Does Low Power Mode Hurt iPhone Battery?

No, Low Power Mode (LPM) doesn’t hurt your iPhone’s battery. It simply reduces the amount of power your iPhone requires and maximizes battery life. To do that, it affects many features that you might be used to, like AirDrop and Siri.

Hi, I’m Devansh. Whenever my iPhone goes below 20% battery level, and I’m outside, I often put it into Low Power Mode to preserve battery life until I can get it recharged. Since I use it often, I know its ins and outs pretty well.

In this article, I’ll give you a list of features that are affected by LPM and what it does to your iPhone. After you’ve learned that, I’ll help you determine how often you should activate it.

Keep reading if you’re wondering whether the Low Power Mode is hurting your iPhone battery!

What Happens in Low Power Mode?

First introduced in iOS 9, LPM is Apple’s solution to extending battery life as much as possible in sensitive situations. I’m sure you’ve seen this pop-up whenever your iPhone battery level drops to 20% or 10%.

Besides clicking this button to enable it when your battery is low, you can also enable it manually. Open Settings and head over to Battery. Notice how the battery icon in the status bar changes to yellow?

So, what does it do exactly? Here is a list of changes that LPM makes when enabled:

  • Optimizes device performance by throttling the processor (check benchmarks)
  • Disables 5G, except for video streaming (only on iPhone 12 models)
  • Defaults auto-lock to 30 seconds
  • Dims display brightness and caps refresh rate at 60Hz on iPhone and iPad models with ProMotion display
  • Disables visual effects and live wallpapers
  • Pauses automatic backup to iCloud Photos
  • Prevents automatic downloads of music and apps
  • Disables automatic email fetch, AirDrop, Continuity, background app refresh, and Siri wake-up command

So, how much battery does enabling LPM actually save? As you might expect, it varies from user to user, depending on their workload. According to Apple, it should extend battery life by up to three hours. If you want to read more about it, check out this article by Matt Birchler.

How Often Should You Enable Low Power Mode?

There’s no harm in keeping LPM enabled even when you’re not risking a dead battery, but it’ll undoubtedly hinder your overall user experience. Here’s the thing: other than optimizing device performance, most of the changes that LPM makes can also be set in place manually. Here’s how. First, open Settings and then follow along.

  • Disable automatic email fetch: Open Mail, tap on Accounts, and then Fetch New Data. Toggle off Push, and choose your preferred interval period under Fetch.
  • Enable auto-brightness: Go to Display & Brightness and toggle on True Tone.
  • Minimize auto-lock timeout: Go to Display & Brightness, tap on Auto-Lock, and choose 30 seconds.
  • Disable background refresh for non-essential apps: Go to General and Background App Refresh. Be mindful of enabling it for apps that might benefit from it, like sports apps.

Along with this, pay a visit to the Battery page too. You’ll see which apps consume the most power and also check your maximum battery capacity. If you want to know some more additional tips and tricks to maximize your iPhone’s battery life, check out this page.

FAQs

Here are some more questions you might have regarding Low Power Mode on iPhone.

Can You Toggle On Low Power Mode from the Control Center?

You can add the LPM icon in your iPhone’s Control Center if you want easy access to Low Power Mode. Head over to Settings, Control Center, and Customize Controls. Here, you can select Low Power Mode from the list. After you add it, it’ll appear like this whenever you swipe down from the top-right corner of your iPhone.

Is It Possible to Enable Low Power Mode on iPad and Mac?

For iPad, the process is the same as on iPhone. For Mac, open System Preferences, click on the Battery page, and choose Battery in the menu tree. From here, you can enable Low power mode!

Can You Automate Low Power Mode?

Generally, LPM disables when your battery reaches 80% charge. If you want to enable it for longer periods of time, you can do it using Shortcuts. Either tap the plus icon in the top-right corner or go to the Automations section and click on Create Personal Automation. You can choose Low Power Mode as an action and create a Shortcut that keeps it activated as long as you want!

Conclusion

All in all, Low Power Mode won’t hurt your iPhone’s battery. Instead, it’ll reduce your overall user experience by limiting various features to preserve battery life. I recommend you use it only when necessary if you want to use your iPhone to its full potential.

How often do you enable Low Power Mode on your iPhone? Please share with me in the comments!

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