Top tips to extend the battery life of your iPad

The latest iPads boast battery life of up to 10 hours on a full charge. But if you’ve got an older tablet, it may run out of juice much more quickly than this. 

So what steps can you take to ensure your iPad isn’t consuming more power than it needs to?

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1. Check the brightness

The brighter your iPad’s display, the more power it is using.

To change brightness, look under the 'Display & Brightness' option on the main 'Settings' menu – here you can turn on 'Auto-Brightness' which tells your iPad to increase or decrease brightness depending on the level of ambient light.

You can also change brightness by swiping up from the bottom of any screen to open the 'Control Centre'.

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2. Turn off unnecessary extras

There are a few whistles and bells on your tablet that you might never need to use – and which contribute to battery-life drain. 

Bluetooth is one – this allows your iPad to communicate with other devices or music systems wirelessly, but chances are you can do the same with Wi-Fi.

To turn off Bluetooth, select the option near the top of your 'Settings' menu.

'Location Services' can be useful in adding location tags to pictures or when using maps – but again, they are power-hungry. Under 'Privacy' on the 'Settings' menu you can choose which apps, if any, can use 'Location Services'.

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3. Update your device

According to Apple, keeping your iPad up-to-date with the latest operating software is another way of prolonging battery life. 

On the 'Settings' menu choose the 'General' option and then 'Software Update'. Updates usually take a while to install, so only do so when you don’t need to use your tablet.

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4. Limit notifications

A lot of the apps on your device like to be constantly updated – they’ll also give you regular messages, such as news alerts or friends’ Facebook status updates, unless you tell them not to. Again, these notifications curtail your battery life.

On the 'General' option under 'Settings', choose 'Background App Refresh': turn this off by moving the slider to the left. 

Equally, you can choose which apps you want to be able to refresh from the list below this slider.

You can also limit which apps provide regular notifications – the little bubbles that pop up in the middle or at the top of your screen. Do this under 'Notifications' on the main 'Settings' menu.

Browse our articles for more useful hints and tips.