How to Check Which Apps Are Draining Battery the Most iPhone (2024)

One of the most frustrating things about owning an iPhone is when the battery drains quickly, and you’re left scrambling to find a charger. If you rely heavily on your iPhone for work or personal use, you know how important it is to have a fully-charged battery.

Fortunately, there’s a way to check which apps are draining your battery the most so you can make the necessary changes. Keep reading to learn how!

Checking Which Apps are Draining the Battery

As anyone who has ever used a smartphone can attest, apps can be a massive drain on battery life. Even when not in use, apps consume significant power as they automatically update in the background.

On the one hand, a background app refresh is a convenient tool because it ensures you have the most recent information the next time you open the app. For example, a news app can download the latest headlines while not in use, so they’re ready to show when you open the app. Similarly, an email app can fetch new messages and sort them into folders.

Apps can also request the operating system to be notified when certain events happen, such as the user receiving an SMS message or the phone being unlocked. If your app is running in the background and receives one of these notifications, it can then launch back into the foreground and handle that event.

On the other hand, background app refresh is a major culprit when it comes to power consumption. By regularly updating apps even when they’re not in use, background app refresh causes batteries to work overtime. This can be a huge inconvenience, particularly when you’re keen to save power, for example, when away from home.

Luckily, iOS provides a way to check power consumption by different apps. Tracking power consumption can help you figure out the apps draining your battery the most and identify ways to reduce power consumption. For example, you may decide to restrict the app’s background activity or even uninstall it.

Additionally, being mindful of which apps are sucking up your phone’s battery can help you better manage your overall battery life. For example, some apps are known to run in the background for up to 10 minutes after being closed. Using such an app less frequently can extend your iPhone’s battery life.

Lastly, tracking app-specific power consumption can help troubleshoot any problems you may be having with a particular app.

Checking app battery usage on your iPhone is fairly easy. Simply follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
   
2. Tap Battery.
   
3. Scroll down and navigate to the “Battery usage by app” option. You should then see a list of all your apps and their current battery usage.
   
4. Tap “Show Activity” to reveal the time spent using each app. It also lets you see how long an app has run in the background.
   

And that’s it! You can identify the apps using the most battery in just a few steps. However, it’s important to note that the percentage next to each app is not the percentage of your total battery life that the app has used. Rather, it is the percentage of all battery usage accounted for that particular app.

So, if an app usage shows 15% of your battery, it means that, out of all the battery you have used so far, that app was responsible for 15% of it. This is important to remember because it means that even if an app uses a large percentage of your battery, it may not significantly drain your overall battery life.

For example, if you’ve only used your phone for a short period and an app shows as using 20% of your battery, it’s not necessarily a cause for concern. However, if you’ve been using your phone for several hours and an app is still showing as using 20% of your battery, then it may be worth taking a closer look at that app to see if there are ways to reduce its battery usage.

Limiting Battery Usage

Once you’ve singled out the apps draining your battery the most, you can use several tools to scale back the consumption and improve the overall battery life of your iPhone.

Disabling Background App Refresh

Disabling background refresh will deny apps the chance to load and run discreetly in the background. You’ll still get notified when an event happens, but the notification will be delayed until you open the relevant app. For example, if you disable background refresh for iMessage, you’ll still get a notification when a new message arrives, but the message will only load when you open the app.

Here’s how to disable background app refresh on your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app and tap “General.”
   
2. Tap the slider button next to “Background App Refresh” to turn from blue to grey.
   

Turning Off Location Services

Almost all apps installed on mobile devices occasionally request access to your location. This helps developers to gather data about the app’s operations and can also help improve the services offered. For example, Maps may use your location to suggest the nearest café where you can grab a coffee.

However, access to your location requires using GPS, which can take a toll on your battery. Turning location services off scales down the times your location is requested. This can help your iPhone save energy for other, more important services.

To turn off location services, follow these steps:

1. Go to your iPhone’s settings and select “Privacy.”
   
2. Scroll down and tap “Location Services.”
   
3. Select the app that you want to lock out of location services.
   
4. Check the “Never” option This will turn location services off for that app.
   

Most apps will still attempt to seek your permission to access location services as soon as they are launched, but you can deny the request.

Protect Your Battery Using All Means

Your iPhone’s battery is an essential part of your device. Without power, you won’t be able to make calls or send messages, let alone use your favorite apps. Thus, it’s important to monitor power consumption by all the apps installed on your device.

If there is an app that you don’t think should be using up as much battery as it is, then you can toggle off Background App Refresh for that app. This will stop the app from refreshing in the background when you’re not using it, which should help save some battery life. Alternatively, you may turn off the app’s access to location services.

In extreme cases, you may choose to disable the app or uninstall it from your iPhone.

Have you checked to see which apps are draining your iPhone’s battery? Who are the culprits?

Let us know in the comments section below.