How to fix battery draining problem on your iPhone 5, battery drains so fast

Power issues including battery draining problem on an iPhone are usually transpiring among other symptoms of wear-and-tear. Nonetheless, these problems may also occur earlier due to system errors and rogue apps. Addressed in this post is a similar issue on the iPhone 5 battery that’s draining so quickly. Read on to find out how to deal with battery draining problem on the same iPhone.

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Troubleshooting software-related battery draining problem on iPhone 5

As mentioned earlier, battery draining problem is not always due to hardware damage but may likewise be attributed to software-related issues. If your iPhone 5 battery started to drain so quickly after installing a new app, updating software, modifying settings or customizing display options, then performing the following procedures will likely be able to fix it. Try and see if any of these methods is able to resolve the battery draining problem on your iPhone 5.

First solution: Clear out all background apps.

Apps that are left running in the background are technically idle but they also keep using up your phone’s power. The more apps you left suspended, the more power is consumed. As a result, the phone’s battery will drain faster. This is one of the main reasons why it’s recommended to clear out background apps from time to time. Just follow these steps if you haven’t yet done so:

  1. Double press the Home key to launch the recent apps screen. On this screen, you will see the previews of the apps you’ve recently used but not closed.
  2. Swipe up on each app card/preview to close or end individual apps.

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Once you’re done clearing all background apps, restart or soft reset your iPhone to dump all junk files that are stored as cache on your phone memory and system folders. Simply refer to these steps if you haven’t soft reset your iPhone 5 yet:

  1. Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button simultaneously for about 10 seconds.
  2. Release both buttons when the Apple logo appears.

Wait until your phone reboots and then try using it again as you normally do and see if the battery draining problem continues.

ALSO READ: How to fix Apple Watch 4 battery draining issue, watch battery drains so quickly

Second solution: Delete and/or reinstall rogue apps.

Rogue apps can also trigger rapid battery draining as they can consume more than the normal amount of power they’re supposed to utilize. If the problem started after installing an app, then deleting that app will likely bring instant solution. Otherwise, figure out which from your apps are using the most of your battery life and then try to reinstall them. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Settings app from your Home screen.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Then tap Storage & iCloud Usage.
  4. Navigate to the Storage section then tap Manage Storage.
  5. Find the suspected app that you want to delete.
  6. And then tap the option to select then delete the app from your phone.

After deleting rogue apps, open the App Store if you wish to reinstall any of the apps you’ve deleted. 

Third solution: Install pending updates for apps and iOS.

Keeping apps up to date can also help keep your apps stable and prevents them from causing power issues. If you haven’t configured your apps to auto-update, you will need to manually install pending updates through the App Store. Make sure that your phone is connected to the Internet and has ample memory to allocate new update files for your apps. Also make sure that your iPhone is connected to its charging to prevent any possible power interruptions that might disrupt the update process. Then follow these steps whenever you’re ready to update your apps:

  1. Tap to open the App Store from your Home screen.
  2. From the App Store screen, scroll down to the bottom then tap the Updates tab. Doing so will open a new screen containing a list of apps with pending updates.
  3. To update individual apps, tap the Update button next to the name of an app.
  4. To update all apps at once, tap the Update All button on the upper-right side.

Aside from app updates, installing the latest iOS version available for your iPhone may also be able to resolve battery draining problem on your phone, especially if malware and software bugs are to blame. All you have to do is follow these steps to get started:

  1. Tap Settings from your Home screen.
  2. Scroll to and tap General.
  3. Tap Software Update.

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Follow the rest of the onscreen instructions to download and install the update.

ALSO READ: How to fix a 2019 iPad Air 3 that cannot update iOS wirelessly

Fourth solution: Manage display settings to fix battery draining problem on your iPhone 5.

Reducing screen brightness, disabling unnecessary animations and activating power-saving mode on your phone can also help slow down or reduce battery consumption on your iPhone.

To adjust or lower screen brightness on your iPhone 5, simply follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Home screen, then tap on Settings.
  2. Scroll down to and tap on Brightness & Wallpaper.
  3. Drag the screen brightness slider to the left to reduce or lower your phone’s screen brightness level.

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You can also adjust the screen brightness manually through the control center. Just open the Control Center on your phone and then drag the brightness (sun) icon.

Another way to reduce power consumption is to disable unnecessary screen animations. To disable unnecessary screen animations, follow these steps instead:

  1. From your Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select General.
  3. Tap Accessibility.
  4. Then tap on Reduce Motion. 
  5. Toggle the switch to turn the feature ON

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Doing so will turn off animations when you launch and close apps on your iPhone. It will also disable the parallax feature in your wallpaper settings. This therefore results in the reduction of power consumption on your phone.

Your iPhone also has power-saving mode, which can be activated whenever you need to extend the battery life and use your device before you charge it. To activate power-saving mode, simply refer to these steps:

  1. From your Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select Battery.
  3. Then tap the switch to turn on Low Power Mode. 

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You can also make the adjustments from the Control Center. 

  • To do so, just head on over to Settings-> Control Center-> Customize Controls menu and then select Low Power Mode to add it to the Control Center.

With Low Power mode enabled, the amount of power that your iPhone uses will be reduced. This is essential when your phone’s battery is running low. 

Enabling Power mode will help your phone last longer before you charge it. The only downside is that some features and tasks might not work until your phone is charged to 80% or higher.

  1. Turning sound and notification alerts can also help reduce power consumption. This can be done by enabling the phone’s DND feature. Here’s how:
  2. Swipe left over an alert or group of alerts.
  3. Tap Manage.
  4. Tap Deliver Quietly if you want your notifications to show in the notification center but not on the lock screen, play sounds, or show banner or badge icon.
  5. Tap Turn Off to turn off all notifications for a specific app.

You can also turn off all notifications without any exceptions by enabling Do Not Disturb. 

  • Just go to Settings-> Do Not Disturb menu and then toggle the switch to turn Do Not Disturb on.

You can also manage and enable this feature from the control center.

  • To do this, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and tap the crescent moon icon next to the screen rotation lock. 

With Do Not Disturb enabled, notification sounds and alerts are muted.

Aside from turning off unwanted notifications, disabling auto-sync and email fetching can also help reduce power consumption on your phone.

Fifth solution: Reset all settings on your iPhone 5.

Incorrect settings including those coming from the recently installed updates are also among other factors to eliminate. And this is when resetting all settings on your iPhone 5 is needed. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. From the Home screen, tap on Settings.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Scroll to and tap on Reset.
  4. Select the option to Reset all settings.
  5. Enter your device passcode if prompted.
  6. Then tap to confirm that you want to reset all settings on your iPhone.

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When the reset is finished, all your customized settings are deleted while the original options and values are restored. To use necessary features, particularly those that are disabled by default, you will need to make necessary adjustments to your phone settings.

ALSO READ: How to fix an iPhone 5c that’s overheating

Last resort: Erase your iPhone and restore default settings (factory reset).

Among the last options you’ve got if battery draining problem continues is a factory reset. This will wipe everything from your iPhone system including complex system errors and stubborn bugs that caused the battery to drain faster than usual. The main downside though is that you would lose personal information, downloads and other files saved on your iPhone storage. If you wish to proceed, back up all these important files to iTunes or iCloud. Then follow these steps to instigate full system reset through settings:

  1. From the Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Select Reset.
  4. Tap Erase all content and settings from the given options.
  5. If prompted, enter your passcode to continue.
  6. Then tap to confirm that you want to erase your iPhone and restore factory defaults.

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You can also use iTunes to manually erase and restore factory default settings on your iPhone 5 using a Windows or Mac computer. Just connect your iPhone to the computer and you can follow the rest of the iTunes commands to get the reset done. To make it clearer, I’ve demonstrated the standard procedure on how to manually erase and restore factory settings on your iPhone through iTunes. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. Open iTunes on your computer.
  2. Connect your iPhone to the computer using the original USB cable/Lightning cable.
  3. Wait for your iPhone to sync and show up in iTunes.
  4. Select your iPhone 5 when it appears in iTunes. Just click on its icon.
  5. Navigate to the Summary panel then click the Restore iPhone button.
  6. If prompted, click Restore again to confirm that you want to erase your device in iTunes.
  7. After erasing your iPhone, iTunes will then install the latest iOS version available for your device.

Wait until your phone is finished restoring to factory settings and then restarts automatically. By then you can start setting it up as new.

If the battery started to drain so quickly after updating iOS, then it’s more likely due to an iOS bug. In that case, restoring your iPhone from a previous iOS backup can be considered a temporary solution. 

Is your iPhone 5 battery still draining so fast?

The battery draining problem may continue even after exhausting all the aforementioned solutions if hardware damage is present on your phone’s power components. This is usually what happens if the battery is damaged. To clear this out, you can take your iPhone to the nearest Apple-authorized center so that a technician can take a look at it and then repair any identified damaged components. 

Alternatively, you may also consider getting an upgrade. Perhaps it’s time for you to replace your old iPhone with a new model. Talk to your carrier about how to get a new iPhone through account upgrades.

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