Building Up Your Battery Life

From our experience, battery life is one source of pain that we all experience in our day-to-day lives, in both our personal and professional hardware. So, we wanted to run down some tips and tricks that will help you maintain your device’s battery life and maximize the lifespan of the battery as well.

 iPhone:

Always keep your phone up to date. Often newer versions come with security patches and improved software that will help maintain battery life

Visit your phone’s Settings.  Apple’s latest iteration of iOS has a significant amount of battery usage information. By visiting Settings-Battery, you are provided guidance regarding your phone’s rapidly depleting battery. Along with “Screen Time” it’s a great view into your habits of how you use your phone and what behaviors tend to exhaust your battery.

Consider what apps you “really” need to be able to use data and tailor them in Settings-General. The information within Settings-Battery will show you apps that were using power in the background and are another great way to pinpoint some of the biggest drains on your battery.

Having “Hey Siri” enabled causes the voice assistant to always use a little bit of extra power. If you rarely use this hands-free version, you can disable it to save a little power.

Check in on what apps truly need to know your location. Often upon installing an app it may have asked to use these services. Is it important for Maps to know where you are? Yes, but that solitaire game that is just targeting ads at you could be a different story. Visit Settings-Privacy-Location Services to check on which apps you have given access to.

MacBook Portables:

Apple recommends keeping your version of macOS up to date as patches and software updates often include technology that will improve battery life.

Be sure to optimize your settings to achieve ideal battery life. Apple offers built in tools within System Preferences to maintain your battery and keep your laptop's battery lifespan to its maximum lifespan. Review your Energy Saver preferences and set screen sleep and screen brightness within a range that is usable, yet still preserving power for when you really need it.

On all devices be careful and don't overcharge your battery, and charge only when it is necessary. I’ve found that charging the battery when it’s necessary rather than preemptively will keep the lifespan of the battery to its full capacity.

Click here for more tips and tricks to enhance your productivity!