How do I stop apps draining my battery?

Battery drain is measurable, so there is no need to guess. Both iPhone and Android report per-app usage, and it is normally obvious within seconds which app is responsible — usually something with constant location access or background refresh.

What you'll need

• Your phone

Step by step

1. Open the battery usage screen and read the list.Settings, Battery on both platforms. Look at the last 24 hours and the last week — a one-off spike differs from a persistent drain.
2. Compare usage against how much you actually use each app.The screen-time figure alongside it is what makes this useful. High battery with low use is the signature of a background problem.
3. Restrict location access for the culprits.Change from 'Always' to 'While Using'. Constant GPS is the single largest drain, and very few apps genuinely need it in the background.
4. Turn off background app refresh for apps that do not need it.iPhone: Settings, General, Background App Refresh. Android: per-app battery settings, restrict background usage.
5. Reduce screen brightness and screen timeout.The screen is normally the largest single consumer. Auto-brightness and a shorter timeout make a real difference.
6. Check push email settings.Fetching every fifteen minutes across several accounts costs noticeably more than push or hourly fetch.
7. Update or remove apps that misbehave.Battery bugs are common and usually get fixed. If an app is a persistent offender and you rarely use it, remove it.
8. Check battery health before blaming software.Below roughly 80% capacity, the battery itself is the problem and no settings change compensates. Replacement is far cheaper than a new phone.

Tips

• Poor mobile signal drains the battery hard because the phone raises transmit power. Wifi calling in a weak-signal home helps a lot.
• Dark mode saves meaningful power on OLED screens, where black pixels are genuinely off. On LCD screens it makes almost no difference.
• Battery saver mode is not just for emergencies — leaving it on permanently costs little and extends daily life noticeably.

Common mistakes

• Force-closing apps constantly to save battery — Relaunching an app from cold uses more power than leaving it suspended. Modern phones manage this better than manual intervention.
• Granting 'Always' location to apps that ask — It is the biggest single background drain, and very few apps need it. 'While Using' is almost always sufficient.
• Installing a battery saver app — They consume power themselves and mostly duplicate settings already built into the phone.

Questions people ask