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Tech

03rd Aug 2023

iPhone users warned of hidden ‘vampire’ setting that drains your battery

Callum Boyle

iPhone battery

The answer to all our problems

For years now iPhone users have been cursed by watching their battery drain in the blink of an eye however it seems that one “vampire” setting is the reason behind all of your troubles.

A feature known as ‘Wi-Fi assist’ is said to be the cause of this issue. The purpose of it is to essentially plug in the gaps when your Wi-Fi is slow and allows it to ensure a connection remains smooth.

As per the Apple website: “For example, if you’re using Safari with a poor Wi-Fi connection and a webpage doesn’t load, Wi-Fi Assist will activate and automatically switch to cellular so that the webpage continues to load.”

Most of the time it’s a useful feature, after all, who wants to be waiting ages for a page screen to load but unfortunately it is responsible for draining both your battery life and data usage.

Fear not though, there is a way to resolve this. If battery life means more to you then it is possible to switch off Wi-Fi Assist, the catch is that when you have poor connection, don’t expect that web browser to load up anytime soon.

To turn it off, all you have to do is head to your main settings and click on the tab labelled ‘mobile data’.

After a little scroll past the panel showing you all the apps using data (probably best not to look there for your own sanity) and you should reach a tab labelled ‘Wi-Fi Assist’. Flick that off and may you enjoy more battery life and data.

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