Stop Draining Your Phone Battery: 5 iPhone Settings to Disable Right Now for Privacy & Battery Life

If you just got a new iPhone—or even if you’ve had yours for a while—there are some settings you should seriously consider turning off right away. Whether you’re concerned about your privacy or frustrated with your battery draining too fast, these tips are for you.

This guide walks you through five crucial settings you should disable immediately to protect your personal data and extend your iPhone’s battery life. Let’s dive in.

✅ Why These Settings Matter

There are two major reasons why people get frustrated with their iPhones:

• Privacy: Many iPhone features are silently sharing your data with Apple or third-party advertisers.

• Battery Drain: Some background processes are constantly running and eating up your battery without you even realizing it.

Turning off the settings below can improve your privacy, save battery, and make your iPhone run more efficiently.

1. Turn Off Analytics & Improvements

Location:
Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements

Apple uses your device data to “improve” products, but that includes sending analytics like how you use apps, how your battery performs, and more. It’s not malicious, but it’s not necessary either—and it’s your personal data.

What to do:

• Disable:

  • Share iPhone Analytics

  • Share iCloud Analytics

  • Improve Siri & Dictation

  • Share with App Developers

  • Share Audio Recordings

This prevents Apple from collecting detailed usage data, giving you back a bit of your digital privacy.

2. Turn Off Apple Personalized Ads

Location:
Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising

Apple uses your app usage and download history to serve “personalized ads.” Even though Apple says it does this anonymously, many users would prefer not to be tracked at all.

What to do:

• Disable: “Personalized Ads”

When turned off, Apple will stop tailoring ads based on your behavior across Apple News, App Store, and Stocks.

3. Restrict Location Services (Especially Significant Locations)

Location:
Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services

Apps like Instagram or games may request location access when it’s not necessary. Even Apple’s own system services can be excessive in tracking where you go.

What to do:

• Go through each app and select:

  • “While Using the App” (if necessary)

  • “Never” (for apps that don’t need your location)

• Tap System Services at the bottom and turn off:

  • Location-Based Alerts

  • Location-Based Apple Ads

  • Location-Based Suggestions

  • iPhone Analytics

  • Routing & Traffic

  • Improve Maps

• Important: Tap Significant Locations and turn it off, then clear your location history.

Significant Locations stores your frequently visited places—essentially a private log of your movements. Disabling this is a big step for privacy.

4. Disable Safari Tracking and Hide Your IP

Location:
Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security

Safari has privacy options built in, but you need to make sure they’re enabled. Many sites use cross-site tracking to follow you across the internet and serve targeted ads.

What to do:

• Enable:

  • Prevent Cross-Site Tracking

  • Hide IP Address (select “From Trackers”)

  • Fraudulent Website Warning

  • Privacy Preserving Ad Measurement (optional)

These settings prevent advertisers from tracking your activity from one site to another, which is how you end up seeing an ad for something you just searched on a completely different app.

5. Turn Off Background App Refresh & Push Email

These two settings are battery killers.

A. Turn Off Background App Refresh

Location:
Settings > General > Background App Refresh

When enabled, apps can refresh their content in the background—even when you’re not using them.

What to do:

• Tap Background App Refresh

• Select Off

This prevents apps from silently consuming battery and data in the background.

B. Disable Push Email & Set Fetch to Manual

Location:
Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data

Push email keeps your iPhone constantly connected to the email server. That means your phone is always checking for new messages, draining your battery in the process.

What to do:

• Toggle Push to Off

• For each email account, set Fetch to Manual

Now, your email will only refresh when you open the app manually—saving hours of battery over time.

Final Thoughts: Keep Control of Your iPhone

These five simple setting adjustments can make a big impact on both your privacy and battery life:

They’re easy to change, and they give you back control over your personal data and how your phone operates. Whether you’re a casual iPhone user or a tech-savvy pro, these tweaks are worth making.