Now that iOS 7 has rolled out to the general public, with an overwhelming fit of mass hysteria, it's only custom for people to start bitching about battery drain—and I don't blame them. I was experiencing some rapid battery drain after first updating my iPhone 5, as well.
Not to worry. If you've just updated your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to iOS 7 and want to know all the ways to keep your battery from draining, we've got you covered.
1. Turn Off Location Services
For some apps, having Locations Services turned on is necessary. Without it turned on, Instagram wouldn't be able to tag the location of your photos and Yelp wouldn't be able to guide you to the nearest Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, using Location Services is also the biggest culprit of battery drain.
Though I wouldn't recommend turning it off for Yelp or Maps, you should disable it for ones that won't hinder the app's functionality, or for apps you rarely use.
To disable it, head over to Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services and turn off all of the ones you want. I turned off location services for quite a few, such as ClassicToy, Day One, Passbook, etc.
The less applications with location services, the better. Hell, you can even turn off Location Services completely if you want for maximum battery life.
2. Disable Other System Services That Use GPS
While you're in Locations Services, there are a few other things you should change besides just what apps can track your location. In the Locations Services menu, scroll all the way down and select System Services.
Now turn off any of the settings you don't really need.
I recommend disabling the following.
- Diagnostics & Usage (reports errors and problems to Apple)
- Location-based iAds (provides advertising based on where you are)
- Popular Near Me (shows popular events in your notifications from your friends on Facebook and Twitter)
- Setting Time Zone (if you don't travel often, you won't really need this then)
- Wi-Fi Networking (figures out your location via Wi-Fi hotspots when you don't have service)
- Frequent Locations (records places that you visit often, in order to improve maps)
- Status Bar Icon (just shows an icon in the status bar when one of the services is using your location)
3. Disable the Parallax Effect
The parallax effect, which creates a multi-layered illusion on your home screen, is pretty cool—but do you really need it? If you want to save some battery, disable it. Head over to Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion and turn it ON.
4. Don't Leave AirDrop on for Too Long
While AirDrop is a great feature to share pictures, contacts, notes, and more between to iDevices, it can be a battery waster if you're not using it. AirDrop requires BOTH Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to be turned on, but both of those will kill battery life.
Only keep AirDrop on when you share something, then turn it off right after. Keeping it on just drains battery, as it needs other battery draining features to work.
5. Turn Off Bluetooth & Wi-Fi When You Don't Need Them
Now that you've disabled AirDrop, make sure you kill Bluetooth and Wi-Fi whenever you don't need them. Thanks to the new Control Center, they're super fast to toggle on and off.
6. Close Out Running Applications
Apple claims that when apps are not being used, that they use little or no processes in the background, but if you ask me, force-closing apps still greatly improves battery life and frees up some memory. Plus, it's the only way to really kill an unresponsive app.
To completely close out running apps in iOS 7, all you have to do is double tap the Home button to bring up the multitasking view, then swipe up on the screenshot of the app you want to exit. The app will fly off the screen, and release its resources to the OS.
7. Don't Use Dynamic Wallpapers
In addition to new sounds, iOS 7 also brings dynamic wallpapers into the mix. These dynamic wallpapers are animated, with bubbles that appear and disappear, as well as change size, over time. Surely these wallpapers suck up some battery, so don't use them.
No matter how pretty they may look.
8. Monitor Data Usage & Disable Resource Hogging Apps
With this feature, embedded deep in the settings, you can monitor how much data the apps on your device are using. Not only that, but you can disable data usage for an individual app in case it's sucking up too much of that precious data and battery.
To monitor your iPhone's data usage, head over to Settings -> Cellular and scroll down to Use Cellular Data For. From there, you'll see all the downloaded apps (as well as stock apps) and how much cellular data each app has used. To turn off the cellular data, just turn the green toggle next to the application off.
9. Disable Notification Center Options
If you don't invest, why do you need the Stocks showing up in your Notification Center? All that it's doing is wasting precious battery every time you open the Notification Center. So, go to Settings -> Notification Center and disable it, along with anything else you don't want or need showing up there, including apps.
Other Quick Battery Saving Tips...
If you still happen to have some of these battery drain problems, try out some of these other common solutions that have worked for previous iOS versions.
- Disable Siri. Siri sucks up an absurd amount of battery, so if you don't use her much, just disable it from Settings -> General -> Siri.
- Do a reset. That's when you hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake button together until you see the Apple logo. Release, then wait for the phone to boot back up. Usually this will fix battery issues, especially after a new update.
- Turn off Cellular Data . Wait until the battery goes back to normal (or at least 24 hours), then turn it back on again.
- Turn Brightness down. I know this may seem like common sense at this point, but many people keep brightness at 100% the entire day. That's never good for your battery. And now it's super easy to change in the Control Center, so there's no excuse.
Got any other battery saving tips? Share them with us in the comments below.
More iOS 7 Tips!
There's a lot to learn about the new iOS 7 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, so make sure to visit our iOS 7 tips section to explore all of the new features and hidden tricks. Also make sure to check out the 15 most annoying things, 18 coolest new features, and 18 sneaky privacy-betraying settings in iOS 7 that every iPhone user should know about.
Just updated your iPhone to iOS 18? You'll find a ton of hot new features for some of your most-used Apple apps. Dive in and see for yourself:
14 Comments
not overly impressed with ios7. they really needed to give option of changing the look. i'm having issues with the keyboard color- i know this isnt a huge deal to some people, but i have eye issues and i liked the darker background aginst the keyboard. wish we could change the color of that w/o inverting colors.
also, the backgrounds fr my camera are made to fit iphone 5- you cannot scale them down.
Just plain shut down everything, put the brick formerly known as iPad or iPhone in a shelter, and walk away - alive and present and free
I disabled siri......how do I ENABLE siri back??
Go to Settings -> General -> Siri and make sure she's turned on.
I found a trick on the Apple boards for making your photos work correctly as a background: look at the chosen photo in your photo app, tap the image once (to make it show as an all-black background around it), then do a screen shot of the image. Voila! It'll be the right size when you choose the screen shot for your background.
Yes, you could do that, but then when you move your device around you might see black borders appear on the edges. The best way is to take square photos with the main subject in the center, or to just disable the parallax effect. For more info, check out our complete guide to iOS 7 wallpapers.
Craziness to go through all this to save some battery. It's like having an Android all over again.
I HATE the iOS7. I never had any problems with my iPAD until now, after upgrading to the iOS 7. Now my battery rapidly drains down to zero, and I can't turn it on until it gets some charge back in. It used to hold charge for a long time. I'm not doing anything differently.
Plus, the graphics are too light, I like more contrast.
In all, I think iOS 7 is a much worse system than the iOS 6. Bring back iOS 6! Or, at least come up with something better than iOS 7.
Generally, I've liked iOS7, but my dad is locked out of his iPad2 and can't get back in. He doesn't remember setting up a passcode during the update and yet is required to put one in to get back into his device. He's gotten the message that the device is disabled and doesn't know what to do to rectify this. He lives in a rural area and can't just run into an Apple store for help. I didn't have this problem because I remembered the passcode I use on the 30 devices I use in my classroom. Does anyone know how to get past this road block. Dad would like to throw the iPad against the wall or use an axe on it.
I agree completely with Laura Kahn. Bye, battery is off! Paolo (Italy)
I have an iphone 5, my problem with IOS 7 is that my battery drains very fast down to 4 or 5 % but when I plug it in, it immediately shows 22 or 23 %. after updating to IOS 7 it can't hold more than 6 or 7 hours a day when not on dock, and like Laura said I'm not doing anything differently - before my battery lasted all day, even more.
I've got an iPhone 5, after updating i just got 4 hours of battery life. after some testing i found out that it is just a software problem with the update and there is a simple fix for it, for me iOS 7 has a much greater battery life than iOS 6
so here is how to fix it
Now the fast battery drainage problem on the iPhone 5 after updating to iOS 7 should be fixed! this work fine for me and for many friends of mine
my battery lasts for 7 hours chatting in whatsapp and kik and surfing safari, plus 20 hours standby now, and thats more than iOS 6
i hope i could help u with this:)
I followed the advice at the top of this post - but not a jot of difference to battery.
1) Is it possible to revert to IOS 6 in the way you can revert to a previous browser version on a pc?
2) Will the method described immediately above work for to a mini iPad too.
Any help appreciated. Thanks Patsy
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