Having battery drain issue on your iPhone 12 or iPhone 13? If you notice your iPhone 12/iPhone 13 battery is draining faster than it should, there could be several factors causing the problem.
In this article, we will look at some possible causes of battery drain on iPhone 12/iPhone 13 series and how to slow it down. Read on.
Tips to improve battery life on iPhone 12 & iPhone 13
1. Check on Battery Usage by Apps
Some apps can drain battery more than others and it is important to regularly monitor your apps battery usage to identify and keep a check on those apps that are using the most battery. Here’s how you can check your apps battery usage.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Battery
- Check on Battery Usage
Under Battery usage, you will see a list of your apps and their corresponding battery usage percentage. If you notice any abnormal battery usage, you might want to investigate further.
2. Enable Low Power Mode
If you notice your battery is running low and don’t have a charging source nearby, you can enable low power mode on your iPhone 12/iPhone 13 to get you through the day. When you turn on the low power mode, it will turn off certain features like Hey Siri, background activity, automatic downloads, mail fetch, etc to conserve battery life. To turn Low Power Mode on, here’s how you can do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Battery
- Tap on Low Power Mode and toggle it On
3. Enable Optimized Battery Charging
Your iPhone includes a feature called Optimized Battery Charging which helps reduce battery aging. This feature learns from your daily charging routine and delays charging your iPhone past 80% until you can use it. This will prevent battery wear and improve its lifespan by reducing the time your iPhone gets fully charged. Here’s how to turn this feature on.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Battery
- Tap on Battery Health
- Tap on Optimized Battery Charging and toggle it On
4. Reduce the number of Widgets
If you have lot of widgets running on your iPhone home screen, try disabling the ones you don’t need. These widgets continue to pull data in the background for updates and that can quickly drain the battery life.
Here’s how to disable widgets on your iPhone.
- Swipe to the right from the home screen
- Then scroll to the bottom until you see an Edit option
- Tap on Edit to bring up the list of widgets
- Tap on the minus sign against the widget you want to remove
- Finally, tap Remove to remove the widget
To remove widgets from the home screen, follow the steps below.
- Touch and hold the screen to enter Wiggle mode
- Tap the minus sign on widgets you’d like to remove
- Tap Done when you’re finished removing widgets
5. Turn off Background App Refresh
The Background App Refresh feature on your iPhone allows your apps to refresh in the background to update and show you latest information when you open them. Although, this can be useful in certain scenario but it can also drain the battery quickly. If you don’t need it, disable the feature.
Here’s how to turn off the Background App Refresh on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on General
- Tap on Background App Refresh
- Tap Background App Refresh again, then toggle it Off
If you want to disable Background App Refresh for only specific app, you can do so by selecting the app and turning the feature off for that app.
6. Turn on Low Data Mode
Your iPhone 12/iPhone 13 has a Low Data Mode feature that helps reduce data usage by apps. This can also help reduce battery usage as it prevents apps from syncing data in the background. To turn Low data mode on, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Cellular
- Tap on Cellular Data Options
- Tap on Data Mode
- Tap on Low Data Mode and toggle it On
Your iPhone 12/iPhone 13 will use 5G whenever it is available and that can have a huge impact on your battery. You may turn it off and use LTE instead if you want to conserve battery. To turn off 5G, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Cellular
- Tap on Cellular Data Options
- Tap on Voice & Data
- Select LTE to enable LTE mode instead of 5G
7. Disable Motion & Fitness Tracking
Your iPhone comes with a motion co-processor that tracks your steps, distance traveled and other movements. This feature is enabled by default and can impact the battery life. If you don’t need this feature, you can turn it off. Here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Privacy
- Tap on Motion & Fitness
- Tap on Fitness Tracking and toggle it Off
Below the Fitness Tracking, you will see a list of apps which have access to your motion and fitness activity. You might want to turn them off as well.
8. Disable Raise to Wake
The Raise to Wake feature on your iPhone is enabled by default and is used to turn your device screen on whenever you pick it up. Although, the feature can be useful but it can also cause your iPhone screen to constantly turn on even when you don’t need it to and that can definitely put a strain on your battery.
To turn off Raise to Wake on your iPhone, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Display & Brightness
- Tap on Raise to Wake and toggle it Off
9. Turn off Always Listen for Hey Siri
The Always Listen for Hey Siri feature allows you to invoke Siri even while your iPhone is locked, facing down or covered. However, this can drain your battery as the Siri is always listening for the phrase all the time. Alternatively, you can also press the Side button whenever you need to invoke Siri which is more efficient for battery saving.
If you want to turn off Always Listen for Hey Siri, here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Accessibility
- Scroll down and tap on Siri
- Tap on Always Listen for Hey Siri and toggle it Off
10. Turn off Email Push
Your iPhone’s Email Push service will check for new data and try to push it to you whenever new mails are available. This can eat up on your battery as your phone is always running in the background and checking for new data on the server. We recommend turning it off to save battery life. Here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Mail
- Tap on Accounts
- Tap on Fetch New Data
- Tap on Push and toggle it Off
- Then scroll down and select Manually so new mails are loaded only when you open the mail app
11. Manage location services
Location service is another feature that can eat up on your iPhone’s battery. Some apps require location service to personalize and show relevant information specific to your location and place. Yet, there are also apps that don’t need to know your location but still have access to the service. Ideally, you should turn off location service for such apps.
To manage location service for apps, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Privacy
- Tap on Location Services
- Under Share My Location, select the app and choose whether it can use your location Always, While Using the App, Ask Next Time or Never
- You can also choose to disable Precise Location for apps that does not need to know your exact location
12. Disable Sound Recognition
Sound recognition is a new feature on iOS 14 and later version devices and that includes your iPhone 12 and iPhone 13. With this featured enabled, your iPhone will continuously listen for sound in the background and notify you when it recognizes certain sound (such as Fire alarm, Cat sound, Door bell, Baby crying, etc) . If you don’t need it, turn it off to save some battery life.
Here’s how to turn off the Sound Recognition feature on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Accessibility
- Scroll down and tap on Sound Recognition
- Tap on Sound Recognition and toggle it Off
13. Limit Notifications for Apps
If you receive a lot of notifications, they could add up to your battery problem. We recommend turning them off, especially for apps that continuously keep sending alerts which are not important. You can also customize how you receive notifications. To do that, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Notifications
- Under Notification Style, select the app and choose whether to Allow Notifications or not
- If you have allowed notification, choose whether to show notification on your Lock screen, Notification Center, as a Banner, Sound or Badges.
14. Turn off Vibrations
If vibration is turned on your device, it will drain your battery as your device gets all worked up every time you get a message or a call.
If you don’t need it, here’s how to turn it off.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Sounds & Haptics
- Tap on Vibrate on Ring and toggle it Off
- Tap on Vibrate on Silent and toggle it Off
15. Turn on Reduce Motion
The iPhone user interface has a lot of cool animation effects that makes it fun and interesting to use the device. This transition effects can however, put a lot of strain on the processor and eat up on your battery. To turn on Reduce Motion, here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Accessibility
- Tap on Motion
- Tap on Reduce Motion and toggle it On
16. Use the Dark Mode
Your iPhone 12/iPhone 13 has a dark mode which basically changes your display into a darker theme. The dark mode is less straining on the eyes and can also help you save some battery as it uses less power compared to the light theme.
To enable dark mode, here’s how you can do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Display & Brightness
- Select Dark to apply
17. Turn on Airplane mode when signal reception is poor
When cell signal is low, your phone uses more power as it continuously searches for new tower to connect to and that can quickly drain your battery. We recommend turning on the Airplane mode to temporary disable all wireless connectivity features on the device to block the network scanning.
18. Update Apps/Software
Sometimes a bug in the app or a software can cause battery draining problem. Usually, such issues are fixed with new software updates. To check and update your update software, follow the steps below.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on General
- Tap on Software Update
- If update is available, tap on Download and Install to begin the update process
To updates apps, here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on App Store
- Tap on App Updates and toggle it On to allow your phone to automatically download and install updates when available
19. Disable WiFi, Bluetooth and Cellular data when not in used
Make sure you disable the WiFi, Bluetooth and Cellular data when you are not using them. Keeping these services enabled will keep the device scanning for signals in the background and that can quickly drain your battery. To turn these features off, here’s how to do that.
- Go to Settings
- Tap on Wi-Fi and toggle it Off
- Tap on Bluetooth and toggle it Off
- Tap on Cellular, then select Cellular Data and toggle it Off
20. Reset your iPhone
Sometimes updating to newer software can result in other issues that were not present before. If the battery drain issue started after a software update for you, try restoring your device to previous software version and see if that clears the problem. However, this procedure will erase all your data so perform a backup if possible before proceeding with the operation.
To reset your iPhone, follow the steps below.
- Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac using a USB lightning cable
- Launch iTunes on the computer
- Press and release the Volume Up button
- Press and release the Volume Down button
- Press and hold the Side Power button until the iPhone shuts off
- When the phone shuts off, continue to hold the Side Power button but now also press and hold the Volume down button
- Wait for 5 seconds and then release both the Side Power button and Volume Down button momentarily and press them again
- After sometime, you’ll see Apple logo appear on the screen. Continue to hold the buttons until you see the Recovery mode appear on the screen
- You will see a message that states “There is a problem with the iPhone that requires it to be updated or restored“. You’ll then be presented with options to update or restore your iPhone’s software
- Choose Restore
- Click Restore and Update
Your iPhone will now go into Recovery mode. It will erase all data and restore the device back to factory settings.