Over the past week, I have had several interactions with iOS users complaining of poor battery performance or overall slow performance with their iOS device. In many cases, these issues can be easily resolved by either adjusting how you might be using the device, running software updates, or by updating forgotten settings.
Battery Health
Apple introduced new features in iOS 11.3 with battery health, a quick glance can let you see a snapshot of what apps are most frequently used. You can find the battery information by simply tapping on Settings where you can easily see which apps are using your battery the most. In some cases, you might realize it’s a specific app. Perhaps you haven’t realized your child or grandchild grabbing your phone and you discover they’ve been watching YouTube. This was the case with my brother. His son was using YouTube (with permission), but what my brother did not realize is that YouTube was refreshing the content in the background, accounting for even more drain on the battery. I have several news apps which I have set to notify me of breaking news. Depending on the news day, I can have a significant amount of battery life going to my home screen lock being overrun with notifications. With my iPad, my notetaking program clearly dominates my battery usage. Because I use my iPad primarily for notes, there isn’t much I can do to reduce the battery drain and I know I need to charge my iPad every night during heavy usage. In the case of my phone, turning off my news notifications when I need to extend my battery life can provide significant improvements.
Background Refresh
Background refresh, the secret battery killer. I say this because this is a setting that I recommend checking often. In the case of just about every app you might download, the default refresh setting is to automatically refresh in the background. You can check this setting by going to Setting> General > Background Refresh, and consider turning off any or all apps. You can tell that an app is set to automatically refresh if the button to the right of the app is switched to green. Social media apps and streaming apps will use the most battery power with background app refresh, so I do make sure those are turned off. Another note, these settings don’t migrate over automatically to new devices so you might find, to your surprise, all your apps are set to refresh in the background.
Web pages or e-mail open slow
I spoke to a customer the other day who indicated that when she refreshed her e-mail the “dotted circle” just spins for a minute or so and then her e-mails download. This is something that you just might not be able to control and might not even be a problem with your iOS device. How fast your iPad or iPhone refreshes, downloads and browses is related to your internet speed and the wireless router you are connecting to. If you are finding your iPad is slow to refresh mail, or when browsing the internet or refreshing an app when you are away from your home or office, there is really nothing you can do. It does not mean you have a slow device, it just means your network access is likely slow. When it comes to your home or office, you might just need to update your wireless router. If you have not updated your wireless router in several years, this could be the motivation to upgrade that equipment. Manufacturers such as eero and Linksys have added features of dual and tri-band systems. These dual and tri-band systems allow all users to connect and browse at the fastest speed their device and network can provide, giving everyone equal enjoyment of the network.
Update the iOS and apps
Many users might find apps quitting unexpectedly or perhaps getting a slow response time when tapping on an app or general navigation. Often times this could be related to the iOS, and, in many cases keeping the device up to date, just like your computer, can help with performance. Generally speaking, you do not have to worry if those updates will have the opposite effect and slow down the device significantly for the next few years.
Updating the different apps on your device is also important. Like iOS, the app developers also release updates to fix bugs within their apps and can help with performance. I do recommend automatic updates when it comes to apps, unlike your computer’s software, these rarely have any effect on usage or worry about compatibility. After all, the apps are mini versions of the software.
I recommend checking settings often on your devices as a variety of instances can cause settings to change or perhaps you missed the release of an update. In the end, however, our devices have their limits. You can only charge the batteries so many times and even with the best practices reduced battery life will inevitably occur. Eventually, you will reach the limits of software updates and the time will come when your hardware simply needs to be updated. However, until then, these simple steps can help you to ensure you have minimal performance issues or at least properly identify if you do have an issue with your device.