Many of the apps you install ask for permission to access your location – and if the app seems useful, you’re going to allow it more often than not. But we tend to forget about this afterwards, and over time, you’ve got a dozen different apps that are asking for location information and draining out the battery. For both privacy reasons and practical concerns about battery life, this kind of usage is a problem. Or sometimes it happens you deny an app location access on first launch, but you may need to enable it later, but are not sure how to go about this.
Some apps such as Zomato only use your location when you have the app open. Others such as Google Maps use your location even in the background. There may be a legitimate reason for this. In the case of Google Maps, it provides directions even when the app is not open. But that’s not the case for all apps that use your location.
The easy solution is to just turn off the GPS altogether – but this means that even important apps you rely on can’t check your location. If your battery life is getting worse by the day though, or if you’re just not comfortable with certain apps sharing your location data, then you can turn off location access for just those apps.
Here’s how to enable or disable location access for individual apps on iPhone or iPad.
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Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
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Now scroll down to see a list of apps that seek location access.
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Next to each app, you will see the text Never, While Using, or Always. Apps that have Never written next to their names don’t use your location data. While Using means that the app only accesses location data when it is on screen. Always means that the app can access location data even when it is not running.
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Tap any app that has Always displayed next to its name.
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Now tap While Using the App. This will ensure that the app doesn’t use your location in the background. Some apps don’t allow this option, in which case, if you don’t think that the app should always access your location, change the setting to Never.
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Scroll to the bottom and tap System Services.
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Now you can see system services that use your location in the background. Find My iPhone is a useful anti-theft feature, so you should not deny it location access. You can turn the others off depending on your requirements.
Do you prefer to have apps using your location in the background? Did denying location access improve the battery life on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know via the comments.
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