IPhone settings to check every month

A smartphone like the iPhone has in effect become a computer and as such, during its intensive use and after installing and using numerous applications, needs maintenance periodically, to prevent it from slowing down or saturating the internal memory without even realizing it.
Luckily we can act on some settings of internal control of the operating system which, in the iPhone, will allow us to monitor the energy consumption, privacy of our phone, we will have to check the permissions and permissions provided to each app and we will also have to check that the push notifications we receive are necessary or not.
In the guide below we will then show you the settings worth checking at least once a month, to prevent this type of problem and to keep the iPhone always fast and snappy.

How to keep an iPhone fast

Checking the settings we will talk to you about every month we will be able to keep the iPhone fast, especially if it has a few years on its shoulders (for example an iPhone 8, an iPhone 8 Plus or an iPhone X). Let's take a convenient date for ourselves and also set a reminder on the calendar, so that we can act promptly every month on the recommended settings.

Check your privacy settings

Generally, when an application requests authorizations to be approved, you touch the OK button without looking and without assessing whether this permission is necessary or not for the app to work. iOS is a very closed system so there is no possibility for applications to go to read or modify personal data inside, but it is not said that some app will find the way to quickly access personal data, such as location location or our address book.
In order to check the permissions provided to the apps, we open the app Settings and press on the item Privacy to see all the options and permissions assigned to apps (location, contacts, calendars and more).

We touch one of the items in the list and check the applications that have requested that specific permission or service, so that we can eliminate this privilege.
In 99% of cases we will never have security problems in an iPhone, but it is better to check that there is no game or drawing app that requires access to location services or to the camera.
Another advantage in limiting access to the location concerns the battery: the less apps access the location service, the more autonomy we will have, as seen also in the guide How to make the battery last longer on iPhone if it does not last long.

Check app notifications

Push notifications are useful if it is an important app, such as Mail or WhatsApp, but they are annoying when they concern apps that should never show notifications, such as games and apps for editing photos; these notifications also cause faster battery depletion.
In order to control push notifications we open the app Settings and go to the menu Notifications, so as to have the list of apps on the phone.

If we notice that an app sends too many notifications, we press on its name inside the screen that we have shown you and turn off the switch next to the item Allow notifications; we repeat the steps for all the apps we don't want to show notifications on.
You may be surprised to find out how many applications try to appear in the notification center for no useful reason.

Check the applications that work in the background

On a modern iPhone it is worth checking every month or less which applications remain running in the background, since these apps tend to drain battery without even noticing.
To check which apps work in the background we open the app Settings and go to the menu General -> Update app in the background, so you can find all the applications that are running in the background even if you don't use them.

For example, if you are using an application to listen to podcasts, it may remain in the background to download new content while an app like Twitter or Facebook may be looking for new updates instead. For some apps this is useful, for others absolutely not and it is worth periodically deactivating those that do not need to remain in the background.

Erase data to save memory space

The applications, during their use, create and download data occupying more and more internal memory. If we notice that the iPhone slows down or no longer downloads new apps, we need to check the use of space by the applications, so as to understand what is saturating the memory.
To do this type of check we go in the app Settings and take us on the path General -> iPhone Space to see the space occupied by the applications.

Unlike Android, in iOS there is no predefined way to clean the space taken up by the applications and eliminate the cache and useless data, if not uninstalling the app and reinstalling it.
If the apps to be controlled are many and the space is no longer sufficient, we invite you to delete the heavier apps and move the photos and videos to the PC, as seen in our guide How to free up space on iPhone.

Usage statistics

The Usage time it's one of the options in the app Settings iOS where you can find the iPhone statistics, ie the most used apps and the time spent using them. If you notice too frequent use of an application, you can set a pause here and a time limit after which a security PIN is required to continue.

This block is particularly useful if the smartphone is used by minors and we want certain categories of apps to be used only in specific time slots, so that they can study and sleep without exaggerating with the use of the smartphone.
To find out how to best configure iPhone usage time, please read our guide on How to limit the use of smartphones and tablets to minors.

Conclusions

What we have indicated above are the essential operations for the maintenance of a modern iPhone (with iOS 12 or later operating system); we advise you to apply all the advice shown every month or less (once a week in the case of parental control), depending on the amount of applications you install and use and based on the reactions of the same phone.

To find out other useful options to disable or enable on iPhone, we can read our guide Options on iOS to change or disable (iPhone and iPad).
Do we have too many apps to clean up or does the iPhone no longer respond to our commands? For both problems we have the right guide, just read App to erase data on iPhone and clean memory is Force restart iPhone and enter recovery mode (all ways).