Our smartphones have excellent battery life when we buy them, but over time, battery life goes down, and we have to recharge them more often.
There are a few ways to improve phone battery life, and one common suggestion is to perform a factory reset.
So in this article, we discuss whether a factory reset can increase your phone’s battery life.
Here’s Whether A Factory Reset Increases Phone Battery Life
A factory reset can increase phone battery life if the reason behind the higher battery drain is a software issue. Resetting removes third-party apps and frees up storage, which will, in turn, reduce the battery drain. However, a factory reset can’t improve battery life when the higher drain is due to a hardware issue.
Can A Factory Reset Increase Your Phone’s Battery Life?
A factory reset can increase your phone’s battery life if the higher battery drain is due to a software issue. If your phone has power-hungry background apps, malware, or other hard-to-identify software issues, a factory reset can remove those unwanted applications and improve the battery life.
On the other hand, if the higher battery drain is due to a hardware issue, a factory reset will not increase the battery life.
How Does A Factory Reset Improve Battery Life?
A factory reset can improve your phone’s battery life by removing all third-party apps: unwanted background apps continuously run in the background and drain the battery, and even non-background apps can increase the battery drain when they periodically check for updates.
Various software issues, like missing files in some apps, can also increase the battery drain. When such apps repeatedly search for missing files, they drain the battery faster. So a factory reset will remove those apps and reduce the battery drain.
Factory resetting can also improve battery life by freeing up storage on your phone. When there’s not enough free storage, the phone has to work harder to find free space for caching, consuming more battery power. By removing all of your data and apps, a factory reset will free up the storage and, in turn, give you better battery life.
Why Factory Resetting Is Not Improving Your Phone’s Battery Life?
A factory reset can give you better battery life if the reason behind the faster battery drain is a software issue, but if it is a hardware issue, factory resetting won’t help.
For example, if you accidentally drop your phone, it might cause internal short circuits, and the battery might drain faster. In this case, factory resetting can’t reduce the battery drain. Similarly, if the battery is too old, you’ll only get minimal battery life, and you can’t fix it with a factory reset.
Also, if you reinstall all your previous apps after a factory reset, the battery life might not improve. In this case, the reason for the higher battery drain might be one of your third-party apps, and when you reinstall that app, the battery drain will increase again.
Does A Factory Reset Remove OS Updates?
In both Android phones and iPhones, a factory reset does not remove OS updates; it only removes user data and third-party apps.
For example, if you bought your iPhone with iOS 13 and then upgraded it to iOS 14, a factory reset will not downgrade it to iOS 13: you’ll still have the updated iOS 14 version after the reset. It is the same with Android.
How To Improve Phone Battery Life Without Doing A Factory Reset
A factory reset takes time, and you also need to back up your data before a reset. So it should be the last thing you try to improve your phone’s battery life.
First of all, you can use your phone’s battery app to identify power-hungry apps and then remove unwanted ones.
You can also improve the battery life by using Lite versions of mobile apps: for example, Facebook has a Lite app that consumes less battery power.
If you have an iPhone, you should check the battery health page and see whether there are any issues. Also, check the maximum capacity percentage, and if it is less than 80%, you might have to replace the battery.
Android doesn’t show battery health natively, so you have to install third-party apps to get an estimate of battery health. These battery apps will also help you to identify power-hungry background apps.
As we’ve said before, a lack of free storage can also increase the battery drain of your phone. So free up the storage by moving videos, songs, photos, and other media files to an SD card or an SSD/HDD. You can also use cloud storage to store your media files.
Conclusion
A factory reset can improve your phone’s battery life if the source of the higher battery drain is a software issue. Unwanted background apps and malfunctioning software can drain the battery faster, and a factory reset can remove those unwanted apps and increase the battery life.
On the other hand, if your phone’s battery is too old or if it is a hardware issue that causes faster battery drain, a factory reset will not improve the battery life.
