It’s easy to forget how much energy apps you don’t use are wasting. So how do you stop them from running in the background and using up your battery life? It depends on what type of phone or tablet you have, but there are a few ways across all platforms to turn off unused apps completely. You can find these settings in Settings app on iOS, under System Preferences on Mac OS, as well as through Google Play Store on Android devices.
How to turn off any unused apps on your phone
It’s easy to forget how much energy apps you don’t use are wasting. So how do you stop them from running in the background and using up your battery life? It depends on what type of phone or tablet you have, but there are a few ways across all platforms to turn off unused apps completely. You can find these settings in Settings app on iOS, under System Preferences on Mac OS, as well as through Google Play Store on Android devices.
1) Check how many processes any individual app is using when it’s open by heading into Settings > Battery > Battery Usage (for iOS), Activity Monitor for OS X 10.6+, or Apps screen for Android 4.2+. If an app is using more than one per cent of your battery, you might want to turn it off.
2) On Android 4.2+, go into Apps and swipe from right to left on any of the apps that are running in the background. Then tap “Stop” or “Uninstall updates.” This will completely stop them from running until you open it again. In iOS, you can press and hold an app’s icon until it starts jiggling, then tap the X to remove it.
3) On iOS 7 or later, you can turn off all unnecessary processes with one button by heading into Settings > General > Background App Refresh (under “General”) and switching the toggle next to each of your apps to “Off.” This will prevent them from running in the background, but it won’t actually kill them until you open them again. On Android 4.3+, go into Settings > Data Usage and check how much data each app is using when it’s in the background under “More details.”
How it depends on what type of phone or tablet you have, but there are a few ways across all platforms to turn off unused apps completely
Each type of phone or tablet has a different way of turning off unused apps completely. On iOS, you can find these settings in the Settings app under Battery > Battery Usage. On Android 4.2+, you can find these settings in the Apps screen by swiping from right to left on any of the apps that are running in the background and tapping “Stop” or “Uninstall updates.” Additionally, on Android 4.3+, you can check how much data each app is using when it’s in the background under Settings > Data Usage. On Mac OS, you can find these settings in Activity Monitor. On iOS 7 or later, you can turn off all unnecessary processes with one button by heading into Settings > General > Background App Refresh (under “General”) and switching the toggle next to each of your apps to “Off.” This will prevent them from running in the background, but it won’t actually kill them until you open them again. On Mac OS, you can head into System Preferences > Energy Saver and uncheck the option next to “Wake for network access.” This will prevent your computer from automatically receiving updates when it’s in sleep mode or turned off. On iOS 7+, you can turn off all unnecessary processes with one button by heading into Settings > General > Background App Refresh (under “General”) and switching the toggle next to each of your apps to “Off.” This will prevent them from running in the background, but it won’t actually kill them until you open them again.