Jan 21, 2018
- 0 comment - By Oluchi Ezekwe

Possible Reasons Why Your Smart Phone's Battery Doesn't Last - Full Solution

Have you been having this problem of poor battery performance? Are you the type that has made power bank your second phone? If yes, then this article is for you.

I have taken my time to make research on the possible reasons why most smartphones don't last up to two days or even a day, and am about sharing my findings with my readers to enable them solve their own smartphone's battery wahala..

To squeeze more out of your smartphone battery, it is recommended that you wait until a certain percentage before plugging it in, unplug it when it’s fully charged and always store it at 50 percent.

We know, it doesn’t really matter how fancy or current your smartphone is, it is quite useless if the battery runs out faster. With all the things we can do with smartphones these days, making it last a full day is always a big challenge.

If your smartphone’s battery keeps getting red-lined before the day is even over, there are a few tweaks you can do to help it along.

There are many functions and Apps running on your phone that you don't really need and these Apps keep draining your battery. Turning most of these features off can do wonders to your battery life.

SHORTEN YOUR SCREEN TIMEOUT

A quick setting you could tweak is your screen timeout settings. The longer your screen is on when it’s idle, the more battery life it consumes. Try shortening your phone’s timeout setting to better efficiency since this will turn off the screen quicker when it is not in use.

To set your Auto-Lock settings on an iPhone, go to Settings >> Display & Brightness >> Auto-Lock >> then set your auto-lock duration. The shorter, the better.

For Android, again it depends on your device, but try going to Settings >> Display >> Screen Timeout to shorten your times.

TURN OFF MOBILE DATA WHEN NOT USING IT

Turning data off definitely saves battery, whether you are using 2G, 3G or 4G as there are many apps that keep using data in background which causes battery drain.

But if you want battery to work longer and keep mobile data ON , then you can restrict background data usage of Apps that you think might continuously use network to keep themselves updated (Like Social Networking App, News App, etc)

ALSO READ :- HOW TO STOP AUTO-RENEWAL OF DATA SUBSCRIPTIONS

TURN OFF YOUR LOCATION SERVICE

Using your phone’s GPS radios for location tracking is a big battery hog. You can disable your phone’s location services to save your battery from fast draining.

Obviously, location sensitive apps such as mapping/traffic guides, outdoor running/hiking workout trackers, and social media check-in apps like Facebook, Yelp or Foursquare will require location services to be turned on to take advantage of their specialized tracking features. If you don’t really care for or rarely use any of the location-based functions of these apps, then go ahead and turn off your phone’s general location services to save your battery. Most apps don’t need location tracking turned on all the time and some apps don’t need location tracking at all to function properly.

On iPhone, you can limit apps’ location access to “Never,” “While Using The App,” or “Always.” For most apps, “While Using the App” will be the best setting but you can always restrict it to “Never” if you feel that a particular app doesn’t need location info. With that said, having each app’s location set to “Always” will be one big battery killing mistake you want to avoid.

To check and modify an iPhone’s Location Services, open Settings >> Privacy >> Location Services. From here you could turn Location Services completely off by toggling the switch or scroll down and set the setting for each app.

For Android users, it depends on your Android version and device model but typically you can check an app’s location service by going to the Settings app >> Personal >> Location >> “Recent location requests.” To control your device’s location tracking go to Personal >> Location >> Mode >> then toggle “Location” to Off.

REDUCE YOUR SCREEN BRIGHTNESS

Your smartphone’s screen brightness actually plays a huge factor in prolonging your battery life. If you are a power user and you have it on full brightness all the time, then you’re probably losing two to three hours compared to having it on half brightness.

Setting your screen brightness to as low as you can go while preserving viewability is the best way to go for getting more usable hours from your phone. Turning on your smartphone’s Auto-Brightness so it will automatically adjust to the current ambient light is also recommended.

On iPhone, adjust your brightness setting by swiping up to access the control center then set the slider to the desired setting. You can also set the Brightness and turn on Auto-Brightness by going to Settings >> Display & Brightness.

On Android, go to Settings >> Display >> Brightness. You could slide to the desired setting here and also turn on “Automatic Brightness.”

BACKGROUND ACTIVITY APPS
Another setting that you need to check is background apps that are allowed to refresh even when the app is not in use. This allows certain apps to occasionally check your location, send push notifications, or automatically update its status. With all this background activity enabled, your battery life will surely take a big hit because of all the processes running hidden from plain view.

Similar to Location Services, it is advised that you review your settings and turn off Background App Refresh for apps that you don’t need to be constantly refreshing. Keep in mind that apps that may need background refresh include cloud backup services, step/activity tracking apps, and instant messenger apps, so be careful when selecting which ones you turn off. In general, though, turning off background activities for most apps will squeeze more life out of your battery.

To check Background Refresh on an iPhone go to Settings >> General>> Background App Refresh >> then either toggle the general Background App Refresh setting to Off or better yet, scroll down to select which apps you want it enabled.

On Android, without third-party apps, there’s no general toggle to stop background apps. To stop apps from running in the background, you can try force stopping an app by accessing Settings >> Apps >> Apps Manager >> then select the app to force stop it.

DON'T DRAIN YOUR BATTERY TO ZERO

To make your smartphone’s lithium-ion battery last longer, do not drain it down completely.

The lithium-ion batteries don’t have the “memory effect” that older nickel batteries were prone to have. Nickel batteries had to be drained completely because they tend to forget part of their total capacity if they’re not down to zero before recharging.

In lithium-ion batteries, it’s the exact opposite. If you drain a lithium-ion battery down to zero, you are actually diminishing its capacity so they advise to just manually turn your phone off before it “dies.”

TURN OFF VIBRATE & HAPTIC FEEDBACK

Switch off vibrate. Unless you really need that added awareness, turn off vibration alerts for incoming calls. It actually takes more power to vibrate your phone than it does to ring it. Turn off haptic feedback too (that buzz you get from typing on the keyboard). Sure it feels cool, but it doesn't really add anything to your experience, and it's another battery drainer.

ALWAYS TURN OFF APPS WHEN NOT IN USE

Closing the app by pressing the back or home buttons is not enough; the app may continue to run in the background and drain battery power. You should access your device's recent and background apps and shut them down manually. This will usually ensure they are not running in the background and using battery power.

SWITCH TO 2G DATA NETWORK

If you do not need access to high speed data, or there is no 3G or 4G network where you live, you can tell your device to only use 2G mobile networks. You will still have access to EDGE network data and WiFi if needed.

To switch to 2G, go to your device's Settings, and select "Wireless Controls." Scroll down to "Mobile Networks," and tap on "Use only 2G Networks."

DON'T USE AUTO SYNCHRONIZATION

Auto Synchronization uses background processes that can eat into both your mobile data use and battery life. To turn it off, go to Settings > Accounts. Tap the three vertical dots in the upper right corner and uncheck “Auto-sync data.” You can also manually adjust which apps sync and how frequently.

USE ADS FREE APPS

Not only are ads annoying, but ferrying that vibrant, eye-catching content to your device takes energy. Using apps that don’t use ads, or purchasing premium versions of apps that eschew ads, can drastically change how badly your battery takes a beating. If you use an app frequently, and it’s sucking up your phone’s life juice every day, consider upgrading or finding an ad-free alternative.

TURN OFF WiFi WHEN NOT IN USE

As with Bluetooth, your phone's Wi-Fi radio is a serious battery drainer. While you will at times need to use your home or office Wi-Fi connection rather than 3G or 4G for internet access and other data services, there's little point in leaving the Wi-Fi radio on when you're out and about. Toggle it off when you go out the door, and turn it back on only when you plan to use data services within range of your Wi-Fi network. Android users can add the Wi-Fi toggle widget to their home screen to make this a one-tap process, or swipe down from the top of the screen (twice if you have Lollipop.)

In iOS it's easier than ever to toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and off. Simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to display the Control Centre.

The exception to this rule is for location services, since Wi-Fi can help your phone to obtain a GPS fix using less power (see myths section below).

TURN OFF NON-ESSENTIAL NOTIFICATIONS

It seems as though almost every app now polls the internet in search of updates, news, messages, and other information. When it finds something, the app may chime, light up your screen and display a message, make your LED blink, or do all of the above. All of these things consume energy.

You probably don't want to turn off notifications about new text messages or missed calls, but turning off superfluous notifications will help your battery last a little longer, and it will eliminate pointless distractions throughout your day.

CHECK YOUR EMAIL MANUALLY

If you don’t need to know about every email or Tweet the very instant it happens, turning off push (where the server pings the phone with new events, keeping in constant contact) will reduce battery drain and data consumption.

On iOS, the best way is to deactivate those apps in the Notification Centre - though you might not remember to reinstate them. But if you really need to, go to the Notification Centre and choose “none” for the activation style.

On Android, turn off “Sync” by going into Settings –> Accounts and then tap each account you want to turn Sync off for. Once in each account, uncheck Sync. Google, Exchange, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote and many other accounts have Sync options. Users can still check their email manually by using the Gmail or applicable app and manually refreshing their email.

Some Android phones also have a Sync toggle in Quick Settings, which disables Sync for all accounts on the device.

POWER SAVING MOOD

Depending on your phone, you may find the manufacturer has provided power-saving features that go beyond anything available in Android by default. (Apple's iOS doesn't have a battery saving mode.)

Enabling a battery-saving mode manages the phone's various power-sapping features for you. It might, for example, prevent apps from updating in the background, dim your screen, reduce the screen timeout setting, disable on-screen animations, and turn off vibration. By default, this mode usually turns on when your battery level drops to 20 percent, but you can set it to kick in at 30 percent instead. And the sooner the phone switches to this power-saving mode, the longer its battery will last.

A few phones, notably from HTC and Samsung, have so-called extreme (or ultra) power saving modes. These turn everything off except those necessary for making phone calls and sending text messages (even turning the screen to black and white) and can add anything up to 24 hours of emegency use, even if your battery is down to 15 or 20 percent.

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Possible Reasons Why Your Smart Phone's Battery Doesn't Last - Full Solution

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