A few days ago, my iPhone went berserk and started draining the battery unexpectedly. The device would often get hot and lose power within a couple of hours. After a bit of digging, I found that the problem could be due to the buggy iOS 13. But when even the software update didn’t troubleshoot the issue, I thought of trying out some old hacks to improve the battery life. Much to my surprise, they worked in fixing the problem. One of the major tricks that proved lucky for me was setting up iOS to manually fetch Gmail and iCloud data on the iPhone. Not familiar with this hack? Let me show you how it works!
Disable Automatic Data Fetching for Gmail and iCloud Data on iPhone and iPad
iOS offers you complete control over how your accounts like Gmail and iCloud can check for updates. By default, they are set to update data automatically using Wi-Fi. But you can either completely disable the automatic data update or allow them to fetch data only when the particular apps are being used.
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Then, scroll down and choose Passwords & Accounts.
2. Now, you should see all of your accounts. Tap on Fetch New Data.
Set-Up Manual Data Fetching for Individual Accounts
Just in case, you want to take control of certain accounts, you can choose to set up manual data fetching for individual accounts, tap on the respective account and then choose Manual.
Note: You can also set your holiday calendar to collect data manually. To do so, tap on the Holiday Calendar option and then select Manual.
Set-Up All of Your Accounts to Fetch App Data Manually
If you would like to enable manual data pick-up for all of your accounts including the holiday calendar, select Manually option.
Once you have customized your accounts, quit the settings. Going forward, your accounts will check for updates only when the respective application is in use.
Note: If you want to completely disable your accounts from fetching data, turn off the switch next to Push. One more thing worth noting is that when Low Power Mode is enabled (Settings > Battery), iOS temporarily reduces mail fetch.
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Manually Fetch Gmail and iCloud Data on iPhone and iPad
So, that’s the easy way you can prevent your account from checking for updates automatically. Of course, it does involve a trade-off. But the situation where extending the battery life matters a bit more, it can come in super handy. Therefore, do not fail to give it a try if you want to boost the battery life of your device.
