Replacing an ipod touch battery is no small task. If you pay to get it done, it can be costly. Apple can do it for $79 plus S&H (see here). You can get the job done for cheaper elsewhere but then there’s no guarantee that your ipod will still function afterwards. Same goes for trying to do it yourself. Thus, you’d want to hold off having to replace your ipod’s battery for as long as possible.
Below are a list of things you can do to conserve battery power and extend the overall lifespan of your ipod’s battery.
Update iTunes and iPod Software – Apple may have found new ways to optimize battery performance since the previous software version, so be sure to fire up iTunes often, and to update your software whenever you’re prompted to.
Turn Off Automatic Time Zone – With this turned on, your ipod will constantly track your location to make sure the time is correct. If you don’t traverse time zones very often, it’d be best to turn this function off by going to Settings > General > Date & Time and toggling Set Automatically to “OFF”.
Turn Off WIFI – If you don’t surf the net or download apps all that often, turning off WIFI will save you power. You can always turn it back on whenever you need it. Go to Settings > WIFI, and toggle “Wi-Fi” to “OFF”. (Note: There is one drawback to doing this – if you ever lose your ipod and want to use “Find My iPod” to locate it, you WILL need WIFI to be turned ON. So if you have a tendency of losing things, you may want to leave WIFI on.)
Turn Off Bluetooth – If you have little to no use for bluetooth, why not turn it off to get more battery life out of your device? Go to Settings > Bluetooth and toggle to “OFF”.
Turn Off Notifications – Go to Settings > Notifications, and you’ll see a list of apps and functions that can send you notifications if you’d let them. For apps or functions you don’t need or want to receive notifications from, click on each of them and set “Notification Center” to “OFF”.
Turn Off Data Push – Continuously checking for new email can drain your battery quick. To turn data push off, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data, toggle “Push” to “OFF”.
Fetch Data Less Frequently – With Data Push set to “OFF”, you can tell your ipod how often to fetch new data from the server. Set to “Hourly” or “Manually” to save on power.
Delete Secondary Email Accounts – Better yet, how about NOT having to fetch emails again EVER? If you have multiple email accounts on your ipod, consider deleting the ones you don’t need to check as frequently as your primary email. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap on an account you wish to delete, scroll to the bottom and tap “Delete Account”.
Turn Off EQ – Ipod Touches has an audio equalizer that will automatically adjust the audio settings of each song to make it sound more pleasant. Try listening to your music with EQ turned on and then off to see if you notice any difference. If not, you’d be better off turning EQ off. To do so, go to Settings > Music > EQ and tap “Off”.
Reduce Screen Brightness – You can do this one of two ways. Go to Settings > Brightness and 1)manually reduce the brightness by moving the slider towards the left, or 2)toggle “Auto Brightness” to “ON”. The second option is better since it will adjust the brightness in accordance with the amount of lighting in your current environment.
Lock iPod When Not Using – When you know you’ll be leaving your ipod idle for some time, press the sleep/wake button once to put it into sleep mode (you’ll still receive text messages etc. while it’s sleeping). If you’re absent-minded like I am (i.e. tend to put your ipod down and forget to come back), the Auto Lock function is your best-friend. Go to Settings > General > Auto Lock and set it to an interval you’re comfortable with. Of course, the shorter it is, the better for battery life. And of course, if you don’t even need to be receiving messages, turn your ipod off completely.
Free iPod From Case While Charging – Take your ipod out of its case before you charge it. This will prevent it from getting overheated, which may reduce the battery’s capacity or otherwise damage the battery or other parts of your ipod.
Do At Least One Full Charge Cycle a Month – To keep a lithium-based battery in optimal performance, it’s best to keep the electrons in it moving at least occasionally. A good practice is to charge your device at least occasionally. Apple recommends that the ipod undergo at least one full charge cycle per month. A charge cycle is explained by Apple as follows:
A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle. (Source: Apple.com Website)
Avoid Overcharging – I’m not absolutely sure about this one. Look around the web and you’ll see 2 opposing schools of beliefs. Some sites say that a lithium battery cannot be overcharged because it will automatically reject charge once it’s full. Others advise against it, warning that overcharging can lead to a reduction in battery capacity or may even explode. If you’re worried about overcharging your ipod, there are apps you can download that will notify you when the battery is fully charged by playing a sound. One of the apps that does this is Battery Doctor HD by Beijing Kingsoft. See our review of this app here: Battery Doctor App Review
Store Your iPod Properly – For best performance, keep your iPod’s temperature in the 32° – 95° F range. If you plan on not using your ipod for more than 3 weeks, have it charged to 50-75% full, then turn it off completely and store it in a place where the temperature is between -4° and 113° F (room temperature would be best). If you leave it fully charged or fully discharged for too long, the battery’s capacity (i.e. it’s ability to hold charge) will be reduced or even eliminated.
Decrease Cache Filling Frequently – If you listen to music on your itouch, try to minimize fast-forwarding as this will fill your ipod’s cache faster which will use more battery power. You can accomplish this by deleting music you no longer like and are always skipping past. Also, try to limit your audio files’ size to keep from filling the cache too quickly. You can do this either by compressing your audio files, or by dividing larger files into smaller ones.