While Apple’s iPhone is an amazing piece of technology, sometimes the battery life just doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Improving the battery life is actually easy to do by following these 5 steps.

While Apple’s iPhone is an amazing piece of technology, sometimes the battery life just doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Improving the battery life is actually easy to do by following these 5 steps.

1. Turn on low power mode

Low power mode is Apple’s new feature from iOS 9 that changes some of the functions of the iPhone to save battery. The only downside is that you won’t automatically receive emails or other notifications. To get to this option, open the “Settings” application, and scroll down to the “Battery” tab. Turn on “Low Power Mode,” and your battery meter in the top right corner will turn orange.

2. Turn on “Airplane Mode”

Airplane mode turns off most features of the iPhone that suck your battery dry, like wifi and bluetooth. If you’re in true desperation for more battery, this is the one for you. The easiest way to do this is to swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and the tap on the airplane icon.

3. Reduce Motion

The iPhone has many eye-catching animations, but they drain a lot of juice from your battery. Turning them off is very simple. Open the “Settings” app again, and go down to “General,” and then “Accessibility.” Lower still is a tab labeled “Reduce Motion.” Activate that, and you’re good to go.

4. Enable Auto-Lock

If you’re like me you probably accidentally leave your phone unlocked a lot. Enabling Auto-Lock will save you some grief. If your phone is not used for a time set by you, it will automatically lock itself. To enable it go into “Settings” and then “General.” Scroll down to “Auto-Lock,” and enable whatever time you want.

5. Background App Refresh

Background App Refresh is a feature that will update apps while you’re not using them. It drains a lot of battery, so I’d recommend turning it off. To do so go back into “Settings,” then “General,” and then “Background App Refresh.” Disable it, and you’re good to go.

With these five effective ways to increase your battery life, you can keep using your iPhone longer than you normally could.