Extend Your iPad Battery Life

Apple has a specific time duration that each iPad Battery should last based on regular usage, but actually reaching that value is quite a task. In this article we are going to explore a few popular methods to accomplice that.

 

The reason behind the disconnect is the software. Even though Apple creates great hardware, their software is a bit lacking. It’s common for us to see a 64 GB iPhone running out of space even when using iCloud for storing everything.

 

In addition, there are a whole bunch of iPad models out there right now all with different versions of iOS installed, which is problematic. An iPad Air 2 can be updated to iOS 10, but an iPad 2 can only be updated to iOS 9 currently.

 

In this post, We'll list out as many ways we know possible to improve the battery life of your iPad by adjusting settings in iOS. we'll try to make a note if the feature is not available in an older version of iOS.

 

Method 1 – Adjust Auto Brightness

Obviously, while you are using your iPad, the screen itself will be the biggest drain on the battery. The screen itself uses about 90%+ of the battery, unless you need maximum brightness consider dialing it down a bit.

 

Firstly, it just hurts our eyes to have the screen so bright in a indoor / dimly lit area. By default, the screen should adjust automatically, but we have found that many times it’s brighter than we need. Just swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll see the brightness slider at the top right.

 

Method 2 – Disable Bluetooth & Cellular

Unless you are using the Bluetooth connection on your iPad, you should leave it turned off to save battery life. In addition, if you have a cellular (3G / LTE) iPad, make sure to keep it disabled unless you are using cellular exclusively.

 

 

Even if you are connected to WiFi, it’s still a good idea to turn off the cellular connection because the iPad will constantly try to find the best cellular connection in the background, which will take a small toll on the battery.

 

Method 3 – Turn Off Background App Refresh

Just about every app you install onto your iPad will have an option for refreshing their content in the background. This is useful for some apps that you use often, but otherwise, it’s just a battery drain.

 

We normally keep it enabled for a few apps where we want up-to-date info when we open the app, but disable it for the rest.

 

 

The more apps you can turn background refresh off for, the longer your battery will last before you have to charge it again. Personally, We’ve tried disabling it completely and haven’t really seen any noticeable downside.

 

Method 4 – Reduce Auto Lock Time

We normally make it a point to turn off the screen on our iPad when we are done using it, but the same isn’t true for kids. 

 

 

The lowest setting as of now is two minutes. The iPad remains on if you are using it actively like while watching a video, regardless of the auto lock time. However, if you do a lot of reading on your iPad, the lower auto-lock setting could probably annoy you because it will dim and then lock the iPad right in the middle of an article. Try to keep it as low as you can without it being inconvenient.

 

Method 5 – Disable Location Services

As with background app refresh, there are a lot of apps that use your location even when the app is not running. You can find the location settings for each app under Privacy – Location Services.

 

 

Here you can choose the appropriate setting for each app individually. we suggest doing this because some apps really can’t work unless location services are enabled. However, other apps don’t really need to know your location ever. Try to set as many as you can to Never or While Using. Always is bad because the app will constantly lookup your location in the background.

 

Some apps are annoying and only give you the option of Never and Always. In these cases, it might be worth trying to find a replacement app that has the third option as well.

 

Method 6 – Enable Do Not Disturb

Our favorite power-saving tip is to use the Do Not Disturb feature. Since our iPad is a secondary device, we don’t really care if FaceTime calls or notifications are hidden until we turn on the iPad manually.

 

 

We prefer to set it to Manual and then leave it in Do Not Disturb mode all the time, day or night. This allows our iPad to last in Standby mode for weeks on end. Since all the notifications are hidden, the screen doesn’t keep lighting up for each notification, thereby saving a lot of the battery.

 

Method 7 – Disable Push in Mail

If you have a lot of email accounts setup on your iPad, the constant pushing of email to your iPad will cause your battery to drain much faster. If you already have email setup on your phone or a primary device and the iPad is just a secondary device, we suggest turning off Push for each account and fetching the mail manually at longer intervals.

 

 

Normally, we set fetch to hourly as there is no real urgency to load our mail on the iPad. If you really want to save battery, set it to manually. This way, it’ll only check for mail when you open the mail app.

 

Method 8 – Check Battery Usage

Lastly, you can go to Battery under Settings and see which apps are eating up the most battery over a 24 hour or seven-day period. If you notice anything unusual here, you should check the settings for the app or remove it entirely.

 

 

Using all of these tricks, our iPad normally only needs to be charged once or twice a month unless we use it heavily on a day to watch a presentation or videos. It’s also a good idea to keep your iPad up-to-date. 

 

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