Editor’s Note: Senior Help Desk Blogger Nick Merlino shares 10 useful tips and tricks on how to make the most out of your iPad’s battery life. Come down to Help Desk and work with our student geniuses on any and all things i-related! 

In a 1:1 educational environment, only one thing can stop the lesson plan in its tracks: a dead iDevice battery. How many times have you forgotten to charge your iDevice, your iPad specifically, so you couldn’t use it when you need to. You’ve done it, I’ve done it, we’ve all done it. Students especially seem to forget to charge their iDevice overnight, so they show up to school with a dead iPad and find it difficult to be productive. However, if you’re tired of your device dying on you, follow these easy and useful tricks to save your battery life by simply making adjustments in “Settings.”

 

 

1) Auto-Brightness w/ Moderate Brightness

‘Settings’ > ‘Wallpapers & Brightness’ > Turn on auto-brightness > Put brightness low but still bright enough to see clearly.
This feature allows for your brightness to be self-maintained by the device so it is not too dim but also not blinding. Having the brightness lower in dark situations allows for less energy consumption by the screen.

2) Close Background Apps

Double Click Home Button > Slide the desired app to the top of the screen.
Even when your app has been “closed” it still runs in the background so turning this off will mean the device won’t have to handle the app at all times.

3) Disable Bluetooth
‘Settings’ > ‘Bluetooth’ > Turn off Bluetooth (when not in use)

4) Disable Wi-Fi

‘Settings’ > Wi-Fi> Turn off Wi-Fi (when not in use)

5) Turn off notifications for unnecessary applications

‘Settings’ > ‘Notification Center’ > Turn off notifications for certain apps

6) Turn off ‘Automatic downloads’ in app store

‘Settings’ > ‘iTunes & App Store’ > Turn off unused features

7) Turn off location tracking while not in use – Suggested keep ‘Find My iPad’ on

‘Settings’ > ‘Privacy’ > ‘Location Services’ > Turn off all location services (Including ‘System Services’) except for Find My iPhone because you never know when you’ll lose your iDevice

8) Turn off iCloud auto-sync options for things you don’t use

‘Settings’ > ‘iCloud’ > Turn off unused features

9) For email, turn ‘Fetch New Data’ on Push so it doesn’t automatically check

‘General’ > ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars’ > ‘Fetch New Data’ > Turn ‘Push’ off and change email settings to “Manual”

10) Update your iOS – Software updates can help battery life

‘Settings’ > ‘General’ > “Software Update’ > Update