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Extend Battery Life

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Tiggs Migliaccio
Overview:

This document provides information regarding things that you can do to help extend the battery life of your phone.

Navigating, playing games, surfing the Web, making calls, and texting all use power. You can install and use a wide variety of applications on your phone, so the amount of time your battery lasts between charges may vary from day to day, depending on how you use your phone. 

 
Please note that the icons you see on your phone may vary slightly from the ones in the following instructions.

Understanding Cell Phone Battery Life 

On April 28, 2016, we hosted a deep dive webinar about understanding cell phone batteries. You can listen to and read the full transcript of the webinar here: Webinar: Understanding Cell Phone Battery Life‌. 

Keep Your Battery Charged

The best way to ensure that you always start the day with a full battery is to charge your phone each night.

Restart Your Phone

Restart your phone if you haven't turned it off in a week or more, especially if your phone is slow or if your battery drains quickly. Frequent restarts may help keep data-heavy apps from using more battery.

Adjust Your Phone's Display

When you're not using your phone, press the power button to turn off the display.

Change The Screen Timeout

  1. Tap Moto_Apps_Icon.png Apps.

    Note: For the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, swipe up from the bottom of your home screen to open the app drawer.
    Note: For the Huawei Ascend 5W, begin at step 2.
  2. Tap Settings_Icon.png Settings.
  3. Tap Display.
  4. Tap Sleep or Screen timeout.
  5. Select an option. 

Lower Your Display Brightness 

For Google, Motorola, and Nexus Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Swipe down again from the top of the screen.
  3. Move the slider to the left to lower the brightness. 

For Samsung Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Move the slider to the left to lower the brightness. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap Shortcuts on the top right of the screen.
  3. Move the slider to the left to lower the brightness. 

Check How Much Power Your Apps or Components Are Using 

Some apps and widgets can use a lot of power when you use them or even when you're not using them:

  • Apps that use a lot of wireless data will take more power because the wireless radios have to transmit and receive a lot of data.
  • Apps that have frequent updates are also active energy consumers.
  • Some live wallpapers and widgets may also be consuming power. 

Check Battery Usage by App 

For Google, Motorola and Nexus Phones Only

  1. Tap Moto_Apps_Icon.png Apps.

    Note:  For the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, swipe up from the bottom for your home screen to open the app drawer.
  2. Tap Settings_Icon.png Settings.
  3. Tap Battery.
    • For Samsung phones, tap BATTERY USAGE   

Note: Charging your phone to 100% resets the battery usage information. 

For Samsung Phones Only

  1. Tap Samsung_Apps_Icon.png Apps.
  2. Tap Samsung_Settings_App_Icon.png Settings.
  3. Tap BATTERY USAGE.  

Note: Charging your phone to 100% resets the battery usage information. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Tap Settings.png Settings.
  2. Tap Advanced Settings.
  3. Tap Battery manager.
  4. Tap the circle with the battery percentage listed.
  5. Tap Consumption level.

    Note: Charging your phone to 100% resets the battery usage information. 

Manage Your Connectivity 

Use More WiFi 

Whenever possible, connect to a WiFi network. Generally, data over WiFi uses less power than data over cellular. 

Turn Off Bluetooth 

Turn Bluetooth off whenever you're not using it. 

For Google, Motorola and Nexus Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Swipe down again from the top of the screen.
  3. Tap the Bluetooth.png Bluetooth icon to turn it on or off. 

For Samsung Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap the Bluetooth__1_.png Bluetooth icon to turn it on or off. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap Shortcuts on the top right of the screen.
  3. Tap the Bluetooth__2_.png Bluetooth icon to turn it on or off. 

Turn Off GPS 

Turn off applications actively using GPS when you aren’t using them. Swipe down from the notification bar to see if active navigation applications offer an option to quit or exit. You can also keep apps from trying to determine your location by turning off GPS. 

For Google Phones Only

  1. Swipe up from the bottom of your home screen to open the app drawer.
  2. Tap Settings__1_.png Settings.
  3. Tap Location.
  4. Move the slider at the top right of the screen to turn it on or off. 

For Motorola and Nexus Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Swipe down again from the top of the screen.
  3. Tap the Location.png Location icon to turn it on or off. 

For Samsung Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap the GPS.png Location icon to turn it on or off.

    Note: If you don't see the Location icon, swipe the icons from right to left until you see it. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Tap Settings.png Settings.
  2. Tap Advanced settings.
  3. Tap Location access.
  4. Move the slider at the top right of the screen to turn it on or off. 

Use Airplane Mode 

If you're in an area with low or no cellular signal and do not need to make or receive calls or texts, you can put your phone into airplane mode to prevent the phone from using more power by trying to connect to the weak signal. 

For Google, Motorola, and Nexus Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Swipe down again from the top of the screen.
  3. Tap the Airplane_mode.png Airplane mode icon to turn it on or off.

Note: When Airplane mode is enabled, there will be a notification on your phone that says "No network connection". Once you disable Airplane mode, the network connection will be restored. 

For Samsung Phones Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap the Airplane_Mode__1_.png Airplane mode icon to turn it on or off.

    Note: If you don't see the Airplane mode icon, swipe the icons from right to left until you see it.

Note: When Airplane mode is enabled, there will be a notification on your phone that says "No network connection". Once you disable Airplane mode, the network connection will be restored. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
  2. Tap Shortcuts on the top right of the screen.
  3. Tap the Airplane_Mode__2_.png Airplane mode icon to turn it on or off.

Note: When Airplane mode is enabled, there will be a notification on your phone that says "No network connection". Once you disable Airplane mode, the network connection will be restored. 

Remove Duplicate Email 

Remove any duplicate email accounts in different applications. To check for duplicate accounts: 

For Google, Motorola, Nexus, and Samsung Phones Only

  1. Tap Moto_Apps_Icon.png Apps.

    Note: For the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, swipe up from the bottom of your home screen to open the app drawer.
  2. Tap Settings_Icon.png Settings.
  3. Tap Accounts.
  4. Tap on any of the account types and check for duplicates.
  5. If a duplicate exists, tap the duplicate account.
  6. Tap the Three_Vertical_Dots.png three vertical dots or MORE.
  7. Tap Remove account. 

For the Huawei Ascend 5W Phone Only

  1. Tap Settings.png Settings.
  2. Tap Accounts.
  3. Tap on any of the account types and check for duplicates.
  4. If a duplicate exists, tap the duplicate account.
  5. Tap Remove_Account.png Remove account.

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