How To Improve iPad Battery Life

Why your battery is draining and 8 tips to boost it.

If you’re noticing faster battery drain with your iPad than expected, you’re not alone. Here’s a look at 8 tips and tricks to understand why you might be seeing it drain quickly and how to improve iPad battery life.

Almost all iPads models come with 10-hour battery life when they’re new. But naturally, as a consumable component, battery capacity decreases over time.

What causes increased battery drain?

• Streaming video
• High background app activity or location services activity
• Using a cellular connection
• High screen brightness, long or “never” auto-lock time
• Using a new iPad more than normal checking out new features, cameras, etc.
• Downloading a large photo/video library is particularly draining
• iPad will run hotter when restoring and use more battery

There are many other factors at play, but these are some notable ones.

How to check iPad battery health.

The lower your battery capacity (health), the faster your iPad will drain, so it’s helpful to understand where your iPad is on that as a starting point.

iOS 16 features a “Battery Health & Charging” section in Settings that makes it easy to see iPhone’s current battery capacity (health). And it’s easy to check a MacBook’s battery health and charge cycles in System Settings and System Report.

However, Apple hasn’t brought that to iPadOS, at least not yet. There are a few ways to check your iPad’s battery health with third-party apps.

Two third-party apps to see iPad battery health and much more are coconutBattery 3 and iMazing 2 (both offer free and paid versions).

Alternatively, you could head to an Apple Store or see if Apple Support can run remote diagnostics on your iPad. There is also a roundabout way to see iPad battery health hidden in iPadOS Settings.

How to improve iPad battery life.

1. How are apps using battery

Head to Settings > Battery to check out the details of your battery usage. “Last 24 Hours” is the default and shows which apps are using the most energy (including Home & Lock Screen and Siri).

Tapping the “Last 10 Days” toggle on the right-hand side gives you a broader look at what’s eating up your power. Look for “Background Activity” under an app to learn if it’s been using energy behind the scenes.

Also, take a look at battery life suggestions (if available) just above battery usage near the top. This will give you quick, actionable ways to reduce battery drain.

2. Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode is a quick way to extend battery life. The feature works by suspending mail fetch, background app refresh, auto-downloads, and more with a single button. This isn’t an everyday-use feature, but it is handy.

You can turn on Low Power mode under Settings > Batteryor ask Siri to do it. And it’s useful to have quick access to Low Power Mode in Control Center. Navigate to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls, then tap the + icon next to Low Power Mode if it’s not already there.

3. Auto-Lock and screen brightness

If you notice “Home & Lock Screen” on your battery usage is higher than you’d expect, it’s good to check those settings. Auto-Lock at 30 seconds will help you preserve the most battery life. Navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock.

Lowering your screen brightness will also help with battery life, but this will come down to personal preference. You can do that in Control Center (swipe down from the top right corner) or Settings > Display & Brightness.

4. Magic Keyboard

Some iPad Pro users have complained over the years that the Magic Keyboard seems to drain battery faster than expected. Some have found if you leave your iPad Pro attached to the Magic Keyboard and open, it really drains battery fast on standby (usually from 80% to dead in less than two days). But if it’s closed, it preserves battery much closer to your expectations.

5. Hot and cold temps

Apple says the ambient temperature “comfort zone for iPad is 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C). Temps above 95° F (35° C) have the potential to “permanently damage battery capacity.” Outside of keeping your iPad from extreme heat, it’s good to remove your iPad case if you notice it gets hot while charging or restoring from a backup. Meanwhile, temperatures below 32° F (0 ° C) can temporarily reduce battery life.

6. Background app refresh

Low Power Mode turns off background app refresh across the board, but you can customize which apps use this feature for a more convenient experience as well as improved battery life. Head to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

You can also opt to only use background app refresh on Wi-Fi in addition to Wi-Fi and Cellular or turn the feature off totally. However, most users will find leaving Wi-Fi and Cellular on while customizing which apps are used for background app refresh to be the best fit. Turning off Background App Refresh prevents apps that you’re not actively using from updating (until you open them again).

7. Location services and cellular

Dialing in your location services settings is another way to extend battery life. (It can reduce cellular data use too). Head to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services to update the privileges for your apps.

Look out for any apps that ask to Always use your location and switch to While Using, Ask Next Time, or Never. Likewise, if you’re using a cellular connection with your iPad, that will drain battery more quickly.

8. Push and Fetch

If you choose not to use Low Power Mode, you can manually control Push and Fetch for your email/internet accounts. Head to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data. One approach is to leave your primary account(s) as push to receive new mail asap, and turn less important accounts to fetch every hour or even set them to manual.

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These Apps Cause Biggest Battery Drain

Even though mobile phones released in the last few years have larger batteries, there seems always to be something that drains them faster than before. A recent update to Apple’s operating system caused battery issues.

But it isn’t always internal hardware that is to blame. Phones are jam-packed with applications that run in the background, sapping battery life without your knowledge. There are a few things that you can do about it, but there is one category of apps that is a significant culprit.

Many apps operate in the background, even when your smartphone is locked. For example, applications such as Gmail periodically check for new messages or updates.

But according to Apple experts, the one type of app that drains more battery power than others is social media. It is not the app itself that runs your phone flat, but your social media behavior. Most people check Twitter, Facebook or Instagram several times a day.

The unlocking, scrolling, refreshing and watching embedded videos contribute to battery drainage faster than usual. According to a 2021 study by Pew Research, 72% of adult Americans have at least one social media account. And 70% said they use Facebook daily, while 59% said they use Snapchat or Instagram daily.

Last year cloud computing company pCloud set out to find which iOS and Android apps are the biggest offenders. By looking at the functions used by the app, battery drainage under regular use, and whether a dark mode is available, the culprits soon emerged.

Six of the top 20 apps are social media related, with Facebook taking the top spot. According to pCloud, Facebook can constitute up to 82% of battery usage, while Instagram, Snapchat and Tinder can make up more than 70%. Twitter ranked 25th on its list.

The average time spent on these apps climbed from 26 minutes in 2016 to 147 minutes per day in 2021. Several factors contribute to the battery’s depletion. Apps like Facebook and Twitter use a constant Wi-Fi or mobile data connection to check for updates and load content. Location tracking is also activated to know where you are. Unfortunately, most of this happens in the background and uses battery power.

If you want better battery life, your best bet is to remove apps that you no longer use or are known to be massive battery drains. Here’s how to remove them properly.

Removing apps on iPhone:
Touch and hold an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App > Delete.

You can also use the App Library, introduced in iOS 14, to get a curated list of your apps grouped by category. Swipe past the last page of your Home screen to access it. Tap and hold the app, then select Delete App > Delete.>

Removing apps on Android:
Long-press an app, then tap App Info > Uninstall.
Go to Settings > Apps & Notifications to see a list of your apps and delete them the same way.

Or you can open the Google Play Store app and navigate to Menu > My apps & games. Tap on the app and hit Uninstall.

Note: Samsung and OnePlus phones have an Uninstall option under the app shortcuts menu.

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The 7 Best Ways To Extend Your iPhone’s Battery Life

Apple Bytes: 

One basic fact of life with an iPhone hasn’t changed in the phone’s 14-year history: If you’re on your phone all day, every day, you run the risk of seeing its power gauge run all the way down to zero.

Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to extend the battery life of your iPhone. Here’s a look at a handful of the most helpful for phones running iOS 14 and above.

Tweak the Background App Refresh setting

Most of the apps on your phone connect to some sort of server somewhere to send and receive data.

But do you really need that crossword app to check for new puzzles every hour? Each of those little pings from each of your apps can affect battery life. The Background App Refresh setting lets you choose which apps can connect when you’re not actively using them and which can’t.

To access it, head into the Settings menu, then General, then Background App Refresh.

Now, from here, you can just go nuclear and turn refreshing off across the board or pick and choose which apps you’d like to allow to refresh in the background. You’ll probably want to let certain apps keep doing their thing (email, for example) but the less refreshing that’s being done, the better your battery life will be.

Disable some push notifications

Another way to save battery life is to turn off push notifications for certain apps. To do that, head into Settings and then choose Notifications.

From here, behold all the apps that want to send you "helpful" messages. Aside from actual messages from the likes of your email, video-chat, and texting apps, you can safely turn a lot of these off. And again, the more you disable, the more your battery life could improve.

Get used to Dark Mode

Dark Mode may be one of the biggest battery savers on this list because every time your phone has to display something white or otherwise light in color, it uses energy to brighten the screen.

With Dark Mode, much of the user interface for iOS itself and compatible apps will leverage power-sipping dark tones that don’t require as much energy from the screen. It can take a bit of getting used to at first, then again, plenty of folks prefer it on purely aesthetic grounds.

You can enable Dark Mode under Settings, then Display & Brightness. Simply choose it to use it all the time, or you can toggle the “automatic” setting to have Dark Mode come on at a certain time each day.

Location, location, location

Another big battery buster: location services. To see which apps know where you are, go to Settings, then Privacy, and tap Location Services.

From here, apps that want to use your location will have three settings: Never, While Using, and Always. Grant “Always” permission sparingly. It’s a battery hog, and few apps need to know where you are at all times.

For apps that would benefit from your location, say a shopping app that wants to show you where the nearest brick-and-mortar store is located, consider the “While Using” setting. That way, the app will only check your location while you’re actively using it.

Minimize the Auto-Lock time

The longer your screen is turned off, the less battery it’s using, so consider forcing your screen to turn off as quickly as possible.

To do that, tweak the Auto-Lock setting by heading into Settings, then Display & Brightness, then Auto-Lock, and setting it to 30 seconds if it’s not already there.

It’s also helpful to get into the habit of pressing the big button on the right side of your phone as soon as you’re done using it. That’ll put your phone to sleep right away instead of waiting for the Auto-Lock feature to kick in.

Enable Low Power Mode

If you’re really in a pickle, head into Settings, then Battery, and turn on Low Power Mode.

This is no way to live on a day-to-day basis, as it saves juice by cutting back on data connections and interface niceties. But it works well in a pinch if your battery’s on its last legs and you’re waiting on an important call or text message.

Review your Battery life suggestions

Once you’ve got all your battery-saving improvements set up, make sure to check for suggestions in the Settings > Battery menu.

If there’s a suggestion for you, it’ll show up underneath the Low Power Mode toggle. If there’s nothing there, then you have no suggestions. Good for you! You can, however, scroll down a bit to see how your battery is being affected on an app-by-app basis. If you notice any apps eating up an inordinate amount of power, take a closer look to see if they’re requesting your location too often or sending out too many notifications. If you’re not using any of them, you might go ahead and uninstall them.

You can also tap into the Battery Health menu here, which will show you the state of your battery’s maximum capacity relative to when you first got your phone. If you’ve had your phone a while, it’s possible that—despite some or all of these battery-saving techniques, your battery is just wearing out. In that case, it might be time for a battery replacement from Apple or a third-party repair shop.

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Maximize Battery Life

Apple Bytes

Battery life of a device can be critical for many individuals. Many consumers want to maximize the battery life and lifespan of these gadgets so they can do more with them.

Apple has devoted a web page laying out a few tips to improve the battery life and battery lifespan of iPhone, iPad and other iDevices. That information also applies to other brands and devices using the lithium-ion battery.

A detailed explanation of the below tips is found on the Apple Users Group website at the following link: appleusersgroup/maximize-battery-life

Maximize Battery Life

1. Update Your Device To The Latest Software
2. Avoid Exposing Your Device To High Temperatures
3. Remove The Device’s Case When Charging
4. Charge It Around 50 Percent When Storing The Device
5. Optimize Your Device’s Settings
6. Activate Your Device’s Low Power Mode
7. Check Out Your Battery Usage

Credit: apple.com