Technologies

8 iPhone Battery Tips to Keep It Powered All Day

Apple phone losing charge too quickly? Try these iPhone battery hacks to make sure it lasts when you need it most.

When iPhones are brand new, they can easily last all day, but that lasting power can diminish over time. On top of that, the latest iOS 18 software and apps, including Apple Intelligence AI, can drain them quickly. Long use and new features may lead you to need to recharge it sooner. But before you consider buying a new Apple phone, like the new iPhone 16 or the more affordable iPhone 16E, try out these battery hacks to prolong the daytime your current iPhone stays charged.

Some of the causes of battery drain are easy to control, like features turned on by default that can be switched off. Others might require a lifestyle change as you switch up how you use your iPhone throughout the day, breaking habits and going without some minor perks. In all cases, it’s helpful to keep a pocketable power bank in your pocket or bag just in case.

Here are eight tips for diagnosing and extending your iPhone’s battery life.

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1. Find what’s draining your battery

Some apps drain more of your iPhone’s battery than others, and it’s no surprise that the biggest offenders are those that track location, stream video or generate graphics (games, for example, especially fast-paced online ones). If it makes your phone heat up a bit, it’s probably running down your battery faster than casual use.

There’s a way to specifically check which apps are draining your battery the most. Head to Settings > Battery and scroll down to see which apps are the worst culprits for taking the biggest percentage of your screen time. Also, don’t skip the Insights and Suggestions section, as it does all the analysis for you and shows you which apps and settings to change.

Note that these are the biggest uses of your battery, but you’ll have to parse through them to see which are big battery drainers, like YouTube or TikTok. In my case, Safari takes the biggest chunk of my use, which represents a lot of endless scrolling of sites and forums — but YouTube is in second.

2. Drop the battery-draining apps

Let’s face it — whether it’s Instagram, TikTok or something else, one or two apps are probably draining an outsized chunk of your battery every day. If you want longer battery life, remove the app by long-pressing its icon on the Home Screen and clicking the «x» in the corner.

Yes, you could try to limit your use before wiping these apps from your phone. If you believe in your willpower, you could just stick the offending app in a folder to keep it out of sight, out of mind.

But if you need some help from your iPhone itself, you can set a time limit for individual apps or whole categories. Go to Settings > Screen Time and tap App Limits. From there tap the Add Limit button to select by entire categories or specific apps.

3: Turn down your screen brightness

You can save battery by turning down your iPhone screen’s brightness. This one’s pretty easy: tap-and-drag from the top-right corner to bring up the Control Panel and manually lower the brightness bar. Alternatively, you can find these controls in Settings > Display & Brightness or if you prefer to be verbose, you can ask Siri to reduce the brightness.

While you’re in the Display & Brightness sub-menu, tap Auto-Lock to set your phone to have a shorter time before locking itself. That way you won’t be draining battery if you put your phone down and paying attention to something else.

4: Turn on Low Power Mode

Whenever you dip below 20% battery, your iPhone will ask if you want to extend your remaining battery life by turning on Low Power Mode. But you can also manually activate it at any time, either by opening up the Control Panel (if a shortcut has been set there) or by going to Settings > Battery and switching it on there.

Low Power Mode is a catch-all setting that ekes out more battery life by reducing drain from several active and passive sources. It dials down background activity like downloads and mail fetching, lowers the screen brightness; as well as turns off the Always On Display.

5: If your 5G signal is bad, switch to 4G LTE

While carriers have built out their 5G networks over the years, some phone owners will struggle to get a strong signal in areas with poor coverage — or in places 5G struggles to reach, like within buildings and underground. Your iPhone burns a lot of battery trying to stay connected, so if you don’t have a great connection, it might be best to manually revert to 4G LTE.

To do so, head to Settings > Cellular, then tap on Cellular Data Options. If you don’t see Cellular Data Options, select the SIM or eSIM that you’re currently using. On the next screen, tap Voice & Data and select LTE. You’ll only use 4G LTE to connect to mobile networks, which should be more widely available among carriers.

You should also be aware that downloading data drains battery, too, so manually restricting that could extend your battery life. To do so, head to Settings > Cellular, then tap on Cellular Data Options. If you don’t see Cellular Data Options, tap on the SIM or eSIM that you’re currently using. On the next screen, tap Data Mode then tap Low Data Mode, which will pause automatic updates and background tasks.

6: Selectively disable location services

Tracking your location drains battery, so turning it off when possible is a good idea if you don’t need it. Triangulating your position actually takes multiple sensors, so it’s not an insignificant amount of battery saved — your iPhone uses GPS, Bluetooth, and crowdsourced Wi-Fi to narrow down where you are.

To see which apps track your location, tap Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and tap through to tweak each individually. But you can also turn off Location Services entirely with the toggle at the top of the screen.

It’s worth nothing that Location Services are required for Apple’s Find My feature, so if you want to track down another object linked to your account, you’ll need Location Services turned on. Likewise, you’ll need it turned on if you ever lose the iPhone you’re using, so make sure to reactivate it later.

7: Turn off Always On Display

Introduced in the iPhone 14 Pro series in 2023 and only available on the newest Pro and Pro Max models, Always On Display does what it says: It keeps a dimmed version of your lock screen on. This allows you to check the time, on-screen widgets and how many notifications you have without needing to fully unlock your phone. But it also saps your battery by having that low-light version of your display constantly activated.

If you can live without having that quick info at a glance, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On Display and turn it off. It may not be a huge power saver, but it’s one of the features on the newer iPhone Pro models that seemingly counteracts any battery increase Apple ekes out of the phones. Under the Always On Display settings, you can also disable the Wallpaper and Notifications for a more minimal version that only shows the date and time against a black background.

8: Install a new battery

Over years of use, your iPhone’s battery will degrade and it simply won’t be able to hold as much juice as it could when brand-new. Thankfully Apple has made it easy to check how your battery is doing — just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and you’ll get an easy diagnosis, an estimate of its maximum capacity on a full charge and how many full recharge cycles it’s gone through.

Apple generally recommends replacing your battery when it dips below 80% maximum capacity. Keep in mind that it’s not just the maximum battery life that might suffer if you don’t swap out for a new battery — the quality might degrade so much that the battery itself could swell and warp enough to damage sensors and internal parts of the iPhone — which is rare.

Apple offers in-store battery replacement for $99 for the newest iPhone 15 models, which drops down to a minimum of $69 for the oldest iPhone SE and iPhone 5 models the company still supports. Third-party phone repair shops may offer their own rates for replacing batteries, and iFixit has a guide if you want to boldly order a new battery and attempt the swap yourself — just keep in mind that it may violate any AppleCare agreement if you go outside Apple’s repair ecosystem.

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 5, #1477

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for July 5, No. 1,477.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a pretty tough one. I grew up on a farm, so I know the word, but I didn’t put it together right away, even though the letters are common ones. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter B.

Wordle hint No. 4: Down on the farm

Today’s Wordle answer describes a piece of farm equipment.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer refers to a machine for making paper, hay, or cotton into bales.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is BALER.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, July 4, No. 1476 was CURVE.

Recent Wordle answers

June 30, No. 1472: BLINK

July 1, No. 1473: MOLDY

July 2, No. 1474: INCUR

July 3, No. 1475: POPPY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for July 5, #489

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for July 5, No. 489.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

The theme of today’s NYT Strands puzzle isn’t terribly tough, but at least one of the words is unusual and really, really long to unscramble. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Every second counts.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Does anybody really know what time it is?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DIAL, SOLE, MOLE, MOLES, SHAKE, CHEEP, ROLE, HOME, LOCK, MEAT, TAME, TAMES, ROLES, ROON, TRON

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

CLOCK, WATCH, SUNDIAL, HOURGLASS, CHRONOMETER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is TIMEKEEPERS. To find it, look for the T that’s four letters down on the far left, and wind across.

Technologies

Microsoft Is Eliminating Passwords in August: Here’s What You Need to Do to Prepare

Microsoft Authenticator has already stopped autofilling passwords, but the biggest change comes next month.

In June, Microsoft Authenticator stopped letting users create new passwords. In July, it turned off the autofill password function. And in August, the login app will stop supporting passwords entirely, moving to more secure passkeys, such as a PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition.

Attila Tomaschek, CNET’s software senior writer and digital security expert, says that passkeys are a safer alternative to the risky password habits practiced by 49% of US adults, according to a recent survey by CNET.

«Passwords can be cracked, whereas passkeys need both the public and the locally stored private key to authenticate users, which can help mitigate risks like falling victim to phishing and brute-force or credential-stuffing attacks,» Tomaschek said.

Using the same password for several accounts or adding personal hints can be a convenient way to remember your login. But that puts you at a big risk for scammers, identity theft and fraud. Here’s more on Microsoft’s plan for eliminating passwords and how to make the switch to passkeys before August.

When will Microsoft Authenticator stop supporting passwords?

Microsoft Authenticator houses your passwords and lets you sign into all your Microsoft accounts using a PIN, facial recognition like Windows Hello, or other biometric data like a fingerprint. Authenticator can be used in other ways, such as verifying you’re logging in if you forgot your password, or using two-factor authentication as an extra layer of security for your accounts. In June, the company stopped letting users add passwords to Authenticator, but here’s a timeline of other changes you can expect from Microsoft.

July 2025: You won’t be able to use the autofill password function.
August 2025: You’ll no longer be able to use saved passwords.

If you still want to use passwords instead of passkeys, you can store them in Microsoft Edge. However, CNET experts recommend adopting passkeys during this transition. «Passkeys use public key cryptography to authenticate users, rather than relying on users themselves creating their own (often weak or reused) passwords to access their online accounts,» Tomaschek said.

Why are passkeys a better alternative to passwords?

So what exactly is a passkey? It’s a credential created by the Fast Identity Online Alliance that uses biometric data or a PIN to verify your identity and access your account. Think about using your fingerprint or Face ID to log into your account. That’s generally safer than using a password that is easy to guess or susceptible to a phishing attack.

Passkeys aren’t stored on servers like passwords. Instead, they’re stored only on your personal device. More conveniently, this takes the guesswork out of remembering your passwords and the need for a password manager.

How to set up a passkey in Microsoft Authenticator

Microsoft said in a May 1 blog post that it will automatically detect the best passkey to set up and make that your default sign-in option. «If you have a password and ‘one-time code’ set up on your account, we’ll prompt you to sign in with your one-time code instead of your password. After you’re signed in, you’ll be prompted to enroll a passkey. Then the next time you sign in, you’ll be prompted to sign in with your passkey,» according to the blog post.

To set up a new passkey, open your Authenticator app on your phone. Tap on your account and select «Set up a passkey.» You’ll be prompted to log in with your existing credentials. After you’re logged in, you can set up the passkey.