Power saving mode on iPhone and iPad: what it does and how to enable it. When you have no way to charge your phone, putting it into power saving mode can save battery.
Power Saving Mode on iPhone and iPad is a feature that helps preserve battery life. Your iPhone or iPad will ask you to activate power saving mode when the battery is at 20%. You can manually turn power saving on or off via the Settings app.
It can be stressful when your iPhone's battery is low while you're out and about with no way to charge, especially if you know you'll need your phone to call an Uber or drive home.
Thankfully, iPhones and iPads come with Low Power Mode, a battery saving feature that disables or slows down less essential functions like app updates so you can extend the device's battery life.
Here's what you should know about power saving mode and how to turn it on and off on your iPhone or iPad.
What is low power mode?
When the battery is low and you can't charge your iPhone or iPad right away, Power Saver is a useful tool to maximize the remaining battery and keep the device running. The power saving mode saves battery life by reducing the amount of power used by the iPhone or iPad.
Typically, the device will automatically ask you to activate power saving mode when the battery level drops below 20%. If you choose to ignore the message, you will receive another prompt to enable 10% battery power saving.
When power saving mode is on, features such as email retrieval, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and some visual effects will be reduced or affected. Your iPhone or iPad will automatically lock after 30 seconds if you are not actively using it and iCloud photos will be paused.
You will know that the power saving mode is active if the battery icon at the top right of the screen is yellow instead of white or red. Power saving mode is automatically turned off when your iPhone or iPad is charged to 80% or more.
How to activate and deactivate the power saving mode on iPhone or iPad
Even if the battery is not at 20%, you can still activate or deactivate the power saving mode in the Settings.
- Open the app Settings. Scroll down and tap Battery.
- Touch the switch next to energy saving. When it is green, the power saving mode is active. When it is gray, the power saving mode is disabled.
How to add power saving mode to Control Center on your iPhone or iPad
You can add power saving mode to your Control Center (accessed by swiping down from the top right corner of the screen) for easier access to this feature.
- Open the app Settings. Touch Control Center.
- Find Energy saving mode in the section Other checks, then tap the plus symbol + next to Energy saving mode to add it to the Control Center.
Is your iPhone or iPad charging faster in power saving mode?
When you put your iPhone or iPad into power saving mode, you're telling it to do less. With more energy released, your device can focus more on charging.
So yes, the power saving mode charges your iPhone faster, but its meaning can vary. In one test, an iPhone 6S charged from 17% to a full charge (100%) in 2 hours and 50 minutes without the power saving mode activated. With the power saving mode activated, the iPhone 6S charges from 17% to 100% in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
In the tested test, with the power saving mode off, the iPhone reached a charge of 66% in one hour and 93% after two hours. In power saving mode, the iPhone reached 73% charge in one hour and 95% charge after two hours.
During both tests, the iPhone was not touched except to check the charge levels every 10 minutes. With an 80% charge, the iPhone automatically deactivated the power saving mode, which was reactivated for testing.
Other ways to speed up charging
In addition to the power saving mode, other battery saving strategies such as activating the airplane mode, not using the device (to browse, check emails, scroll Instagram, etc.) and turning off the iPhone or 'iPad will help it recharge faster.
