location. You can also disable this feature, but if you use the Find My Friends app to let friends and family know your location, we recommend leaving it on.
- You can also disable Find My iPhone from Settings > iCloud > Find My iPhone, but it’s a very useful anti-theft feature. So we recommend you to continue using it.
(See also: The best iOS 8 notification center widgets)
notify
Almost every app you install on iOS will ask for permission to send you notifications. Some of these can be very useful, such as transaction alerts on the app, but many are not. Whenever you receive a notification, your device’s screen turns on, plays a sound, and vibrates. All of these factors add up to shortened battery life.
- iOS 8 has a clever switch that lets you disable all notifications for any app. Follow the steps below to disable notifications.
- Go to Settings > Notifications.
- Scroll down and tap any app under the “Include:” header > toggle the Allow notifications switch to Off. You can disable game notifications without missing much, and you can turn off notifications for quite a few apps depending on which services are important to you.
- If you don’t want to disable notifications, you can use Do Not Disturb mode. Even if you receive a notification, your iOS device will not wake up. You can set this in Settings > Do Not Disturb. This might be useful, for example, if you’re in the office and don’t need to receive email notifications for the next few hours.
- Once set up, Do Not Disturb can be quickly accessed through Control Center. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and tap the moon icon.
- If you have push notifications enabled for email, you may want to reduce the frequency of alerts. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Get New Data. Turn off push. This means you’ll have to manually check your mail, but this should help extend battery life.
- Select each of your accounts and select “Manual” instead of “Get.” This way, the app downloads email, contact, and calendar updates only when you open the app, rather than doing it in the background.
- Scroll down to “FETCH”. If you’ve set up any account to get data automatically, you can set how often it refreshes. To save battery power, select Manual or Hourly.
(See also: Our Favorite Third-Party Keyboard Apps for iOS 8)
Background data usage
Many apps automatically update or download data in the background. Here’s how to disable the feature.
- If you don’t want apps to download data in the background, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Turn Off. This will prevent all apps from running in the background. If this isn’t an option, you can scroll down and close any app in the list.
- iOS 8 has a new feature called Handoff, which allows you to answer calls on your iPad or MacBook as long as they’re on the same WiFi network as your iPhone. It’s useful, but if you need the extra battery life, turn it off in Settings > Switches & Suggested Apps > Turn Off.
- You should also turn off automatic downloads of app updates to extend battery life. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store. Scroll down to Automatic downloads. Turn the switches for Music, Apps, Books, and Updates to “Off.” Scroll down to Suggested Apps and close the App Store.
- While we recommend that you set your device to automatically back up via iCloud, battery life will be longer if you back up via WiFi only. Go to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Use Mobile Data > Turn Off.
- Another rather extreme battery-saving option is Settings > Safari > Preload Popular Hits > Turn Off. This will prevent the browser from loading top websites from search results when you search in Safari. While the gains are small, they matter when you crave longer battery life.
(See also: How to Set Up Home Sharing in iOS 8 and Why It’s Super Useful)
Don’t let the device vibrate
When you’re at the office or at home, your phone probably isn’t in your pocket, and vibrating is just a waste of battery life. To turn them off, follow these steps:
- Open Settings > Sound > Ring Vibration > Off. If you prefer, you can also turn off Vibrate on Silent.
- If your battery problem is severe, you can disable the sound when the device locks and the click when typing. In Settings > Sounds, scroll all the way down and turn off Lock Sound and Keyboard Click Sound.
(See also: How to prevent photos from your iCloud account from being stolen)
This should satisfy everyone’s battery-saving needs, from those with mild complaints to those who regret downloading iOS 8 because their battery ran out. If we missed anything, please let us know in the comments. As always, you can find more tutorials in our How-To section.