[Njtechdiv] Helping with your battery life article for both android and ios users

Mon Apr 17 15:11:12 UTC 2017

The following article, the link to which is located at the end of the text,
is an Informative piece on how to extend battery life on iOS and Android
devices.
Enjoy,

How I added four hours of battery life to my smartphone every day for free
By Jennifer Jolly, Special for USA TODAY, April 9, 2017

Phone constantly dying? Here's how to get back battery life

Columnist Jennifer Jolly describes how to check if emails and apps are
draining your smartphone way too fast and what measures won't help. Jennifer
Jolly for USA TODAY

I've had big-time battery drain issues on my last three iPhones. I just
figured it was my fault - maybe I'm too addicted to apps, take too many
photos, or just use my phone too much?

It's an issue I've gone to Apple for help with many times. But the Genius's
- Apple's retail support - were flummoxed, too. After the typical
troubleshooting: Update iOS? Check. Adjust screen brightness? Check. Use
Wi-Fi when possible, turn off location services, and tone down
notifications? Check, check, and check again. Nothing seems to solve the
issues. Maybe I got the phone wet?

It was time to kick things up to the next level. I enlisted experts like
Scotty Loveless, a former Apple Genius and iOS tech who told me this would
not be another, "turn off every useful feature of iOS posts." because those
"really grind my gears." Finally, someone speaking my language!

With that said, here's how I finally beat the worst of my battery battles -
and now you can, too.

#1 Start with your own battery test

Your battery should only be doing its heavy lifting when you're actually
using your iPhone, and the rest of the time it should be relaxing in standby
mode. Sometimes an app prevents your phone from going into standby and
wreaks havoc on your battery life.

Here's how to test it:

Go into Settings > Battery. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and you'll
find two numbers, one for Standby and one for Usage. Your Usage number
should be way, way lower than your Standby number. If it's not, you might
have a problem, and you can confirm it by jotting down your Standby and
Usage times and then clicking the lock button on your phone. Let it sit for
about five minutes and then check the numbers again. If your Standby time is
five minutes higher, you're in good shape, but if your Usage time has bumped
up by a more than a minute it's a sign that your phone isn't resting like it
should.

On Android, you can get the same information under Settings > Device >
Battery (or Settings > Battery if you have a newer version of Android). The
information on this menu is essentially the same as it is on an iPhone, and
lists "Device Idle" which is the same as standby mode.

If you find that your phone isn't "resting" when you're not using it,
there's likely a very clear reason, which brings us to #2.

#2 Don't push me

When an app is doing things even when you're not using it, it could be
malfunctioning, and stuck in an endless loop that's draining all your power.
That's what happened to me, with, of all things, one of the email accounts I
had connected to my phone. Loveless picked up on this right away. "This
happens unbelievably often, especially with Exchange push email," he said.
"I knew when you told me your phone typically dies within six hours of being
off the charger, and the Standby and Usage are the same. Sometimes, these
times are not the same because the 'firmware is bad or corrupted,' but this
time it's because push email is keeping the phone from sleeping properly."

The fix was simple.

Go into Settings > Mail > Accounts> Fetch New Data. Mine was automatically
set to Push. Loveless recommended that I set it turn that off temporarily
and set it to Fetch every 15 to 30 minutes instead. You can also use the
Manual mode, which only scans for new messages when you actually open the
email app.

You can also tweak the push settings to fetch new emails only every hour or
so, which is also a big help. You don't sacrifice timely email updates
either, though you'll still save the most power by disabling push emails
altogether.

On an Android phone, you can manage the push notification settings for any
apps that use it by heading into Settings > Apps and then picking an app and
tweaking its individual settings.

#3 When background apps are the killer

There are other times too when an app is running when you're not using it
and that's called "Background App Refresh." There are lots of reasons apps
update in the background, like the Music app fetching new playlists,
Facebook updating your social feeds, and even Pokemon Go keeping an eye on
your steps so you can hatch eggs. It's all in the name of convenience, but
it might also be leaving you with a dead battery halfway through the
afternoon.

To check out which apps are eating up valuable power in the background go to
Settings > Battery and you'll see a list of the apps taking up your battery
life, with the topmost app being the biggest power hog. If you see an app
listed with "Background Activity" below it, that's when you know it's using
power even when you're not using it. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and
streaming apps like Apple Music can be real demons in this department, so
head to your Settings > General > Background App Refresh page and toggle off
any apps you don't want working overtime to save some serious juice.

#4 Multitasking is OK

Do you ever double-tap your home button and see all the apps your iPhone has
suspended, waiting for you to go back to them? Whenever I do, I always close
them out of instinct, thinking that they must be eating up battery life,
right? Nope! In fact, Loveless says that closing apps from the multitasking
menu can actually hurt the iPhone's overall battery life, and for a totally
logical reason.

Just because you see an app sitting in the multitasking menu doesn't mean
it's actually using your battery life at all - it's just paused, sitting in
the phone's memory and not doing much of anything. When you close it, the
phone shuts it down, but when you inevitably open the app back up, it forces
your phone to load all that data back up again, and that means it's using
valuable power and ticking down your reserves. Just leave the apps alone and
you'll be doing yourself and your battery a favor.

On Android, finding the apps that are running is as easy as pulling the top
menu bar down, which brings up a list of the apps either running or paused.
You can choose to close them, but again, the idea is that by leaving them on
you're actually saving more power, so just leave them be.

#5 Low-power mode can add hours to your battery life

Android and iOS both come with low-power features that let you turn off
almost all of your phone's extra features anytime and save tons of energy
throughout the day. You can turn it on when the battery drops to 20% or much
earlier - by going to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode and switching it
on.

On Android, the battery saving feature kicks in automatically if you leave
your settings as-is, but you can also manually turn it on by going to
Settings > Battery then tap the menu icon and select "Battery Saver."

It can be a real life saver, and it has the bonus benefit of preventing even
more battery stress by depleting a dying battery even further than it
already is.

There are other little things you can do, too, which many other writers have
mentioned. But fixing the email and background activity issues on my own
phone has already added more than FOUR HOURS of battery life back into my
day. That's nothing short of a miracle in my book.

Original Article at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/04/09/iphone-android-low-
battery-running-out-of-battery/100231638/

Take care.
 Keep Smiling,
Janie Degenshein
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