Your screen can turn on automatically just from tapping it or picking it up, even when you didn't mean to check your phone.
Some location features run quietly in the background all day, even when you're not using maps or navigation.
Many apps quietly update themselves in the background so they're ready the instant you open them, using battery the whole time.
When I first got the phone, battery life was good, but nothing special. Pretty normal “charge it every night” kind of numbers. Then, over a couple of weeks of testing different settings, I noticed something interesting. A handful of small, easy-to-miss features were quietly draining battery in the background, all day long, without me ever really using them on purpose.
Once I turned those off, the difference was honestly bigger than I expected. I’m now regularly getting close to two days of normal, active use out of one charge. Not “phone sitting in a drawer” battery life, actual real usage: messages, social media, camera, maps, calls, the whole thing.
In this post I’ll walk you through exactly which settings I changed, explained in plain, simple language, so you can decide if you want to try the same thing on your own phone.
Your screen can turn on automatically just from tapping it or picking it up, even when you didn’t mean to check your phone.
Some location features run quietly in the background all day, even when you’re not using maps or navigation.
Many apps quietly update themselves in the background so they’re ready the instant you open them, using battery the whole time.
Here’s the thing nobody really explains clearly: a lot of battery drain doesn’t come from the stuff you’re actively doing, like scrolling social media or taking photos. It comes from small background features that turn your screen on, check your location, or refresh your apps without you ever tapping anything.
Each one of these, on its own, doesn’t sound like a big deal. A screen that lights up for a second here and there. A location check every so often. An app refreshing quietly in the background. But added up over a full day, especially if you pick up your phone dozens of times or carry it in your pocket while walking around, it turns into a surprising amount of wasted battery.
So I went through my settings one by one and turned off four specific things. Here’s exactly what they are and what they actually do.
These are the four changes that made the real difference for me. None of them are complicated, and none of them require any special apps or tricks. Just a few toggles in your Settings app.
This lets your screen turn on just by tapping anywhere on it, even if the phone is sitting on a table. Sounds handy, but it also means the screen can light up by accident constantly, like when it’s in your bag or brushing against something.
This turns the screen on automatically whenever you pick up or move your phone. Great in theory, but if you move around a lot during the day, walk, drive, or just fidget with your phone, this can turn your screen on far more often than you’d expect.
Some apps are allowed to check your location constantly, even when you’re not using them. I went into Settings and switched several apps from “Always” to “While Using” or “Never,” so they only check your location when you actually open them.
This is the setting that lets apps quietly update their content in the background, even when you’re not using them, so everything feels instantly up to date the moment you open them. It’s convenient, but it also means dozens of apps can be working in the background all day long.
Before making these changes, my phone behaved pretty normally. Screen turning on randomly in my pocket or bag, location services quietly working in the background, apps refreshing themselves even when closed. Nothing seemed broken, it just felt like fairly typical smartphone battery life. I’d usually need to charge somewhere in the evening, sometimes even top it up a little in the afternoon on busier days.
After turning off all four settings, I started paying attention to how long the phone actually lasted with normal, everyday use. Texting, browsing, some video, a bit of gaming, taking photos, using maps occasionally. And the difference was honestly bigger than I expected. Instead of needing a charge every single night, I was regularly making it through a full day and well into the next one, landing at close to two full days on a single charge.
To be fair, “two days” will look a little different for everyone depending on how much you personally use your phone. If you’re someone who’s constantly gaming or recording 4K video all day, your numbers will look different than mine. But even accounting for that, the improvement was noticeable enough that I went from thinking about battery percentage multiple times a day to barely thinking about it at all.
This is really the important question, because turning off these features isn’t completely free. You’re trading away a small bit of convenience for a decent chunk of extra battery life. Here’s how that trade-off actually felt in daily use.
Honestly, for me, the trade-off was easily worth it. None of these changes made my phone feel less useful day to day. They just stopped a handful of background processes from quietly draining battery all day long.
If you want to try this yourself, here’s roughly where to find each setting. Exact wording can vary slightly depending on your iOS version, but they should all be easy to find.
I’d suggest turning these off one at a time over a few days rather than all at once, just so you can get a feel for how each one affects your own daily routine.
I wasn’t expecting a handful of small toggle switches to make this much of a difference, but here we are. The iPhone 17 Pro Max already has a solid battery on its own, but these background features were quietly working against it all day, every day, without me realizing it.
If you’re someone who charges your phone constantly and wishes it would just last longer, this is genuinely one of the easiest, completely free changes you can make. No new case, no battery pack, no special settings app. Just a few minutes in your existing Settings app, and a couple of days of getting used to pressing a button instead of just tapping your screen.
Results vary depending on how you use your phone, but for me, combining all four changes made a noticeable, real difference, taking me from charging nightly to lasting close to two days on one charge.
No. Switching an app from “Always” to “While Using the App” just means it only checks your location while you have the app open, which is enough for navigation and most everyday uses.
It lets apps update their content in the background so they’re instantly ready when you open them. Turning it off just means some apps take a moment to refresh the first time you open them each day.
Not necessarily. You can turn them off one at a time and see what works for you. Background App Refresh and Always-On Location tend to make the biggest difference for most people.
It took me about a day to adjust to pressing the side button instead. After that, it genuinely didn’t bother me, and I stopped noticing the difference in daily use.
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