How to Turn Off Background App Refresh on iPhone and Improve Battery Life

iPhone battery life has improved significantly over the years, but even a relatively new model can struggle to make it through a demanding day. If your battery seems to disappear faster than expected, the problem may not be your screen time alone.

Several iOS features continue working while you are not actively using your phone. One of the most overlooked is Background App Refresh.

The feature allows apps to check for new information and update their content in the background. It can be convenient, but that convenience comes with a cost. Apps using background activity can consume battery, processing power, and, depending on your settings, cellular data.

Turning Background App Refresh off completely, or limiting it to only the apps that genuinely need it, can help reduce unnecessary battery consumption without changing how you use your iPhone.

What Is Background App Refresh on iPhone?

Background App Refresh allows apps to update their content even when you are not currently using them.

For example, a weather app may check for the latest forecast before you open it. A news application can refresh recent stories, while social media apps may retrieve newer posts so they are ready when you launch them.

The idea is to make apps feel more current the moment you open them.

The downside is that those background activities require resources. Apps may connect to servers, process information, and perform other tasks while your phone is sitting in your pocket.

Not every app needs that capability.

Does Background App Refresh Drain iPhone Battery?

It can contribute to battery consumption, particularly when many apps are allowed to refresh in the background.

The impact varies depending on the apps installed, how frequently they request updates, your network connection, and how often you use them. Social media and content-heavy applications can be particularly active because they regularly check for new information.

Disabling Background App Refresh does not prevent those apps from working.

Instead, they generally wait until you open them before refreshing their latest content.

That means you may see a short delay while an app retrieves new information, but you can potentially reduce some of the background activity taking place throughout the day.

How to Turn Off Background App Refresh on iPhone

Apple gives you a straightforward way to disable the feature across the entire iPhone.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap General.

3. Select Background App Refresh.

4. Tap Background App Refresh again if prompted.

5. Select Off.

Once you choose Off, apps will no longer refresh their content through Background App Refresh while they are not actively being used.

This is the simplest option if your priority is reducing background activity as much as possible.

What Do the Background App Refresh Options Mean?

iOS provides several choices, giving you more control than simply switching the feature on or off.

Off

Selecting Off disables Background App Refresh across your iPhone.

This gives you the most restrictive approach and can reduce the amount of background work apps are allowed to perform through this particular feature.

You may notice that some apps take a little longer to display their latest information after you open them.

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi option allows apps to refresh when your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi.

This can reduce cellular data usage while still allowing apps to update in the background.

Keep in mind that Wi-Fi access does not eliminate battery consumption. Apps can still perform background activity while your phone is connected to a wireless network.

Wi-Fi & Cellular Data

This option allows Background App Refresh over both Wi-Fi and cellular connections.

It offers the most freedom to apps and is the least restrictive setting, but it can also allow more background activity throughout the day.

If you are trying to maximize battery life, this is the setting you are most likely to reconsider.

You Do Not Have to Disable It for Every App

Turning Background App Refresh off completely is not the only option.

iOS also lets you control the feature on an individual app basis. This can be a better solution if you want to preserve background updates for apps where they are genuinely useful.

Go to:

Settings → General → Background App Refresh

Once you reach the list of apps, you can switch individual applications off.

This gives you a middle ground between convenience and battery savings.

Which Apps Should You Disable Background Refresh For?

There is no universal list because your app usage is different from everyone else's.

However, apps that frequently retrieve new content are good candidates for restriction.

Social Media Apps

Social platforms are often worth checking first.

They can frequently retrieve new posts, recommendations, media, and other content. If you do not need your feed to be updated before you open the app, there may be little reason to let it refresh constantly in the background.

Turning the feature off means the app can update when you launch it instead.

News and Content Apps

News applications can also perform frequent background updates.

If you only check your news apps a few times per day, you may not gain much from having them continuously refresh while you are not using them.

Disabling background access can reduce unnecessary activity while still allowing the app to load current content when you open it.

Shopping Apps

Shopping applications may also request background updates for promotions, products, and other content.

If you are not actively tracking an order or waiting for a time-sensitive update, you can usually disable Background App Refresh without significantly changing how you use the app.

Which Apps Might Benefit From Background Refresh?

Some applications can be more useful when they are allowed to perform background activity.

Navigation and location-based applications are one example. Depending on the app and its specific features, background access can help keep information current.

Productivity applications may also benefit if you regularly rely on updated information being ready when you open them.

The key is not to treat Background App Refresh as something that must always be disabled. Instead, decide which apps actually benefit from it.

Background App Refresh Is Not the Only Battery Setting

If your iPhone battery is draining quickly, turning off Background App Refresh is only one possible adjustment.

Screen brightness, display settings, poor cellular reception, location services, notifications, Bluetooth activity, and apps with unusually high battery usage can all influence battery life.

It is therefore worth checking Settings → Battery to see which apps and activities are actually consuming the most power.

That gives you a more useful starting point than disabling features at random.

Managing Your Data Can Also Help During an iPhone Upgrade

Battery optimization is only one part of managing a phone efficiently. When upgrading to a new iPhone, the amount of personal data stored on the device can become another concern.

Photos, videos, contacts, documents, and other files can take up substantial storage and may need to be moved during the transition to a new device.

A data transfer app such as Smart Transfer can help simplify that process by providing a dedicated way to move personal content between compatible devices. Instead of manually handling individual files, you can organize the migration around the content you actually need on your new phone.

This is particularly useful when switching between devices or moving a large photo and video library. A mobile transfer workflow can make the setup process more manageable, while Android file transfering can be useful when moving files from an Android device as part of a cross-platform phone upgrade.

Keeping your data organized also makes it easier to identify what genuinely needs to move to a new device. You can leave unnecessary files behind rather than carrying years of clutter into another phone.

Should You Turn Off Background App Refresh?

If your iPhone battery is struggling to last through the day, disabling Background App Refresh is a reasonable setting to test.

You do not necessarily need to turn it off everywhere. For many people, selectively disabling it for social media, shopping, news, and other frequently updating apps may provide a better balance.

If you want the most aggressive approach to reducing this particular type of background activity, switch the main setting to Off.

The trade-off is simple: apps may not have the newest information waiting for you when you open them. Instead, they will refresh once you return to them.

Get More From Your iPhone Battery Without Changing How You Use It

Battery optimization does not always require reducing your screen time or uninstalling the apps you enjoy.

Sometimes the better approach is to look at what your phone is doing when you are not using it.

Background App Refresh is designed to make apps feel more current, but not every application needs to work behind the scenes. Restricting it can reduce unnecessary activity while allowing you to keep the apps and features you actually use.

Start with the apps that refresh frequently, monitor your battery usage, and adjust the settings based on what you find. A few small changes can make your iPhone's battery behavior more manageable without turning the device into a stripped-down version of itself.