Apple has released an update to Apple Watch that adds significant new health features to the Apple Watch Series 4, including an ECG app and irregular heart rhythm notifications.
The WatchOS 5.1.2 update arrives along with iOS 12.1.1 for iPhone and iPad and MacOS Mojave 10.14.2 for Mac.
Of course watchOS 5.1.2 also includes bug fixes, refinements, and some other capabilities for Apple Watch, but the biggest new feature is the inclusion of the health functions, including the ECG app. The release notes for watchOS 5.1.2 are further below.
Updating to WatchOS 5.1.2
Updating watchOS is done through the paired iPhone:
Open the Apple Watch app on iPhone, then go to “My Watch”
Go to “General” and then to “Software Update”
Install watchOS 5.1.2 when it shows as available
A quick side note; you can use this trick to speed up slow Apple Watch software updates.
Remember, only the Apple Watch Series 4 (or later) will support the ECG and irregular heart rhythm features, so if you have an earlier model then you will not have those features available even if you update to the latest watchOS release. Additionally, the ECG feature is currently limited to the USA, but is likely to roll out to other countries and regions as Apple gets the necessary local approvals to do so.
Setting Up & Using the Apple Watch ECG
After you have updated to watchOS 5.1.2 on an Apple Watch Series 4, then you can use the ECG:
Open the Watch app on iPhone
Go to Health Data, then to “Heart” and choose to setup the ECG app
You can learn more about the ECG and Afib detection features of new Apple Watch models in the Apple press release here.
Apple Watch “Real Stories” Videos
Along with the release of watchOS 5.1.2, Apple has released a handful of powerful and touching stories from real Apple Watch users, where the devices features proved vital to their lives:
The first video is titled “Real Stories” and is roughly four minutes long, covering several different stories where an Apple Watch impacted their lives in various ways. The text accompanying the video on YouTube describes the video as follows:
“People reach out to Apple all the time to share how Apple Watch has become an indispensable part of their lives. Here are some of their stories.”
The second video is titled “Real Stories: Michael” and tells the story of how an individual was alerted to a serious medical condition thanks to Apple Watch. The accompanying descriptive text on YouTube describes the video as so:
“Many people reach out to Apple to share how receiving heart rate notifications on Apple Watch has helped them recognize and react to serious conditions. Here is Michael’s story.”
These compelling stories, combined with the myriad of health features on Apple Watch (and to a lesser extent, iPhone), are sure to increase the popularity of these devices for the health conscious.
watchOS 5.1.2 Release Notes
Release notes for the latest Apple Watch system software as follows:
This update includes new features, improvements and bug fixes:
– New ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 (US and US territories only)
— Allows you to take an electrocardiogram similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram.
— Can indicate whether your heart rhythm shows signs of atrial fibrillation—a serious form of irregular heart rhythm—or sinus rhythm, which means your heart is beating in a normal pattern.
— Saves ECG waveform, classification and any noted symptoms in a PDF on the Health app on iPhone to share with your doctor.
– Adds the ability to receive an alert if an irregular heart rhythm that appears to be atrial fibrillation is detected (US and US territories only).
– Enables direct access to supported movie tickets, coupons and rewards cards in Wallet when tapped to a contactless reader.
– Receive notifications and animated celebrations when you achieve daily maximum points in a day during an Activity competition.
– New Infograph complications for Mail, Maps, Messages, Find My Friends, Home, News, Phone and Remote.
– Manage your availability for Walkie-Talkie from Control Center.
Have you ever lost an iPhone somewhere in a house, office, or car, and can’t quite find it? Trying to locate a misplaced iPhone can be frustrating, but if you have another iOS device, Apple Watch, or Mac nearby then you can use Siri to help find a lost iPhone.
With this great trick, you’ll be using Siri to play a sound alert on the lost iPhone to help you locate it and track it down. This is perfect for those routine scenarios of an iPhone getting buried under a seat cushion, falling into a car abyss, or just generally being misplaced.
To use the Find My iPhone feature to locate your misplaced iPhone, you’ll obviously need another device with Siri, and Find My iPhone must be enabled on the missing iPhone.
How to Find a Lost iPhone with Siri
Summon Siri as usual, then issue the command “Find my iPhone”
If you have multiple iPhones, choose the iPhone model that is lost to find
Confirm that you want to play a sound / alert on the iPhone
The iPhone will now play a loud alert sound, helping you to locate the misplaced iPhone
The iPhone alert sound will continue to ping until it is picked up and interacted with, either by pressing a button on the device, unlocking the iPhone, or acknowledging the on-screen alert.
If someone is actively using the iPhone, it will still make an alert sound and display a “Find My iPhone Alert” message, but once someone taps “OK” the alert sound will stop.
So if you think that your iPhone is lost to you but that someone else is actively using your iPhone, and it’s not truly lost or misplaced, but has simply been accosted (like maybe a kid snuck off to hide somewhere with your iPhone to play Fortnite), keep that in mind.
f you don’t have another iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Siri, or if you only have a Windows PC, Android, or older iPhone or iPad nearby, you can also initiate a pinging sound on a lost iPhone from iCloud as discussed here.
For Apple Watch users, a similar feature allows you to ping an iPhone from Apple Watch to help find it, which is also quite useful.
While this is part of the Find My iPhone feature set, this is just a simple finding mechanism initiated by Siri, it’s not the same as iCloud Lock or remote wipe, both of which are much more extreme measures to take if an iPhone (or iPad) is truly lost or was stolen. You can access those features and more by tapping on the Siri option for “Open Find My iPhone”, however.
If you have connected an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a USB accessory, or even a Mac or PC lately, you may have seen an “USB Accessory – Unlock iPhone to use accessories” message appear on the screen (or “Unlock iPad to use accessories” for iPad of course).
This message appears on screen due to a new security feature introduced in iOS, which aims to better protect iPhone and iPad from unauthorized access attempts by USB connections. This is mostly a good thing, but until you approve the USB accessory and unlock the iOS device, you may find that the iPhone or iPad won’t communicate with the USB accessory, or it might not even charge.
Resolving the “Unlock iPhone to Use Accessories” Message with USB
The simplest way to resolve this message if you see it on the screen of your iPhone or iPad is to unlock the iPhone or iPad using your passcode, while the USB device or USB accessory is connected to the iOS device.
You may have guessed that already based on the message itself, but once you unlock the iPhone or iPad with a proper passcode, the message goes away, and the USB accessory or USB device will be able to communicate with the iOS device as intended, including charging the iPhone or iPad as intended.
How to Disable the USB Accessory Unlock Message on iPhone or iPad
If you connect many different USB devices and USB Accessories to an iPhone or ipad you may decide you don’t want to see that “Unlock to use accessories” message anymore, and no longer want to unlock the device every time to deal with this. You can disable this protective mechanism in iOS settings, but realize that doing so comes at a theoretical security risk since it will allow USB devices to connect to the iOS device without the iOS device being unlocked.
Open the “Settings” app in iOS
Go to “Face ID & Passcode” (or “Touch ID & Passcode”)
Scroll down and locate the “USB Accessories” setting and toggle that ON to disable the USB security restriction protection
By turning on the setting for “USB Accessories” you will no longer see the “USB Accessory – Unlock iPhone to use accessories” or “USB Accessory – Unlock iPad to use accessories” messages on the devices when connecting anything via USB.
If you have noticed that your iPhone won’t charge when plugged into some computers or devices and you’ve followed the usual troubleshooting steps to resolve charging issues, and the iPhone is running a modern version of iOS showing the ‘USB Accessory’ message on the lock screen, this very well could be the reason why.
What’s the point of restricting USB Accessories on iPhone or iPad?
Restriction of USB accessory attachments to the iPhone and iPad is a fairly new feature that is aimed at improving the security of iOS devices, by aiming to prevent unintended access of a device through any USB connection or USB mechanism.
A prominent example of what the USB security setting is aiming to prevent is something like the GrayKey box which is apparently used by some agencies and law enforcement bodies to gain access to otherwise locked iPhone and iPad devices, by revealing a devices passcode. But these capabilities are never limited, that’s just the nature of security flaws and exploits, and so if such a tool is available to the “good guys” then such a tool would also be available to the “bad guys” who could also gain unauthorized access to an iPhone or iPad, thus something like this poses a security risk.
Whether or not you want to keep the default setting with USB Accessories toggled ‘off’ or turn it ‘on’ as mentioned here so that you can avoid the message on your screen anytime a new untrusted USB devices is connected to the iPhone or iPad is entirely up to you, and a matter of your own security needs and privacy desires. For some users disabling the alert and USB restriction will be desired, whereas for others they might prefer the sense of security knowing that their device is inaccessible without authorization.
And of course if you turned this feature off so that you’d stop seeing the USB Accessory unlock message, you can always change your mind later, toggling this USB restriction setting off or on as needed in iOS. So perhaps if you’re planning a trip to a place where you’d be more concerned about prying eyes you could return to the default setting of restricting USB accessory access to an iPhone or iPad – it’s your call! If you feel like doing that, simply return to the same settings and turn ‘USB Accessories’ back off again.
This USB security feature exists enabled by default on all iPhone or iPad models running iOS 12 and later, and was first introduced in iOS 11.4.1, but no earlier versions of iOS system software have the USB restrictions as an option, and also won’t display the message when a USB cable is connected to the iOS device.
Visual Voicemail on iPhone makes checking voicemail super easy, whether it’s just quickly listening to a voicemail message or reading voicemail transcripts, so it’s understandably frustrating if you discover that voicemail is suddenly not working on the iPhone.
One peculiar voicemail issue on iPhone can be where there are numerical indicators showing new voicemail messages, but iPhone Voicemail is unable to load any of them and instead suggests that voicemail isn’t setup or configured when it certainly is, with an error stating “to retrieve a voicemail first set a password and greeting.” without any option to set a greeting or password.
If you know for certain that you already have voicemail set up with a password and greeting and you’re seeing this message in the voicemail tab of the Phone app, you can likely quickly remedy the error and get access to your voicemail again.
The solution to this voicemail problem is usually rather simple: forcibly reboot the iPhone.
Forcibly restarting an iPhone differs per iPhone model:
iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR, iPhone X, and newer iPhone models without a Home button: Press volume up, press volume down, then press and hold Power button until the iPhone reboots and you see the Apple logo on screen
iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 8: Press volume up, press volume down, then press and hold Power button until the iPhone restarts
iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 7: press and hold Volume Down and Power button until iPhone restarts
iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, and older: press and hold the Power button and the Home button until the Apple logo shows on screen
After the iPhone boots back up again, unlock the iPhone and return to the “Phone” app and to the Voicemail tab, your voicemails should be available again as expected where you can share or save voicemails from iPhone.
In the example screenshots here, an iPhone had a blank voicemail screen with the erroneous voicemail message stating “To retrieve a voicemail first set a password and greeting.”
(Note: you can see that error for legitimate reasons, but typically if visual voicemail is actually not set up on the iPhone, there will be a button at that screen to configure visual voicemail – in this case obviously there is no setup button and this is an erroneous message thus requiring troubleshooting)
This was remedied with a simple force reboot, and now you can see the iPhone Voicemail is available, in this case filled with dozens of lovely spam voicemail calls from spam robocallers and scam automated calls (hooray).
If you reboot and then find a blank red badge on the Voicemail tab, you’ll need to re-enter or change the voicemail password though Settings > Phone, though this shouldn’t be necessary if you had voicemail configured properly before.
If you still have issues with visual voicemail on iPhone after these steps, resetting network settings can often resolve the problem, though that should be considered a last resort since doing so will clear out wi-fi passwords and other custom network configurations.
Remember, not all iPhone cellular carriers will support visual voicemail, so if the feature never worked for you because your mobile provider isn’t supporting the feature than none of these tricks will work to resolve something that your carrier does not support to begin with.
Rebooting an iPhone can often resolve voicemail issues, including if they show up but won’t play, and sometimes if you get the Visual Voicemail Unavailable error on the iPhone too, though that latter error is usually a connection issue.
Want to quickly get the battery life of an iPhone or iPad? While on some iOS devices you can glance at the top of the screen to see the battery percentage remaining, newer iPhone models with the top screen notch hide the battery life percentage and instead require users to find battery life in Control Center, like on the iPhone XS Max, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone X.
But there’s another way to get battery life percentage remaining quickly in iOS, and that’s by using everyones favorite voice assistant, Siri.
Getting Battery Life Remaining on iPhone or iPad with Siri
Summon Siri as usual, and then ask “what is my battery life?”
Siri will report back something along the lines of “Your iPhone is at 100%” or “Your iPad is at 82%”
You can bring up the Siri request through any way you want, whether it’s Hey Siri voice activation, holding the Home button if your iOS device has one, or holding the Power button if the iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, or iPad Pro has no Home button, or by using Assistive Touch.
While the screenshot above shows this trick working on an iPhone, it works the exact same on iPad too, as the screen shot image below demonstrates:
If you’re checking battery life because you feel like your device is running down a little too fast, one of the best possible battery life extending tricks is to use Low Power Mode on iPhone which dramatically boosts battery life at the expense of some features and performance that you likely won’t notice anyway. Unfortunately Low Power Mode does not exist for iPad for whatever reason (yet anyway), but it’s a wonderful feature for iPhone users to enjoy.
And of course if you’re obsessing about battery life because battery performance seems to be rapidly declining like after updating iOS system software, you can check out some battery life tips here for iOS 12 devices that can be quite useful for prolonging battery usage.
If you just got an iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max, you almost certainly will want to migrate everything from your old iPhone to your new one, so that your all of your data, contacts, photos, messages, notes, apps, and all other personalized data and stuff is transferred over to use on your new iPhone XS / Max.
This walkthrough will show you the fastest way to get all of your data from an older iPhone to a new iPhone XS Max or iPhone XS with iTunes.
Our focus here will be on using iTunes and a computer to transfer data from one iPhone to another because for many people using a USB cable and iTunes will be the fastest method of backing up and transferring data. You could use iCloud if you want to and happen to have an incredibly fast and reliable internet connection, but for most people iTunes will offer the quickest setup with getting all data over to their new iPhone XS or iPhone xS Max.
To get started, you’ll need the latest version of iTunes (12.8 or 12.6.5) on a computer (Mac or Windows PC), a USB Lightning cable to connect the iPhones to the computer, an active internet connection, and enough free hard disk space on the computer to store the iPhone backup on the computer.
How to Transfer All Data to iPhone XS / iPhone XS Max from Old iPhone
In the examples here we will demonstrate transferring data from an iPhone Plus to a new iPhone XS using iTunes.
Start by connecting the old iPhone model to the computer with a USB cable
Launch iTunes on the computer, then choose the connected old iPhone by clicking on the tiny iPhone button near the top of the iTunes window to select the device
Under the Summary section of the device in iTunes, look for the backup section and choose “This Computer” and be sure to check “Encrypt iPhone Backup”
Now choose “Back Up Now” to create a fresh backup of the old iPhone connected to the computer – let this backup process complete
Next, on your brand new iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max, start going through the onscreen setup steps as usual on the device, eventually you’ll get to the “Apps & Data” screen
Select the “Restore from iTunes Backup” option at this screen, then connect the iPhone XS Max or iPhone XS to the computer running iTunes with a USB cable *
In iTunes you will see a “Welcome to Your New iPhone” screen, choose the “Restore from this backup:” option and then choose the backup previously made of the old iPhone to iTunes, click “Continue” when the proper backup is selected
The backup restoration process will begin, this can take a while depending on the size of the device size, expect somewhere around an hour per 100GB backup
When the iTunes restore process has completed, complete the setup steps on the iPhone XS Max or iPhone XS, you’ll be using your new device with all data transferred over in no time
All of your data, messages, notes, photos, movies, videos, contacts, health data, settings, and everything else will have been successfully transferred to your new iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max.
One thing to note is that apps will re-download as part of this process, since apps are no longer backed up to iTunes by default on the main iTunes release track (iTunes 12.8) though you can use the alternate release track (iTunes 12.6.5) if you’d like.
Remember to use the “Encrypt iPhone backup” setting, as this preserves your Health data as well as passwords, logins, and other important details in the iTunes backup. If you fail to encrypt the backup, you will need to enter all passwords again, and your health data will be lost.
iCloud vs iTunes Restoring from Backups
* To be clear, while we’re using iTunes here, you can also use iCloud backups or the optional Quick Start setup process to complete the entire migration and data transfer from an old iPhone to a new iPhone XS Max / iPhone XS. But using iCloud has a potential disadvantage in that how long it takes to complete is entirely dependent on your internet connection speed. For example if you have a 100 GB iPhone backup stored in iCloud, then downloading and restoring that 100 GB from iCloud to an iPhone can take half a day or even several days to complete on many typical home-based US internet connections, and most people won’t want to wait nearly that long before they can use their new iPhone (a 3 mbit/s DSL internet connection will take roughly 80 hours to download 100 GB!). But if you happen to have some modern world internet connection because you’re in a region of the world that has decent internet infrastructure with 100 mbit/s internet speeds, then using iCloud is easy and suitable, the entire process is basically the same except you’ll choose an iCloud backup to restore from rather than iTunes. Nonetheless, due to the huge variability in internet speeds, iTunes is often faster for most iPhone users since it uses a wired USB connection to complete the data transfer process.
iOS 12 is a performance focused software update, aiming to boost the usability of older iPhone and iPad models. But that doesn’t mean iOS 12 is without new fancy features too, so while the iOS 12 update may not be as outwardly flashy as some other past releases, there are still some interesting new additions and changes to the mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad users.
We’re going to review a handful of great iOS 12 features that you’re likely to actually use. Let’s get to it!
1: The Virtual Trackpad & Text Selection Cursor
Selecting text has long been a challenge on the iPhone or iPad, and if you spend a lot of time writing emails, messages, notes, Pages, or in any other text editor you’ll appreciate the new virtual cursor tool that makes text selection and navigation much easier.
From any app where a block of text is on screen, like in Mail, Pages, Notes, Messages, tap and hold on the Spacebar of the keyboard
Keep holding down until the keys all turn blank, continue to hold down while you swipe around on the digital trackpad to move the text selection cursor around on screen
You can also then place a second finger on the trackpad to enter text selection mode with the cursor, which then allows you to drag the cursor and select text while in this virtual trackpad mode.
This is a great feature that you really should try out for yourself, as it’s much better experienced directly. For anyone who spends much time typing or writing in iOS this is particularly fantastic, since it’s much easier to direct the little cursor around with a virtual trackpad compared to pecking on screen between letters or words with a finger or stylus.
It should be noted this is not a new feature, it’s just how you access it that is new, and the number of devices it’s available on is new. Now you can simply tap and hold the Spacebar on any iPad or iPhone with iOS 12, whereas perviously accessing the virtual trackpad for text selection was available on iPhone with 3D Touch support only.
2: Screen Time & App Time Limits
Screen Time is arguably the best new feature of iOS 12. Screen Time gives you insight into how an iPhone or iPad is being used, allowing you to see exactly how much time is spent in particular apps. More importantly, you can take action based on that information and set time limits for app usage, and place other restrictions on app usage if desired. This makes Screen Time a fantastic tool particularly for parents or anyone providing child care or education, but also for anyone who wants to reduce their time wasted in any unproductive apps or detrimental device usage. Want to set a 15 minute time limit for a particular game? You can do that with Screen Time. Want to limit yourself to only 20 minutes of social media use? Screen Time lets you do that too.
Open the “Settings” app and choose “Screen Time”
Tap on the device usage graph near the top to see Screen Time usage data on that particular device
Once in Screen Time you can set time limits with App Limits, or even outright block an app from being used entirely, or set aside times of the day where the device itself isn’t usable through Downtime. There are also Content & Privacy Restriction settings available if you want to block adult content or otherwise limit device usage. It’s sort of like a broad self-control / parental controls feature built right into iOS, and it’s pretty great.
Don’t be surprised if you look at Screen Time and discover some uncomfortable data… maybe you’re spending a few hours every day lost in the misery generating abyss of social media, maybe you discover that your kids iPad is being used to spend hours every night in a video game rather than doing homework, or maybe you find that you’re not committing enough time every day to learning a new foreign language with an app like DuoLingo and you decide you want to change that. These are examples of the type of data you can get out of Screen Time on any iPhone or iPad.
By the way, for best results with Screen Time, it’s good to check it after a few days or so of device usage so that it has more data to work with. Even after you set some limits or restrictions, you should periodically check into Screen Time to see if it’s making any difference in behavior or device usage.
3: Disable Notifications Faster Than Ever
Let’s go ahead and state the obvious; Notifications are often annoying, distracting, and rarely important.
And by default just about every app on the iPhone and iPad wants to fill your device up with constant alerts and a barrage of notifications about every inconsequential event, happenstance, and useless tidbit under the sun. Do you really need to be notified instantaneously when some celebrity is on their 23rd marriage?
Do you need a giant banner splashing onto your screen to inform you about creamy salad dressing in the News app?
Is any of this stuff important enough to disrupt you and what you were doing with a giant notification message? Probably not.
But what if the breaking news notification delivered instantly to your iPhone or iPad is about the flavor of creamy salad dressing!?!??!? Stop everything that you are doing and read this notification about creamy salad dressing!! It’s breaking news, according to the News app!
But it’s kind of hard to focus when you have constant notifications bothering you, right? Did that point get across as you tried to read this section that is interspersed with that image of a useless notification?
If you feel the vast majority of notifications are simply annoying distractions, noise, and clutter, then fortunately the latest version of iOS makes it easier than ever to manage them as they come in to pester you. In fact, you can completely disable notifications faster than ever and right from the lock screen of your device:
From the lock screen or Notification Center of iOS 12, swipe left on any notification
Choose “Manage” from the list of options
Select “Turn Off” from the menu to permanently disable notifications from that app
You can also choose “Deliver Silently” if you still want to see the annoyifications err notifications in Annoyification Center errr Notification Center for some reason, but choosing Turn Off is the simplest way to never see them again. And of course you can return to the Settings app Notifications section if you later change your mind.
My personal opinion is that only actual communication with actual humans should be sending you notifications, things like messages and phone calls, as everything else is likely nothing more than distraction. Make your own decisions here, but focus on what is important and think critically about the kind of stuff that is splashing onto your screen to get your attention and disrupting your device use.
4: Automatic iOS Software Updates
Do you want to make sure you’re always on the latest version of iOS? Do you frequently forget to update your iOS system software? Are you tired of wandering into the Settings app to check if a software update is available? iOS 12 has a great feature that solves all of this, it will automatically install iOS updates when they’re available onto an iPhone or iPad.
You can turn this feature on easily:
Open the “Settings” app then go to “Software Update”
Choose “Automatic Update” and turn the feature on
Just be sure that you have iCloud backups enabled so that your device is always backing up when it’s plugged in to charge.
The auto-update iOS feature pairs well with automatic app updates in iOS too, allowing you a very hands-off approach to device management.
5: Siri Shortcuts & Shortcuts App
The Shortcuts app (once called Workflow) allows you to create simple automation of tasks in iOS, and you can now tie those actions directly into Siri. There’s a plethora of options available with Shortcuts, you can use the feature to create animated GIFs out of Animojior a series of images, you can use your current location to find any nearby gas stations, you can create custom replies to messages that will send someone your most recent photo taken, and so much more. If it’s a task in iOS, you might just be able to automate the entire thing with Shortcuts.
Curiously, the Shortcuts app is not included by default in iOS 12, so you have to download it separately from the iOS App Store. Not to worry though, it’s free from Apple:
Get Shortcuts app from the App Store
Launch the Shortcuts app and explore the default and example options, and create your own. Tie them to Siri so that you can simply ask Siri to perform that task for you. There’s a lot of potential here, so if you’re a fan of automation and macros, you’ll almost certainly be thrilled with Shortcuts for iOS.
Do you feel like your battery life has worsened since updating to iOS 12? With every new iOS release comes complaints about battery life, particularly in the early days of the software update being available, and the iOS 12 update is no different with some users reporting rapid battery draining. While reduced battery life on iPhone or iPad can be annoying, there may be valid reasons why device battery is draining quicker than usual after updating system software, so before you throw in the towel read on for a handful of helpful tips and tricks to help improve battery life issues after updating to iOS 12 on an iPhone or iPad.
Fixing iOS 12 Battery Life Draining on iPhone and iPad
We’ll cover 12 tips aimed at addressing battery life issues with iOS 12 on iPhone or iPad. The first few tips are general advice pertaining to updating to a new iOS release, and from there more specific battery advice is offered for improving performance by adjusting various settings, and checking on the health of the device battery itself.
1: Are you using the iPhone or iPad more than usual?
You just updated to iOS 12, and you’re probably digging around and exploring what has changed, or maybe spending a few hours setting up the perfectly customized Memoji. Well, the more you us a battery powered device, the more the battery power depletes, so if you’re simply toying around with your iPhone or iPad a bit more than usual after the software update, this can give the perception that battery life is suddenly worse. Whether or not this applies to your particular case, keep this in mind as you sort out what’s causing battery to drain faster than expected.
2: Did you just update to iOS 12? Great, then wait a while!
If you just recently updated to iOS 12 and now you feel your iPhone or iPad has reduced battery life, you might be onto something… sometimes battery life is reduced right after a system software update because when you update the system software, iOS will undergo various routine maintenance tasks and background activities to be up and running again. This includes background activity like indexing your Photos, indexing Spotlight, facial recognition, iCloud activity, and many other background system tasks that can occur after a software update has completed. Operating systems are complex, but fortunately iOS takes care just about all of that in the background.
The solution to this is as simple as it gets: wait. Just leave your iPhone or iPad alone and plugged in to a power source, typically overnight is a great time for leaving a device plugged in and unattended. During this time iOS will be able to complete all necessary background tasks, and in a day or two usually everything will be working as expected again, with battery life resuming it’s expected longevity.
3: Check for Software Updates
Sure iOS 12 just came out, but Apple often issues small bug fix software updates quickly after a major software release (iOS 12.1 went into beta testing almost immediately).
Accordingly, it’s a good idea to check for and install available software updates on any device that has installed iOS 12, both for core iOS system software and for third party apps.
Checking for iOS updates is easy from the Settings app > General > Software Update
Checking for app updates is easy from the App Store > Updates tab
It’s always possible some bug or issue in an app you are using often is leading to a reduction in battery life, so keep everything up to date.
4: Find Apps Using Battery Life
iOS offers excellent battery monitoring tools right in the system software, letting you see which apps are using battery power, and if something is particularly egregious then you can take action as needed. iOS 12 improves the battery monitoring functionality even further, so you can quickly find what apps (if any) are draining battery on an iPhone or iPad.
Open the Settings app, then go to “Battery”
Toggle between the “Last 24 hours” and “Last 10 days” switches and locate the app(s) using heavy battery
Typically you will find that anything using location data will be a heavy battery drain, as will social media apps, most GPU intensive games, and many media and movie watching apps. Streaming multimedia can also waste battery life, so service like Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify if they are left open and playing in the background can lead to battery draining faster than you might expect. The Messages app can also turn into a battery hog if you spend tons of time in the app sending and receiving a trillion stickers, animated gifs, videos, audio messages, Animoji, and other processor intensive toys.
If you see any particularly aggressive apps draining battery, try and see if there’s an app update available for that app. Or if you don’t even use the app much or don’t care for it, just delete the app to uninstall it from iOS.
5: Disable Background App Refresh
Background App Refresh enables apps that are in the background to stay updated. A side effect of allowing apps to update in the background is they will use more power and drain battery in the background too.
Open the “Settings” app, then go to “General” > Background App Refresh > and turn this switch to the OFF position
Often just disabling Background App Refresh will notably boost battery performance of an iPhone or iPad.
This is a feature that some advanced users really like, particularly hardcore iPad users who setup they iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard and use it like a laptop or desktop computer, but for most users disabling it goes completely unnoticed.
6: Force Reboot
Forcibly rebooting an iPhone or iPad can sometimes lead to a resolution of battery issues if the battery draining is caused by some unusual background app behavior or rogue app going wild. This is a fairly simple troubleshooting trick so there’s not much to it beyond just forcibly restarting the device:
• For iPad and iPhone models with a clickable Home button: Hold down the Power Button and Home button together until you see the apple logo on the display. This is how to force reboot any iPhone or iPad with a clickable Home button.
• For iPhone 7, iPhone 8, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone 8 Plus: Hold down the Power Button and Volume Down button until you see the Apple logo on screen. This action will restart the device.
• For iPhone X (and iPhone XS Max and iPhone XS, though those come preinstalled with iOS 12): Click the Volume Up button then let go, click the Volume Down button then let it go, now press and hold down the Power button and continue to hold the Power button until the Apple logo appears on the screen. This is how to force restart iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max.
7: Turn Off Raise to Wake
Raise to wake is a feature on iPhone that detects when the iPhone has been lifted or raised which then awakens the screen automatically without having to press any button.
Open “Settings” app then go to > Display & Brightness > Raise to Wake > turn the switch to OFF
It’s a nice feature, but it can lead to the screen turning on sometimes when you aren’t expecting it to, for example if you’re walking around with the iPhone in your hand, or if iPhone is in your hand during an activity like jogging, dancing, cartwheeling, backflipping, or anything else that causes the iPhone to raise up quickly. Because displaying the screen uses power, turning off Raise to Wake can help save some battery life.
Once Raise to Wake is disabled you will find the iPhone no longer turns the screen on from an upward motion alone, and instead you’ll need to interact with it by pressing a button or summoning Siri.
A similar feature causes the screen to wake up when the display is tapped on, which is quite useful for newer iPhone models without the Home button but it may lead to some inadvertent screen awakening scenarios. If you’re concerned about that, you can also disable Tap To Wake though the difference will likely be less.
8: Lower Display Brightness Levels
The display of your iPhone or iPad is perhaps uses power to light up, and while brightness at 100% can look brilliant it will also reduce battery life just due to the amount of power needed to keep the screen that bright. Thus, reducing screen brightness can help the battery last longer.
Open the “Settings” app then go to > Display & Brightness > Brightness > adjust the brightness slider
You’ll have to adjust this to what you feel is appropriate for your particular needs, but it’s also convenient to access Control Center in iOS 12 and adjust display brightness quickly from there as needed on any iPhone or iPad.
9: Disable All Unnecessary Location Services
Location Services and GPS on iPhone and iPad are undeniably useful for apps like Maps and getting directions, but tons of other apps try to get and use your location for other purposes that are ultimately irrelevant or unnecessary (i.e. nearly all social networking apps). Using location data also uses battery power, so reducing the number of apps that can and do use your location data should improve your battery life of an iPhone or iPad.
Open the Settings app > go to Privacy > choose Location Services
Disable location features for apps that do not require location data for core functionality
You can also go all out and disable location services completely in iOS but that’s not a good idea for most users since apps like Maps and Weather will need location data to function properly. But does a music app, or drawing app, or social network need your location? Probably not, so you can turn off location access for most.
An added bonus to turning off unnecssary location service features is more privacy, so that’s an incentive to some users too.
10: Utilize Low Power Mode on iPhone
Using Low Power Mode is an excellent way to dramatically improve battery life of an iPhone, though it comes at a cost of reducing performance slightly, and some other features like email fetching are disabled while the feature is on.
Open the Settings app on iPhone then choose “Battery” and toggle “Low Power Mode” to the ON position
Personally I use Low Power Mode on iPhone constantly and I find it to be incredibly effective at boosting battery performance in general, it’s a really great feature.
Unfortunately, iPad does not have Low Power Mode available yet.
11: Check Battery Health & Replace Battery if Needed
New versions of iOS allow you to check battery health on iPhone, and if you feel that battery life is particularly awful, and perhaps performance is sluggish too, then it could be due to a battery going bad in the iPhone.
Go to “Settings” app then to “Battery” and check Battery Health
If the “Maximum Capacity” is lower than you’d prefer, or if Peak Performance is disabled, you should replace the battery
You can initiate a repair and replace the battery of iPhone through Apple Support here
The best way to replace a device battery is through Apple, and it’s also reasonably affordable too (particularly until the end of this year while the price is discounted). There are many reports of users replacing a battery of an older iPhone and then suddenly performance and speed is excellent again, and of course a brand new battery will have the best possible battery life too. This is a great option if you are concerned about some hardware issue. Check the Apple Support battery repair page here on apple.com for more info.
12: Downgrade iOS 12
Another option is to downgrade from iOS 12 back to iOS 11.4.1 as discussed here, but the opportunity to do so is limited, and there’s no guarantee that it will improve battery life. In fact, if you downgrade iOS 12 you will still need to go through the normal ‘waiting’ process that is recommended at the very beginning of this article.
Downgrading iOS 12 should only be considered an absolute last resort, and really only if other problems are impacting the iPhone or iPad too, like some app incompatibility. Don’t take the downgrade process lightly, a failure of downgrading properly can result in permanent data loss of all data on the device itself.
Where did Control Center go in iOS 12? And how do you access it? If you have these questions about Control Center on your iPad or iPhone after updating to iOS 12 you’re not alone, as the ability to access Control Center in iOS 12 has changed. But fear not, Control Center still exists on iPad and iPhone, it’s just the gesture that you use to summon the feature that has changed.
No longer do you swipe from the bottom of the screen to access Control Center on the iPad and some iPhone models, instead, all new devices will swipe down from the top right corner of the screen instead to summon Control Center. Everything else is the same, including the ability to customize Control Center and all the options are still there, it’s just that initial access which has changed.
How to Access Control Center in iOS 12 on iPad and iPhone
This change applies to all iPad models, and all iPhone models without a Home button:
From the Home Screen or Lock Screen of iPhone or iPad, look at the top right corner of the screen to where the wi-fi and battery indicator are located
Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to access Control Center in iOS 12 on iPhone or iPad
Control Center will appear as normal, except it comes from the top right corner of the display
Swipe back up to dismiss Control Center again
The key thing to remember is that you now swipe down from the top-right corner of the display to access Control Center in iOS 12, regardless of whether the device is an iPad or an iPhone. All devices now access Control Center this way.
The animated GIF below demonstrates Control Center being accessed in iOS 12 by using the swipe down gesture from the top-right corner of an iPad, it works the exact same on all other iPad models and some iPhone models as well, like iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS Max :
In fact, this change brings the method of accessing Control Center on iPhone X to all other new iPhone models and all iPad devices, it’s the exact same gesture and same move.
This adjustment can lead to a little bit of confusion since many users are long accustomed to swiping up from the bottom of their screen to get to Control Center on an iPad or iPhone, but as iOS evolves and changes so will the gestures and how to access certain features. It may be a little confusing at first, but once you get used to it it’s quite simple, and you’ll soon commit the new gesture location and direction to memory.
If you are swiping down from the top right corner of the display and continue to not be able to access Control Center you might want to check your settings. This is particularly valid if Control Center is inaccessible on the Lock Screen, that’s almost always due to a settings issue in iOS that can be easily resolved, usually because it has been disabled there. Regardless, you’ll still be using the swipe-down from the right-corner to access Control Center, whether it’s from inside an app, on the lock screen, or on the home screen of a device.
Update: iPhone models with Touch ID apparently still use the swipe-up from the bottom gesture to access Control Center, thanks to our readers who noted that change in the comments below. Only new iPhone models with no Home button will use this new gesture for accessing Control Center. However, all new iPad models even those with Touch ID use this new gesture for Control Center access.
