Ex-Apple Genius reveals 8 ways to extend your iPhone battery

Battery drain has always been one of smartphone users' biggest bugbears, and since the launch of Apple's iOS 7.1 mobile operating system last month, a number of iPhone users have compained about poor battery life.

According to former Apple Genius Bar worker Scotty Loveless, most of the time it is not iOS itself that is causing the iPhone's battery to drain quickly, but all the apps that are running on it. However, he does not believe the answer to the problem is to turn all the apps off.

Loveless explained in a blog post that his tips are based on years of research and anecdotal evidence he gathered in the hundreds of Genius Bar appointments he took during his time as a Genius and iOS technician, as well as testing on his personal devices and the devices of his friends.

"I guarantee you that if you erased your phone and there were no apps or email on it, it would last for ages. But, no one uses their device like that, nor should they. Hopefully with these steps you will be living in iOS battery bliss while still using all the apps and features you love," he said.

The first thing to do is check your Usage and Standby times under Settings > General > Usage. The Usage time is how long you have used your device since the last charge, and Standby is the total time since the last charge.

Loveless said that Usage time should be significantly lower than Standby time, unless you have been using your device every second you have had it unplugged. If this is not the case, you have a problem.

You can futher test this by making a note of the Usage and Standby times, and then putting the device to sleep for five minutes. When you come back, take note of the change in times.

If your device is sleeping properly, the Standby time should have increased by five minutes and your Usage time by less than a minute. If your Usage time has risen by more than a minute, something is keeping your device from sleeping properly.

If it turns out that you do have a problem, here are Loveless's tips for reducing battery drain:

1. Disable location and background app refresh for Facebook

The Facebook app for iPhone consumes a huge amount of memory and processing power, even when you're not using it. Turning off background app refresh can actually cause your battery percentage to increase.

2. Disable background app refresh for apps you don't care about

Background App Refresh was a feature added in iOS 7, to allow apps to check for new content and download updates even when they're not running. However, it can use up a lot of power, and you don't necessarily need it running for every app that supports it.

3. Stop quitting your apps in multitasking

Most people tell you that closing your apps will save your battery life because it keeps the apps from running in the background. However, this can actually make your battery life worse if you do it on a regular basis.

By closing the app, you take the app out of the phone's RAM, so when you open it again your device has to load it back into memory all over again. All of that loading and unloading puts more stress on your device than just leaving it alone.

The truth is, apps in your multitasking menu are not running in the background at all: iOS freezes them where you last left the app. Unless you have enabled Background App Refresh, most of your apps are not allowed to run in the background.

4. Disable push email temporarily

Push email allows your device to receive instant notifications every time you get an email. It is great if you need to know when every single email comes in, but does impact battery if configured incorrectly.

Try changing the setting to fetch emails every hour, thirty minutes, or fifteen minutes and see if the drain stops. You could also trying disabling Push on individual accounts if you have multiple.

5. Disable push notifications for apps that annoy you

Every time you get a push notification, your phone wakes from sleep for 5 to 10 seconds to light up your screen and wait for your potential action upon each notification. If you receive 50 notifications during the day and never act on them, that will add 4 to 8 minutes to your Usage time.

6. Turn off battery percentage

People that are anxious about their iOS device battery life are constantly checking it to see the percentage and how much it has dropped from the last time they checked it. So if you check your device twice as much, simply to check on the battery life, you are essentially halving the time your device will last.

7. Enable airplane mode in areas of poor cellular service

When the iPhone detects that you are in a place of low signal, it will increase the power to the antenna in order to stay connected enough to receive calls and maintain a data connection. This will destroy your battery life if you are constantly in a location with one bar or no service at all.

If you still need to receive calls there is nothing you can do, but if your service is so poor that you can't receive calls anyway, turn on Airplane mode. You can then turn Wi-fi back on if you need to.

8. Go to an Apple retail store

Apple has rolled out a new 'Extended Battery Life Test' for all iOS technicians that allows them to see a detailed report of battery usage on your device. If your physical battery is defective, the technicians can replace it for free if your iOS device is under warranty.