how to fix battery drain iOS 7 battery life problems – how to fix battery drain

 iOS 7 iOS 7 is a significant upgrade to the iPhone series’s software. However, it does introduce a pretty serious problem – battery drain. Web browsing stamina tests have shown that it’s not just in our minds, either. iOS 7 really is a more power-hungry system than iOS 6. However, there are ways to mitigate iOS 7 battery drain. Follow these tips and tricks for better iPhone battery life.

 1. Restore the phone as a new device. The most certain way to solve any true battery life problem is by restoring your iPhone as a 'new phone'. Having to reinstall apps is a pain, but this move helps to solve all manner of performance and battery life issues. To factory reset the phone from the handset itself, go to Settings > General and scroll right down to the bottom, to the Reset item. There are options to reset all settings and reset the phone completely. The latter is more drastic, but is sure to flush out any gremlins. 

2. Turn it off and on again It’s a bit The IT Crowd, but it’s amazing how often we hear people complain about their iPhone misbehaving without even having tried to properly reset the thing. Rogue apps doing things they shouldn’t is a key reason for battery life issues in any phone, and a proper reset will fix this in many cases. iPhones aren’t really designed to be turned off all that often – and much as we expect you know how to do it, a long press on the power button (around three seconds) brings up a power off slider that turns the phone off properly. For a ‘hard’ software reset, press down on both the Home and power buttons until the screen goes black.

 3. Use the quick function toggles, a lot Turning off additional features is the top tip of any frugal battery fiend. iOS 7 makes this much easier than ever before. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll bring up the Control Center. At the top of this pop-up is an array of five circular icons that toggle features on and off – Airplane mode, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb and auto-rotate. Most people barely use Bluetooth – switch that bad boy right off – and turn Wi-Fi off when out and about unless you really need it. iOS 7 intermittently searches for new Wi-Fi networks, which is a drain on the battery.

 4. Turn down screen brightness, dummy As standard iPhones use automatic brightness, taking readings from an ambient light sensor on the phone’s front to determine how bright the IPS screen’s backlight need to be. However, you can still manually determine the base level of brightness while still using this clever sensor. You’ll find the slider (and the auto brightness toggle) in the Wallpapers & Brightness menu of Settings, and also in the Control Center menu, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

 5. Turning off AirDrop AirDrop is one of iOS’s brand new features.  It lets iPhone and Macs talk to each other directly, using Wi-Fi Direct. It’s a neat idea, but it drains battery by searching for nearby iPhones. In iOS devices that support the feature, you’ll find an AirDrop toggle in the Control Center pop-up menu, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

 6. Turn off elements of the Notifications menu Another new bit in iOS 7 is the pull-down notifications menu. As well as new emails, texts and so on, it can pull in stock market info. This requires the phone to pull it from the net, so it will drain a wee bit of battery. Plus, who really wants stock market info anyway? To turn off stock info within the Notifications bar, go to Settings > Notification Center. Here you’ll find toggles for calendar info, reminders and the stock ticker.

 7. Ease up on Mail notifications Push email is one of the joys of the modern smartphone, but easing up on the frequency of email checks will reduce strain on the battery. For the best battery stamina of all, turn off push emails and make the iPhone only search for new data when you manually search. You’ll find these options in Settings > Mail > Fetch New Data. Alternatively, you can set iOS 7 to search for mail every hour, every 30 minutes or every 15 minutes. 

8. Invest in a desk dock charger So simple it seems almost offensive to mention it, but charging your phone more often is a must with iOS 7. However, the key to this is making it easier to do so. We recommend investing in a desk charger dock if you work in an office, as it’ll make keeping your phone charged much less of a pain. Belkin makes a lovely-looking Lightning port charger dock that costs around £24 (search for 'Belkin Lightning dock' on Amazon), and will take an iPhone or iPad. Alternatively, if you can splash out a bit more and want a dock for the bedroom, the dinky Philips D3205 speaker dock - £80 from the Apple Store – is well worth a look.