With our busy daily lives, commutes and unhealthy obsession with scrolling doom, one of the most important aspects of any iPhone is battery life. Whether you own the best iPhone on the market, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, or an older model like the iPhone 13, there’s always a need for longer battery life.
While those who need extra battery life are advised to purchase one of the best portable iPhone batteries, there is a simple iPhone setting that can make a significant difference to your smartphone’s battery life. Here’s how you can significantly extend your iPhone’s battery life by preventing power-hungry apps from constantly refreshing in the background.
How to disable background app refresh
The feature I’m talking about is called Background App Refresh which is enabled on iOS 17 by default and allows all your favorite apps to refresh while they’re not in use. This allows you to open Instagram and continue scrolling from where you left off or open Mail without needing to refresh your Inbox. Additionally, whether background app refresh is turned on or not, notifications still work as you’d expect and you’ll still benefit from the iPhone’s multitasking capabilities, meaning switching between apps is as consistent as ever.
- Open settings
- Touch In generalthen Background app refresh
- Touch Background app refreshthen Off
If you want to use Background App Refresh when you’re at home and near a charger, you can choose Wi-Fi instead of Wi-Fi & Mobile Data or Off. This means that your iPhone will still use Background App Refresh when it’s connected to Wi-Fi, but it won’t use the feature when you’re out and about on a 4G or 5G network. I think this option is the best of both worlds because it allows your iPhone to conserve some battery when you need it most, but also allows you to use your device to its full potential when you’re at home or at a coffee shop.
Manage background app refresh for specific apps
Another way to take advantage of Background App Refresh’s battery improvements without limiting some of your most-used apps is to toggle the feature on a per-app basis. Simply go back to the Background App Refresh menu and turn off apps you don’t want to refresh behind the scenes. This is a fantastic option if you have a lot of unnecessary apps on your iPhone, or apps that you might only use once every few weeks — I recommend going through the entire list of apps and keeping Background App Refresh only to software that you use all the time.
Turn this setting off to instantly improve your iPhone’s battery life
As someone who has disabled background app refresh in the past to extend battery life on my power-draining iPhone 14 Pro, this feature is a godsend. The best part about disabling background app refresh, be it partially or completely, is that I don’t think most people will notice any difference in the behavior of their device, but they will see an increase in battery life. I recommend enabling Background App Refresh for your most important apps and turning it off for social networks. Apps like Facebook and TikTok tend to run consistently in the background, and honestly, you’ll be shocked at how much battery it drains.