I suspect Background App Refresh is draining battery on my phone.
What is the App Refresh used for? Is is necessary?
For example, Google Maps and Redbox is listed under it on my phone. If I turn those off, how will it affect those two apps?
They wont keep them selfs current which is fine.
Current in which way? For Google Maps, does that mean it's constantly assessing traffic conditions and stuff like that? If I do turn Refresh off, then Google Maps will simply update itself when I turn the app on, right? Same with Redbox; it will just load current movies when I turn that app on??? Same with Weather apps?
So it sounds like I really don't need the Refresh turned on?
It should be fine to turn it off. I think the only purpose to leaving it on is when your driving with google maps and switch do a differnt app then it would keep its self up to date. I imagine
Apps have been able to refresh in background since iOS 3. Now with iOS 7 you have some control over that capability. If you turn off Refresh for Google maps, then any time you are using it to navigate and you switch to a different app it will lose information about where you are. If you leave it enabled it will track your location and show your route and location whenever you switch back to it. Note that Google Maps ONLY refreshes in background when you are actively using it to navigate. So if you are not navigating it doesn't matter whether it is on or off.
Most apps don't do that much in background, so you won't see much difference in battery life between on and off. Exceptions are social networking apps such as Facebook, sports news apps and, of course, streaming music and video.
So then what's draining my battery?
I know there's already a zillion threads asking this question. But there's also a zillion different answers.🙂
Is the battery issue something will will fix itself after I do a full drain and recharge?
This has been the most common question about iPhones for 7 years. It isn't something new. Also for every brand of Android phone except the Motorola, which has a humongous battery. Here's the text of a post I made earlier:
This happens to some iPhones after every upgrade or restore. Some app on the phone was active and was interrupted by the upgrade. When it came back up the app tried to resume and failed. You've got to find and kill that app. If you have an Exchange account that is the prime suspect. Go into Settings and turn off all of the switches (mail, contacts, calendar, notes, etc) for the Exchange account. Then reset the phone by holding HOME and SLEEP until an Apple logo appears. Once the phone comes back up turn the switches back on. Do the same for your iCloud account.
It can be other apps also. iOS 7 has provided a way to control background execution of apps. Go to Settings/General/Background App Refresh. This will list all of the apps that can run in background and use power. Start by turning them all off. If this fixes the problem turn on a few at a time until you find the perp.
Added: Have you enabled iTunes Radio? That's probably a huge battery hog.
What is background app refresh for?
