14 DAY TRIAL // It’s become pretty clear by now that iOS 7.1.1 does little to nothing to address battery drainage on iPhone and iPad, despite initial reports saying that it solved them. A tipster let us in on a potential fix for the problem, and at least on our test unit we’ve noticed a considerable improvement.
For one reason or another, Apple has failed to address widely-reported battery drain bugs in iOS 7. Most complaints emerged after the release of iOS 7.1 in March. The reports kept trickling in after the launch of iOS 7.1.1 in April, suggesting Apple had done nothing to address the matter.
“Im using iphone 5s and my battery gets really hot just surfing on net. Do not take this update. For Jobb's [sic] sake. Why are u guys screwing us around?” writes one upset Softpedia reader.
“Battery drain is really annoying since 7.1, and definitely not better with 7.1.1,” another one adds, commenting on our story “iOS 7.1.1 Causes More Battery Drain for Some Users.” “Mine loses between 50 & 70% capacity overnight while unused. Are there preferences that can be changed or certain apps closed to avoid this?” he asks.
Actually, there might be one tweak that everyone can easily perform that might just do the trick, without sacrificing important functionality. A tipster tells us that one quick way to reduce some of the excessive power drainage is to switch off the automatic timezone setting in the Date & Time preference pane. Here are the steps.
1. Unlock your device and go to Settings;
2. In the main Settings panel, scroll down just a bit until you see General and tap it;
3. Once in General Settings, again scroll down until you reach Date & Time and go inside;
4. Inside Date & Time you’ll find an ON/OFF switch for the Time Zone to be Set Automatically. Switch it to OFF and see how your battery fares from there on.
For us, it seems to do the trick. Where the battery would hold up only six or seven hours at most, now (with the automatic timezone setting off) things are back to normal – one full day of heavy usage.
But you might also want to keep in mind that there are countless apps and services that also contribute to the power drainage, such as Facebook (including Facebook Messenger), WhatsApp, or functions like Bluetooth and Location Services. Basically you should kill these when you’re not using them.
Learn more here: iOS 7.1.1 Draining Your Battery? See If Killing These Apps Helps
Also worth noting is that merely stopping the Facebook app from the Multitasking tray doesn’t actually log you out, so you need to log out of the social network before killing the app outright.