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iPhone Experts Explain Why You Should Use The Secret 'Yellow Mode' For Longer Battery Life: 'Reduces Background Activity'

November 22, 2024 by Lisa Cupido
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Your iPhone battery is beyond frustrating, we get it. Before you have time to do much during the day, it has already run out of power. You wake up, check a few emails, play around on Facebook, maybe watch a few YouTube videos over coffee to unwind, and your phone has plummeted from 80 to 40 percent.

It’s not your imagination: your phone battery isn’t as good as it should be. What can you actually do about it? That’s the million dollar question.

And the answer is: rely on one key setting that can help reduce background activity and prevent your phone from losing power so rapidly. Tech experts recommend enabling this one setting that can turn your battery icon yellow — otherwise known as the “yellow mode.” Here’s what it does and how to enable it when you’re in a battery bind.

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Low Power Mode

 


Low Power Mode is the “yellow mode.” When you enable the setting, it automatically conserves battery power so that your phone doesn’t lose its charge so rapidly. But, in return, you’ll have to be willing to give up some ways of using your device (temporarily, of course). Background App Refresh, for example, won’t work and new content won’t be able to update or be fetched. Mail fetching will be halted. And things like visual effects, automatic downloads, and iCloud photo updates will pause.

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How to Enable Low Power Mode

 


To enable Low Power Mode, go to Settings > Battery and then toggle on Low Power Mode. You can keep Low Power Mode on until you’re able to plug in your device to give it a charge.


Generally speaking, the best way to charge your device to prevent it from losing power so quickly is to give it short bursts of charging that keep it charged between 30 and 80 percent. Charging it throughout the day is a better method than waiting until night and charging your phone at one time.

Author:

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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