Keep Your Dying Smartphone Alive

At one time or another, most of us have been faced with the challenge of desperately searching for an outlet or someone around who has a charger to help power our dying phones. Before it gets to that point, why not try out these tricks to help preserve the last drops of juice in your phone’s battery.

 

Turn Your Device Off and Then On Again

Doing a hard reset on your phone is a good way to stop an app with a battery-draining memory leak. One of the best ways to pull your phone out of its death spiral is a hard reboot—that is, forcing your phone to stop absolutely everything it is doing and restart.You can do a hard reboot on an iPhone or iPad by pressing and holding the power and sleep-wake buttons until the Apple logo appears.

 

The method of performing a hard reboot on an Android phone depends on the make and model of your phone. For most Android devices, you can press and hold the power and volume-down buttons for a hard reboot. Or, if your Android handset has a removable battery, try taking it out and putting it back in.

 

Get a Battery-Hogging App

If your phone’s battery life is still tanking after a hard reboot, you could always try to pinpoint an app that is draining more than its fair share of power.

Both Android phones and iPhones have tools that will help you spot a battery-hogging app. For Android, tap Settings > Battery, then scroll down and check out the list of apps. If you see one that has been using a lot of juice lately, tap it and tap the Force Stop button to stop it in its tracks.

For iOS, tap Settings > Battery, then look for a culprit in the Battery Usage list. If you spot any battery hogs, you can close the app by flicking up its “card” in the app switcher (double-tap the Home key), or cut off its background activity privileges (tap Settings > General > Background App Refresh, find the app in the list, then flip off its switch).

 

Turn on Airplane mode

Another possible reason for a plunging battery gauge is that you are in an area with poor data service. When that happens, your phone will keep trying (and trying and trying) to establish a connection, and that’s a sure way to drain your battery in a hurry.

You can turn Wi-Fi back on once you enable airplane mode on your Android or iOS device. If that is the case, your best bet may be to turn on airplane mode. Doing so will turn off your handset’s cellular radio and stop it from frantically looking for a cellular signal.

For iOS devices, tap Settings, then switch on the Airplane Mode setting, or just flick up the Control Center window and tap the Airplane Mode button. For Android devices, pull down the Quick Settings window shade and tap the Airplane Mode button.

If you do not like the idea of being out of touch, keep in mind that you can always turn on Wi-Fi after activating airplane mode.

Turn on Battery-Saver Mode

Both Android and iOS devices boast a battery-saver setting that will shut down most background activities, dim the screen, and enable other battery-preserving features, handy if you’re suddenly dealing with a phone that’s almost out of juice.

Turning on Android’s “Battery-saver” mode or iOS’s “Low Power Mode” is a good way to conserve the last precious drops of juice on your handset.

For Android devices, tap Settings > Battery, tap the three-dot “overflow” button in the top corner of the screen, tap Battery Saver, then flip on the switch. While you are at it, make sure to enable the Turn on automatically setting, which activates battery-saver mode when your device’s battery life falls below either 15 percent or 5 percent.

On an iPhone or iPad, tap Settings > Battery, then enable the Low Power Mode setting; you will also be prompted to turn on the feature on if your device falls below 20 percent or 10 percent of battery life remaining. Unlike Android’s Battery Saver feature, iOS’s Low Power Mode setting can only be activated manually.