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The Battery-Draining Setting iPhone Experts Say You Should Turn Off Immediately

August 14, 2023 by Lisa Cupido
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A good healthy number of your iPhone settings give you a more convenient user experience. But then there are the settings that we love and that certainly have their pros and their place, but that also zap our phone of battery power faster than spending time on the Facebook app. 

There are a few settings that can have this effect on your phone — and if conserving battery power has been a concern, you may have already tinkered with things like your brightness setting to reduce its negative effect on your battery. But it may be time to take things on step further. According to Tech Expert Axel Hernborg, the CEO of travel website Tripplo, there’s one setting that he always recommends turning off because it’s a little-known source of major battery drainage. 

Ask To Join Networks

“I always recommend my traveling customers turn off ‘Ask to Join Networks’ to avoid having their battery drained by their iPhones constantly searching for WiFi signals,” Hernborg says. “This setting causes your iPhone to constantly scan for and attempt to connect to WiFi networks, even when you aren’t actively using WiFi.”

It’s this constant scanning and unsuccessful connection attempts that consume precious battery power, Hernborg adds. And, most of the time, this setting isn’t entirely necessary. If you’re traveling from place to place but aren’t interested in connecting online, for example, this service is doing you a disservice by taking up valuable battery.

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Turning off "Ask to Join Networks" means your iPhone will no longer automatically search for WiFi networks, saving battery by avoiding unnecessary WiFi use. Instead, Hernborg recommends that you manually turn on WiFi when you need it, conserving power the rest of the time.

 


You can boost your battery even more by following these two tips:

 


Background App Refresh: 

 


Many iPhone users install a number of apps in their phones, which sometimes became a cause of battery drainage as well as consuming a lot of storage space, according to Johan Alexander, CEO at APKCima. “The ‘Background App Refresh’ setting on your iPhone allows apps to refresh content in the background intelligently,” Alexander says. “When enabled, your device learns your app usage patterns and prioritizes updates for the apps you use most frequently. By doing so, this feature conserves battery life by preventing unnecessary background refreshes for apps that are seldom used.”

 


Additionally, Alexander adds it optimizes storage space by reducing the amount of cached data and temporary files generated by background processes.

 


Offload Unused Apps: 

 


Retaining unused apps on your iPhone is another primary cause of battery consumption, Alexander says. “It is highly recommended that enabling ‘Offload Unused Apps’ is an excellent way to free up storage space without losing your app data,” he says. “When activated, your iPhone will automatically remove apps you rarely use but keep their data intact.”

 


Know which settings are causing more battery drainage — and which can actually help boost your battery. 

 

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Lisa Fogarty is a lifestyle writer and reporter based in New York who covers health, wellness, relationships, sex, beauty, and parenting.

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