Restrict Background App Refresh To Save iPhone Battery

Battery lifetime has always been an important concern for iPhone users. Even if the iPhone 6 is a sensible improver, most of us still feel the need to carefully nurture our power drainage, in order to prolong the usage time of our device. It seems that the goal of the average iPhone user is to make a full charging cycle last for at least 24 hours, before plugging in again.

If you’re new to iOS you might not know yet, that there are plenty of apps refreshing in the background. This means that they use your WiFi or carrier data connection to download information, even if your device is in standby mode. You do want that for your Social Media or Weather apps, but those that are used less frequently can be turned off in order to save battery life.

The Background App Refresh Setting
This feature is available in the Settings menu, under the General branch, tap for Background App Refresh. Here you have the option to enable or disable this automatic app data reload.
Below the ON/OFF setting, you have the list with all apps that refresh themselves if allowed. When reload is ON you have the option to manually set each app.
This way you can allow some important applications to permanently reload data, while restricting others that you don’t use that often.

I always use a personalized setup which allows only apps that I use daily to acquire new data while in standby mode. In case my battery percentage reaches critical values and I’m not near a charging station, I disable the automatic app reload, along with other iPhone functions, to prolong usage time as much as possible.
Stocks is probably the most disabled app from refreshing in background. It’s a built-in iOS software that can’t be disabled else. I’m currently not interested in Podcasts and also don’t use the built-in Weather app. So, I decided to allow refreshing only for Weather Underground.