- The "Background App Refresh" feature lets apps update even when they’re closed, but it takes up battery life.
- To turn off the "Background App Refresh" feature on your iPhone or iPad, head to the "General" menu in the Settings app.
- You can turn off background refreshing for every app, or just specific apps.
Extending an iPhone or iPad battery life is a perpetual struggle for most iOS and iPadOS users. After all, there’s nothing worse than the dreaded low battery indicator right when you need your smartphone the most. But there are a few things you can do to stretch your battery life even further, and one of them is as simple as knowing how to turn off Background App Refresh on an iPhone or iPad.
What is Background App Refresh on iPhone or iPad?
Background App Refresh is a feature that lets apps on your iPhone or iPad run even when they’re closed. When you swipe away an app on your iPhone or iPad, you aren’t really shutting it down. With Background App Refresh enabled, it’s more like you’re letting the app idle — it’s using less power but still picking up data from the internet and delivering notifications.
This is why apps start again so quickly when you open them, and how they send you notifications hours after you closed them. Background App Refresh lets the app update and communicate with your device, even if you’re doing something completely different. Examples of this issue are your email app constantly checking for new messages or your Facebook® app updating your news feed, even if you aren’t actively using the app at that moment.
Turning off Background App Refresh on an iPhone or iPad is extremely useful as it can help squeeze a little more battery out of each charge. Thankfully turning off Background app refresh is a very simple task that takes a matter of seconds. Plus, it’s just as easy to reverse, so you can switch the setting on and off as required.
Does background app refresh on iPhone consume data?
Some apps running in the background may use a lot of data. Turning off Background App Refresh will help reduce cellular data consumption, as apps won’t refresh automatically in the background to fetch new data.
Does Background App Refresh drain iPhone battery?
Yes. The Background App Refresh setting drains iPhone’s battery because it keeps an application fetching new content or updates at regular intervals. The algorithm of the iPhone when background app refresh is turned on is that when the application is closed it will be in the suspended state and will still check updates in consistent intervals which consumes battery charge. Turning off this setting can drastically improve the battery life of an iPhone since it will only need to update and fetch data when needed.
How to turn off Background App Refresh on your iPhone and iPad
- Open the Settings app.
- Select General.
- Tap Background App Refresh.
- Tap Background App Refresh again.
- Select Off to turn off Background App Refresh for all apps.
How to turn off Background App Refresh for a specific app on your iPhone and iPad
If having up-to-date emails is a priority to you but knowing what’s happening on X every moment is not, you can also choose to customize which apps do and don’t have Background App Refresh turned on based on your usage habits. Here’s how:
- Open the Settings app.
- Select General.
- Tap Background App Refresh.
- Turn Background App Refresh off or on for each app.
Alternatively, app settings also include this setting. Go to Settings > Apps and tap an app, and then you can turn this off this along with other app settings.
Background App Refresh is Grayed Out on iPhone or iPad?
A common problem a lot of iPhone and iPad users seem to experience is that they notice that Background App Refresh is grayed out and disabled, preventing them from managing this option.
This may occur for one of two reasons:
- Screen Time settings: Background App Activities may be restricted. Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. If Content & Privacy Restrictions is turned on, scroll down to the bottom of the page and make sure Background App Activities is set to “Allow.” You will need to enter your Screen Time password to make changes.
- Low Power Mode: If Low Power Mode is enabled on your iPhone or iPad, Background App Refresh settings will be disabled. You can go to Settings > Battery to turn off Low Power Mode.