How To Fix iPhone Battery Life Issues With iOS 6.1

The Next Web is reporting that some iPhone users are reporting issues with battery life and overheating after upgrading to iOS 6.1.

 

Strangely we’ve heard contradictory reports from our readers. Some of them have told us in this post that they’re actually seeing improved battery life, while some have reported that iOS 6.1 has made things worse.

 

Personally, I haven’t noticed any improvement or degradation in battery life after upgrading to iOS 6.1. Even in the discussion thread pointed out by The Next Web, which runs into 17 pages, while many users are reporting battery life issues, a few users who have also reported that they either haven’t seen any improvement or are seeing improved battery life after upgrading to iOS 6.1.

 

The problem with battery life issues is that it is very subjective as it is based on your usage battery. For example: it has been observed that there is a major impact on iPhone 5′s battery life when LTE or 3G signals is weak.

 

So instead of debating about it, you can try these troubleshooting tips if you’re observing degradation in battery life after upgrading to iOS 6.1:

 

Force an app to close:

 

The degration in battery life could be due to an app, if you’ve identified the app that may be hogging your iPhone’s battery life then force it to close. Hold down the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until a red slider appears, then hold down the Home button  until the app closes. You can also remove an app from the app switcher to force it to close.

 

Turn off/Turn on Location Services:

 

Turn off location services for the apps (Settings ->  Privacy -> Location Services) and then turn them back on one by one to identify which one is causing the drain on battery life.

 

It is also a good idea to review the list of apps that are using Location services, and disable it for apps you think can be used without tracking your location.

 

Restart/Reset Your iPhone:

 

Hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.

 

Resetting Network Settings:

 

Reset network settings by tapping Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings. This will reset all network settings, including passwords, VPN, and APN settings.

 

Turn Off LTE:

 

If you live or work in an area that has poor or no LTE coverage, then turn off LTE (Settings -> General -> Cellular -> Enable LTE).

 

Some General tips:

ü  Set Auto-Lock interval so that your iPhone will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity. To set the auto-Lock interval, launch the Settings app, tap on General and then Auto-Lock and set the atuo-lock interval to either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes.

ü  You’re probably aware that using Wi-Fi drains iPhone’s battery, but perhaps you didn’t know that one of the most intensive processes that iPhone’s Wi-Fi chip has to do is search for available network. So if this happens in regular intervals, it’s going to have a noticeable impact on your battery. To disable this feature, launch the Settings app, tap on Wi-Fi, and tap on the On/Off toggle for Ask to Join Networks to disable it. Please note that by disabling this feature, your iPhone will join known Wi-Fi networks automatically, but you will have to manually select a network if no known networks are available. Note: It is disabled by default.

ü  Dimming the screen helps to extend battery life. You can either lower the default screen brightness based on your preference or turn on Auto-Brightness to allow the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Launch the Settings app, scroll down and tap on Brightness & Wallpaper and set Auto-Brightness to On. Note: Apple enables it by default.

ü  Turn off Location services for the following System System services: Diagnostics & Usage, Setting Time Zone, Location Based iAds (Settings ->  Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services).

ü  Turn off Weather and Stock widgets from Notification Center. (Settings -> Notifications -> Weather Widget/Stock Widget -> Notification Center).

 

Optimize Settings based on your usuage:

 

Phone 5 offers tons of features, but some of the features comes at the cost of battery life, so it is prudent to turn off things that you’re not using.

 

ü  If you hardly use Bluetooth then turn it off (Settings -> General -> Bluetooth)

ü  As I mentioned earlier, review the list of apps that are using Location services, and disable it for apps you think can be used without tracking your location (Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services).

ü  If you check multiple email accounts on your iPhone, enable Push for only the most important email account/accounts. For other accounts, fetch emails manually if possible for better battery life.

ü  These days most apps use Push Notification service to alert you of new data, which can impact battery life. We tend to blindly say “Yes”, when an app asks us if it can send Push notifications. So it is a good idea to review the apps that have push notifications enabled. Go to Settings -> Notifications and disable notifications for select apps. Please note that it doesn’t prevent new data from being received when the app is opened.

ü  Turn off Siri’s Raise to Speak feature if you don’t use it frequently (Settings -> General -> Siri -> Raise to Speak).

ü  Turn off Siri if you don’t use it (Settings -> General -> Siri).

ü  Turn off Personal Hotspot if you’re not using it (Settings -> Personal Hotspot).

ü  Turn off equalizer setting for song playback (Settings -> Music -> EQ).

 

Restore iPhone as New:

 

This is not ideal and the last resort. If you’ve setup your iPhone by restoring from backup then the battery life problems could be due to some issue with the backup. Try to restore your iPhone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content And Settings) and set it up as a new iPhone. But before you erase all the contents and settings, please take a backup of your iPhone using iTunes or iCloud.

 

Make a Genius Bar reservation:

 

If the tips mentioned above doesn’t help then take it to the Apple Store, it could well be a problem with your iPhone, which may need to be replaced.

 

Let us know if you’ve observed battery life issues on your iPhone after upgrading to iOS 6.1 and if any of these tips helped.