How to Save Phone Battery Life in the Backcountry
Some people like the safety of a cell phone, others think it wrecks the wilderness experience. The biggest problem is people who bring a cell phone instead of the essential gear, knowledge or good judgment and expect to be bailed out, or who take risks they would not otherwise undertake without the backup of a phone. Cell phone coverage in the wilderness is at best variable and intermittent. Technology has a tendency to fail us just when we need it most. This trend is even more common in cold, wet, harsh environments. Batteries die, the cold kills circuit boards, plastic housings break, etc. Your best contingency plan will always be self-sufficiency. Even when communication devices do work, rescue help cannot always reach you in a timely manner. While it’s important not to rely on cell phones, they can nevertheless be lifesavers.
1. Use Airplane Mode.
2. Avoid exposing phone to extreme temperatures.
3. Shut down apps you don’t need or limit their ability to refresh in the background to help conserve battery life.
4. Customize Location Services, do not turn off all location services as this will disable your connection with Gaia GPS.
5. Lower the screen brightness.
6. Consider turning off your phone when you don’t need it.
7. Bring a backup battery.
2. Avoid exposing phone to extreme temperatures.
3. Shut down apps you don’t need or limit their ability to refresh in the background to help conserve battery life.
- To do this with an iPhone go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh, then tap Background App Refresh and select Off.
- If you want to turn it off for individual apps, you can do so on the Background App Refresh menu.
4. Customize Location Services, do not turn off all location services as this will disable your connection with Gaia GPS.
- Customize location services with an iPhone by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and scroll down to the apps listed as using location services.
- Select “Never” on those apps you will open during the trip but won’t need location services for.
5. Lower the screen brightness.
- Manually adjust the brightness to the dimmest level that still allows you to see your maps. With an iPhone, open the Control Center and drag the slider with the sun symbol up and down or go to Settings > Display & Brightness and drag the slider left or right.
- Turn on auto-brightness, which allows your screen to automatically adapt to the lighting, decreasing the brightness in dim conditions and increasing it in bright conditions. With an iPhone, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and turn Auto-Brightness on.
6. Consider turning off your phone when you don’t need it.
7. Bring a backup battery.