Another battery life extension for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch

I did a little experimenting over the last couple weeks with my older, original iPad 1 and my 2nd gen iPod Touch.

I have found that leaving Wifi active all of the time CAN really affect iDevice battery life and performance.

I charged up both devices and left both devices with Wifi off.

After a week, my iPod Touch still has approx. 85-90% of its life, with WiFi off.

My original iPad, after a week with WiFi off, its battery percentage, while reduced, is still nearly between 95-100%

Wifi is a fairly big drain on the iDevice's battery it turns out.

So, if you want to extend the life of your iDevice's battery further, whenever you are away from your iDevice for any prolonged period of time, say an hour or more or if you are not using your iDevice while charging, turn off WiFi until you are using the device again.


Same goes for your iDevices when using a smartwatch/Apple Watch.

When not wearing your Apple watch, turn off both Bluetooth on both the watch and iDevice, as well as WiFi until you are actually using one or both of these iDevices.

See if your battery performance and time on a charge increases.

I am going to start doing this on a more regular basis.

If your iDevices already automatically connect to known Wifi networks, then it is only a matter of turning on/off the WiFi switch in the iOS Settings app.

Well worth saving charging cycles by doing this, IMO.

😉

iPad, iOS 9.3.2, iPad Pro 128 GB Wifi

Posted on Jun 18, 2016 3:35 PM

Reply
7 replies

Jul 1, 2016 11:51 AM in response to ShagCA

I am not sure either.

I'll have to chew on this for awhile.

Does your iPad Air have any extended AppleCare left on it?

If it does, you could bring it to an Apple store for diagnosis, and if the battery is found defective, Apple could give you a replacement iPad Air ( I am not sure if Apple still does in-store iDevice battery replacements or not, at this time).

Jul 1, 2016 2:03 PM in response to ShagCA

It will not have an adverse affect.

Especially, if you let it drain down and immediately put it back on the charger.

If you are not comfortable with draining the battery until your iPad shuts down.

Put it on the charger when your iPad reaches 1 or 2 %

Close enough.

Drain it down once every two weeks instaed of every week.

You may only need to do this twice if this works instead of three times within a month.

I only do this once a month or sometimes every 6 weeks to two months.

So, space these drain downs apart some.

I really don't recommend doing three of these in a three or four week period.

Hope your iPad Air battery stops draining down arbitrarily on its own.


Good Luck!

Aug 10, 2016 9:25 AM in response to MichelPM

I'd like to post an update to my battery problem. I have tried 3 successive complete drain and recharging to 100%. I'm still losing a few % every night when everything (but the iPad) switched off.


I installed iOS 9.3.3 a day before 9.3.4 was released. My battery seems to hold its charge overnight now. I'm hoping it isn't a coincidence and the battery loss problem won't re-surface. If this is the case, iOS 9.3.3 may be the latest version I'm willing to use. I'm not touching anything unless it is broken.

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Another battery life extension for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch

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