Here’s how to make your cell phone battery last longer in a power outage

With millions of Georgians still without power after Tropical Storm Irma’s winds flew through the state, many are struggling to keep their mobile devices fully charged.

If you’re trying to keep your cell phone alive until power is restored, here are a few tips that may help:

Turn off your Bluetooth and Wifi

According to Digital Trends, Bluetooth and Wifi are power-hungry features. Even when they are not linked to any sources, they will continuously search for connections, draining your battery along the way. It’s best to keep them turned off until you need them.

Lower your screen brightness

Just like you can save battery on your laptop by dimming the screen, you can save your phone’s battery the same way. Smartphones also have a feature that will allow the phone to adjust the brightness automatically, keeping it from being too bright when it’s not needed. You can find this in your settings under “Display & Brightness.”

Keep apps from refreshing in the background

It’s no secret that apps like Twitter, Spotify and Facebook use a lot of battery power while in use. But did you know they also use energy when they’re closed? That’s because most phone settings allow apps to “refresh” in the background, keeping them up to date for the next time you decide to open them. To keep this from happening, USA TODAY suggests going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh page and turn off any apps you don’t want working behind the scenes.

Turn off GPS tracker

Just like apps, location services on smartphones tend to run in the background, even when not necessarily needed. This is one of the fastest ways to drain your battery. Go to your settings to turn off your location so you can control when it runs and save it for things like navigation or sharing your location with concerned loved ones.

Turn on airplane mode

With your phone constantly searching for cellular service, your battery will suffer. Instead of turning your phone completely off, CNET suggests switching your phone to airplane mode to shut off all of the radios and switching back out of airplane mode only when you need to make a call or send a text message. Limiting yourself to just text messages can also save battery, as phone calls can drag on and suck up valuable battery life.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Here’s how to make your cell phone battery last longer in a power outage."