An unusual battery drain issue is one of the worst things to occur with your iPhone. This issue can persist even with the latest software update. It’s been hardly a month since iOS 16 has been released officially, yet there are reports of many battery drain issues from the general public.

So, are you running iOS 16 as well? Do you often find yourself with an empty iPhone battery even before the day ends? This comprehensive guide has more than 13 tips, tweaks, and solutions to save battery on iPhone with ease, running iOS 16 or any of the versions. Let’s take a look.

1. Turn off Location Services

Many apps like food delivery ones, cab service, maps, etc. need location access to function successfully. Other apps like Weather and system services also frequently access location in the background. In most normal situations, that’s okay.

But if the iPhone battery is too low, turning the location off will help it last longer. Here’s how.

  1. Open the Settings app, scroll down, and tap on Privacy.
  2. Tap on Location Services.

    Tap on Settings Privacy then Location Services on iPhone or iPad

  3. Turn off the toggle for Location Services.

    turn off location services on iphone

Note: Even on regular days, there is no point in giving locations access to all apps. You can tap on the app name and choose ‘Never.’

2. Remove unnecessary widgets from the Home Screen

Yes, iOS 16 has excellent widget support! But if you unnecessarily fill your iPhone Home screen with these, it can have a toll on the battery life.

This is because widgets (like Weather or News) constantly refresh data to serve you with the latest information. And this has an impact on the battery.

To remove a widget: Long press on it and choose Remove Widget → Remove.

long press on widget icon and tap on remove widget from iphone home screen

3. Use dark mode

Dark mode can significantly prolong the battery life on iPhones with an OLED display – iPhone X, XS, XS Max, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, iPhone 12 lineup, iPhone 13 lineup and iPhone 14 lineup (Sadly, iPhone XR, 11, SE 2020, and all other old iPhones use an LCD panel.)

  1. Open the Settings app and tap on Display & Brightness.
  2. Under APPEARANCE, tap on Dark.

    tap on display & brightness in iphone settings and select dark

Tips: You can also long-press on the Control Center’s vertical brightness slider to enable dark mode. Additionally, you may add its separate button to the Control Center. Like to use your voice? Ask Siri to enable or disable dark mode.

4. Disable Background App Refresh

This feature frequently refreshes app data in the background. Despite the great iOS optimization, Background App Refresh exerts a heavy load on the battery. Thus it is best to turn it off.

  1. Open the Settings app and tap on General.
  2. Tap on Background App Refresh.

    open settings tap on general and then tap on background app refresh on iphone

  3. Tap again on Background App Refresh, and on the next screen, choose Off.

    disable background app refresh on iphone

5. Turn on auto-brightness

By default, auto-brightness is on. But if you ever changed this, here’s how to double-check.

  1. Open the Settings app and tap on Accessibility.
  2. Tap on Display & Text Size.

    open settings tap on accessibility and then tap on display & text size on iphone

  3. Scroll to the end and ensure the toggle for Auto-Brightness is green.

    turn on iphone auto-brightness

6. Quit unnecessary apps

Several people have a bad habit of quitting every app frequently! Unnecessarily force closing an app and reopening it again, when performed multiple times, suck up more battery than average.

Thus, always quit only the app that misbehaves, is unresponsive, or which you do not need for a long time. That being said, here’s how to force close apps.

  1. On iPhone with Face ID, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and hold. If your iPhone has a Home button, double press it quickly.
  2. Drag the app card up to quit it.

    force quit app from app switcher on iphone

7. Restart your iPhone regularly

One easy way to make sure that things work correctly on your iPhone is to restart it regularly. Now, you may ask, ‘how regularly?’ Well! There is no fixed answer, but I like to restart my iPhone once every 2-3 days. This keeps everything smooth. Moreover, restarting it after updating to the latest iOS is also a recommendable action.

8. Place your iPhone face down

Did you know that when you put your iPhone with the screen down (facing the surface), the display does not light up when you receive a notification?

This saves the battery significantly. The good thing is you still hear the notification sound (and the vibration.)

Additionally, you may also choose to turn off app notifications for unnecessary apps like food or grocery delivery ones that spam with half a dozen useless alerts every day!

9. Disable automatic downloads and app updates

  1. Open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update → Automatic Updates.

    tap on general software update then automatic updates in settings on iphone

  2. Turn off the toggle for Download iOS Updates.

    turn off download ios updates on iphone

  3. Go back to the main Settings screen. Scroll down and tap on App Store.
  4. Under AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS, turn off the toggles for Apps and App Updates. Under MOBILE DATA, turn off Automatic Downloads. Also, tap on Video Autoplay and switch it off.

    disable app store auto updates on iphone

10. Enable Optimized Battery Charging

This feature reduces battery aging by learning from your charging routines and waits to juice up the battery after 80% until you need to use it.

For example, if you plug your iPhone into charging overnight every day at your house, it will learn your habit. Now, the phone will normally charge up to 80%. But after that, it will stop charging for the entire night and finish charging past 80% (that is, up to 100%) just before you need to use the iPhone – say early morning.

A notification will display on the screen that tells you when it is scheduled to finish charging. To charge it sooner, touch and hold the notification and tap on ‘Charge Now.’

On iOS 13 and later, Optimised Battery Charging is enabled by default. To double-check, open the Settings app → Battery → Battery Health → ensure Optimised Battery Charging is toggled on.

enable optimized battery charging on iphone

11. Turn on Low Power Mode

When the charge drops to 20%, you see a popup asking you to enable Low Power Mode.

You may also turn it ON whenever you need to cut down the battery-hogging tasks (mail fetch, background app refresh, automatic downloads, some visual effects, etc.) and maximize the backup.

1. Open the Settings app and tap on Battery.
2. Enable Low Power Mode.

turn on low power mode on iphone

More Info:

  • Add the button for Low Power Mode to the Control Center to enable or disable it quickly.
  • You may also ask Siri to turn this feature on or off.
  • After your iPhone charges up to 80%, LPM is disabled automatically.

12. Update your iPhone to the latest iOS version

If you constantly face poor battery backup, it’s time to update your iPhone to the latest iOS version.

It is appreciated that when an iOS version hogs battery abnormally, users are vocal about it on Apple’s feedback page and social media.

The Cupertino giant listens and, in the next update, patches things up. If you face degraded battery backup, download and install any pending iOS update, you have.

In the same tune, updating apps can also ensure better performance.

General tips to improve iPhone battery life in iOS 16

  • Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not needed. Make sure to use the Settings app instead of the Control Center.
  • Set auto-lock interval to 30 seconds: Open the Settings app → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → select 30 Seconds.
  • Turn on Reduce Motion: Open the Settings app → Accessibility → Motion → turn on the toggle for Reduce Motion.
  • Turn off dynamic wallpapers: Do not use a live or dynamic wallpaper. Instead, use a still image.
  • Use Airplane mode in low signal areas like while in train.
  • Turn off Raise to Wake on your iPhone: Open the Settings app → Display & Brightness → turn off Raise to Wake

These are some of the long-tested and trusted solutions to increase the iPhone battery life. I hope you followed the recommendations here according to your usage.

Before you go, I would like to let you know that you might experience lousy battery backup after installing a major generational update. This is because the latest version re-indexes the iPhone data so it can be available sensibly in the Spotlight Search. It consumes significant power. After the new iOS finishes indexing the content (usually 24-48 hours), your battery life will improve and get back to normal.