While
iOS 8.0 has some great new features, some people that updated to the
new version have been experiencing battery drain. Apple's OS updates
have been known to cause minor battery issues that are usually fixed
quickly with the next update. Until iOS 8.0.1 comes along, here's what
you can do to improve your iOS device's battery life.
(Also see: How to improve battery life on iOS 7.1)
Check battery usage
The
first thing you can do to reduce battery drain is to turn off apps that
are using it the most. We did experience fairly noticeable battery
drain even when the device was not in use, but turning off the battery
hogs will give you some extra time. You can check this by going to:
- Settings > General > Usage > Battery Usage.
- Now
tap Last 24 Hours or Last 7 Days (you might see a different number if
you've just switched to iOS 8, but the counter stops at seven days) to
see which apps have been using the most battery.
- Depending on what
you see, you can take steps to reduce battery drain. For example, if
you see that Mail uses a lot of battery life because of background
activity, then you can change the background refresh settings, which we
discuss below.

(Also see: NDTV Gadgets Staff Pick Their
Favourite New iOS 8 Feature)
Display
A
big chunk of your iOS device's battery is drained by the display.
Here's how you can ensure that the screen isn't consuming more power
than it needs to.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Centre.
- The
slider above the music player helps control brightness. Slide it all
the way to the left to keep it to the minimum. Indoors, this should
actually be good enough, but in bright areas you'll need to adjust the
settings for readability.
- The auto-brightness feature in iOS keeps
the screen at the just the right level of brightness depending on
ambient lighting. However, it uses a bit of battery power to do so, and
if you want to maximise battery life, you'll want to set brightness to
minimum, and turn off auto-brightness. If you're running low on power,
go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Brightness >
Off.
- Make sure that your device's screen isn't on longer than it
needs to. Head to Settings > General > Auto-Lock. Now pick the
lowest value - 1 minute on iPhone or 2 minutes on iPad.
- You can
also turn off the cool parallax effect, which may not be so cool when
your battery is dying. Head to Settings > General > Accessibility
> Reduce Motion > On.
(Also see: How to Upgrade to
iOS 8 When It Cannot Be Installed Because It Requires GBs of Storage)
Wireless connections
Your
iPhone or iPad will constantly be switching from LTE to 3G and even to
Edge when you're outdoors. We found that controlling mobile data usage
has improved battery life dramatically. Here's what you can do.
- Go
to Settings > Mobile. If you are on a WiFi network, you can flick
the Mobile Data switch to Off. There's an Enable LTE switch below Mobile
Data. You can switch that off too, unless you're one of the rare few in
India with 4G access right now.
- Now scroll down to the header
"USE MOBILE DATA FOR:". This is a list of all the apps that are allowed
to use mobile data on your iOS device. There's an on/off switch next to
each app. You can turn it off for apps that don't need mobile data. Most
games don't need it and neither do fitness apps.
- Below the name
of each app, you will see how much mobile data it has used so far. Check
apps with the maximum mobile data usage and see if you can disable it
for these apps.
- You can also stop apps from using mobile data to
download updates. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Use
Mobile Data > Off.
- You can also turn off WiFi, Bluetooth and
AirDrop, when you are not using them. Doing this is easy - just swipe up
from the bottom of the screen to open Control Centre and turn off WiFi
and Bluetooth. Tap AirDrop and select Off to turn it off. Just remember
to switch WiFi on again when you get home or reach office.

(Also see: Six iOS 8 Extensions You Should Not Miss)
Location services
Another
big battery hog is your device's GPS. Several apps want access to your
location and the result is near-constant battery drain. There are some
cool new location options in iOS 8 that let you save battery. Check
these steps to find out how.
- If you don't want any apps to use
your location, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services >
turn Location Services off.
- If that's not an option for you,
scroll down to the list of apps. In iOS 7, you could either allow or
block location access. In iOS 8 you can choose to let apps access your
location only while you are using them.
- In Settings > Privacy
> Location Services, tap any app from the list. Most apps will have
three options: Never, While Using the App and Always. Tap Never for apps
to disable location access, or While Using the App if you want the app
to have location access while it's actively being used.
- Go back to
Settings > Privacy > Location Services and tap Share My Location.
You can disable this too but we suggest you keep it on if you use the
Find My Friends app to let friends and family know where you are.
- You
can also disable Find My iPhone from Settings > iCloud > Find My
iPhone, but that's a very useful anti-theft feature. So we suggest that
you keep it on.

(Also see: The Best iOS 8 Notification
Centre Widgets)
Notifications
Nearly
every app that you install on iOS will ask permission to send you
notifications. Some of these can be very useful, such as alerts to deals
on apps,
but many are not. Whenever you get a notification your device's screen
is turned on and it plays a sound and vibrates. All of these things add
up to reduce battery life.
- iOS 8 has a neat switch that lets you disable all notifications from any app. Follow these steps to disable notifications.
- Go to Settings > Notifications.
- Scroll
down, tap any app under the "INCLUDE:" header > flick the Allow
Notifications switch to Off. You can disable notifications from games
without missing much and depending on what services are important to
you, there are going to be a fair number of apps whose notifications you
can switch off.
- If you'd rather not disable notifications then
you can use the Do Not Disturb mode. This won't wake your iOS device
even if you get notifications. You can set it up at Settings > Do Not
Disturb. This could be useful if you're in office, for example, and
don't need to be notified for mails for the next several hours.
- Once
you've set it up, Do Not Disturb can be quickly accessed via the
Control Centre. Swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen and hit the
moon icon.
- If you have push notifications enabled for email, you
might want to reduce the frequency of alerts. Go to Settings > Mail,
Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data. Turn Push off. This means
you'll have to check for mail manually but it should help with battery
life.
- Select each of your accounts and select Manual instead of
Fetch. This way, the app will download emails, contact and calendar
updates only when you open the app instead of doing it in the
background.
- Scroll down to FETCH. If you've set any accounts to
Fetch data automatically, you can set how often it refreshes. To save
battery, select either Manually or Hourly.

(Also see: Our
Favourite iOS 8 Third-Party Keyboard Apps)
Background data use
A lot of apps will update automatically or download data in the background. Here's how to disable that.
- If
you don't want apps to download data in the background, head to
Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Off. This will
stop all apps from working in the background. If that's not an option,
you can scroll down and turn it off for any app in the list.
- iOS 8
has a new feature called Handoff that lets you take calls on your iPad
or MacBook as long as they're on the same WiFi network as the iPhone.
It's useful but if you need the extra battery life, turn it off at
Settings > Handoff & Suggested Apps > Off.
- You should
also turn off automatic downloads of app updates for better battery
life. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store. Scroll down to
AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS. Flip the switch to Off for Music, Apps, Books and
Updates. Scroll down to SUGGESTED APPS and turn off App Store.
- While
we recommend that you set your device to backup automatically via
iCloud, it's better for battery life if you do it over WiFi only. Go to
Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Use Mobile Data > Off.
- Another
rather extreme battery saving option is at Settings > Safari >
Preload Top Hit > Off. When you search in Safari, this will prevent
the browser from loading the top website from search results. Small
gains, but they all count when you're craving for a little more battery
life.

(Also see: How to Set Up iOS 8's Family Sharing
Feature and Why It Is Super Useful)
Don't let the device vibrate
When
you're in office or at home, your phone probably won't be in your
pocket, and vibrations are just wasting battery life. To turn them off,
follow these steps:
- Open Settings > Sounds > Vibrate on Ring > Off. If you wish, you can also turn off Vibrate on Silent.
- If
you're battery woes are rather extreme, you can disable the sound when
the device locks and the click sounds when you type. In Settings >
Sound, scroll down all the way and turn off Lock Sounds and Keyboard
Clicks.
(Also see: How to Prevent Theft of Photos From Your
iCloud Account)
That
should cover the battery saving needs of everyone, from those with
minor complaints to those who're regretting downloading iOS 8 due to
battery drain. If we've missed anything, let us know via the comments.
As always, you can find more tutorials in our How to section.