An iPad is great and all…until it runs out of battery. Yes, one of the greatest aspects of the iPad, one of the reasons it works as a commercial product, is its long battery life. But even powerful batteries run out of juice at some point. Older iPads suffer from deteriorated batteries, meaning they discharge much faster than they did when they were younger. What to do?
If you don’t have access to a charger every few hours and notice your battery running down, you can follow some of these tips. Not all are practical for every user, but many of them can go a long way in ensuring your iPad has a long-lasting, functioning battery.
1. Turn down the brightness
The brighter the screen, the greater the battery burn. Just go to Settings, then Brightness & Wallpaper. Keep auto-brightness on, but slide that indicator down. Mine stays at about halfway and everything is still readable. Video is still relatively sharp (though you can turn it back up if you’re going to watch video — and have a charger nearby).
2. Turn off Wi-Fi
Having WiFi on, in itself, does not drain the battery significantly. It’s just an internet connection, after all. The drain comes from the WiFi being used. If you have apps running in the background, and those apps have auto-updates or otherwise regularly access the internet, they’re draining your battery. Go to Settings and flip WiFi off when you’re not using the device.
3. Close unused applications
If you’d rather not turn off WiFi, because you want to get email or other important communications, you can always close the apps themselves. Either double click the home button or use four fingers to swipe upward. That will reveal your task bar. Hold down one of the icons to make them shake, and then close unused ones. If they’re closed they won’t auto-update in the background, saving your battery.
You could, of course, just use your iPad less frequently. But that kind of defeats the point, doesn’t it?
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