A simple change helps increase iPhone battery life

Called Background App Refresh, this setting is enabled by default on iOS 17 and helps users' favorite apps stay refreshed even when they're not using them. This way, users can open their favorite social media app and continue from where they left off the last time they used the app. Or the setting also allows users to open the Mail app and not have to refresh their inbox to see the latest email they have received.

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However, enabling Background App Refresh also means users are using battery life to keep these apps open and updated in the background. So turning them off will help save battery life for the device. To do this, users go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and switch it to Off.

This will take the user to a screen with three options. Choose off to maximize battery savings even though your apps will no longer update in the background. Select Wi-Fi to only update apps in the background when connected to Wi-Fi, allowing iPhone to save battery when out but will allow app updates in the background when connected to a Wi-Fi signal -Fi.

Finally there is the Wi-Fi & Cellular Data option. If you select this option, which is the default on iOS 17, apps will update in the background whether the user is connected to a cellular signal or Wi-Fi. This setting will use the most battery because apps will always update in the background.

Besides, when accessing the Background App Refresh page, users may notice that they can turn off individual apps to save battery.

Marvin Fry

Update 19 April 2024