iPhone Owners Turn Off This Setting To Save Battery Life

Despite the fact that Apple has pushed its iPhones to incredible heights in recent years, battery issues are an eternal pain point. Whether you’ve kept your iPhone 17 or are wondering if it’s worth upgrading to the iPhone 18, getting through a full day without recharging can feel like a real challenge. One of the biggest causes of rapid battery drain is a feature running silently behind the scenes; it’s always pulling data from the internet even when you’re not actively using your phone.

However, by turning off this specific setting, you’ll see your battery life improve dramatically, and it won’t make you have to limit your screen time or use your apps any differently. The feature in question? Background App Refresh. This tool keeps your apps updated with the latest information before they are opened.

This means that your weather app might constantly need to be pulling the latest forecast to be ready to show you, or your social feeds may download new posts while your phone is idle. While having instantly updated apps is convenient, constantly fetching that data is one of many things that drain your phone’s battery; that’s a lot of work to be doing, after all. Put simply, every time an app refreshes this content, it sucks up battery and processing resources. Turning this feature off doesn’t stop your apps from working; it just means they’ll update after you open them.

Turning off the Background App Refresh feature is super easy and will only take a moment to do. You’ve also got a few ways to approach disabling this in the settings menu. To start, head to the Settings app, scroll down slightly, and tap on the General menu. From there, find the menu option labeled Background App Refresh and give it a tap. At the top of this page, you’ll see the main switch that controls the behavior of the feature.

Tapping it gives you your three options: Off, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi & Cellular Data. Selecting “Off” completely disables the feature across your entire phone flat-out; this will net you the biggest boost to your battery each day. Choosing “Wi-Fi” limits background updates to only when you’re connected to Wi-Fi, which saves mobile data but still consumes power. The last option lets apps refresh constantly regardless of how they’re connected; this is the default setting, and it’s responsible for that extra power drain.

If you’re looking for the biggest improvement in battery life, toggling off that master switch is the way to go. With that off, the system immediately stops apps from running any unnecessary background tasks, keeping apps dormant until you open them. Easy peasy.

While turning off the Background App Refresh feature all-around provides the best battery savings, you can customize this per app. Technically, iOS allows for granular control over single apps, meaning you can keep the feature active for some apps, but not all. If this is what you want, the main Background App Refresh settings page lists out all your apps requesting background access. Each app has a dedicated toggle next to it for this, and all you need to do is toggle off any apps you don’t want using this feature.

For what it’s worth, social media apps are among the worst when it comes to killing your battery, since there are so many new posts to show; you should absolutely consider revoking their background access. These types of apps are constantly pinging servers for new content, and that’ll chew through your battery even when those apps are closed. Conversely, leaving the feature enabled for navigation apps, for example, is good for anyone who wants to have timely updates and precise location tracking.

Ultimately, it’s worth fine-tuning this feature on an app-by-app basis. This way, you can create a good balance between keeping your phone useful and its battery plentiful, even later in the day. It’s a surprisingly easy trick for getting the most out of your iPhone.