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To Power Off or to Airplane Mode? That is the question!

At the day's end and the day's beginning, I...

  • Power Off and Power On

    Votes: 2 3.1%

  • Turn On Airplane Mode and Turn Off Airplane Mode

    Votes: 8 12.3%

  • Turn On Do Not Disturb and Turn Off Do Not Disturb

    Votes: 15 23.1%

  • Let the phone be

    Votes: 39 60.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • Total voters
    65
smacrumon

smacrumon

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 15, 2016
2,683
4,011
After succumbing to some kind of evangelical magic for two years or more, my friend upgraded their carrier branded phone to their first new iPhone 5s with iOS9.

My friend has been very accustomed in the past to powering off their previous phone in the evenings to prevent calls and messages, so naturally in the evening they power off their new iPhone completely shutting it down then booting up in the morning.

I suggested the idea of just turning the phone to airplane mode to prevent any calls or messages coming through and that the iPhone is designed to remain on in a sleep/wake cycle instead of being shut down and rebooted daily.

Questions were raised from the discussion that seemed important for the MR forums to tackle:

Are there any issues fully shutting down and booting the iPhone on a daily basis? Does this behavior affect the longevity of the device? Can the iPhone be tracked while in airplane mode or when fully powered down? What's the proper way to treat the iPhone?
 
BeeGood

BeeGood

macrumors 68000
Sep 15, 2013
1,859
6,120
Lot 23E. Somewhere in Georgia.
Is your only concern being woken up in the middle of the night by calls/notifications? If so, that's exactly what DND is designed for.

There's no "risk" that I can think of for shutting it down completely, but why bother with that? iCloud, podcasts downloads and other things that often occur at night while your phone is sitting on the charger won't happen. Plus, what if you need your phone in the middle of the night in an emergency?

Swipe up + tap. DND on. Go to sleep. It's a lot simpler/faster than power cycling the phone every day. Or better yet, schedule the DND (like most do) and forget it even exists. That's my $0.02.
 
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bufffilm

bufffilm

Suspended
May 3, 2011
4,227
2,536
I usually run the phone connected to power by early evening, so by bedtime, it is fully charged (run it in low-power mode as well) in which case, I'll turn the phone off.

If it is not fully charged, then I'll leave the phone on throughout the night.
 
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noobinator

noobinator

macrumors 604
Jun 19, 2009
7,228
6,793
Los Angeles, CA
iPhones are so good at standby that you would definitely use more power turning it off and on than leaving it in airplane mode all night and use less possibly just on DND.
 
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J

joeblow7777

macrumors 604
Sep 7, 2010
7,048
8,754
I just let it be. No one calls or texts me in the middle of the night, and if they do, it must be a real emergency. Left in standby, my phone never loses more than 1% power overnight, so that's not an issue either.
 
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dontwalkhand

dontwalkhand

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2007
6,378
2,867
Phoenix, AZ
smacrumon said:
After succumbing to some kind of evangelical magic for two years or more, my friend upgraded their carrier branded phone to their first new iPhone 5s with iOS9.

My friend has been very accustomed in the past to powering off their previous phone in the evenings to prevent calls and messages, so naturally in the evening they power off their new iPhone completely shutting it down then booting up in the morning.

I suggested the idea of just turning the phone to airplane mode to prevent any calls or messages coming through and that the iPhone is designed to remain on in a sleep/wake cycle instead of being shut down and rebooted daily.

Questions were raised from the discussion that seemed important for the MR forums to tackle:

Are there any issues fully shutting down and booting the iPhone on a daily basis? Does this behavior affect the longevity of the device? Can the iPhone be tracked while in airplane mode or when fully powered down? What's the proper way to treat the iPhone?
Click to expand...
Just plug it in at night and set up a DND schedule.
[doublepost=1463091456][/doublepost]That's what do not disturb is for and plugging it in at night.
[doublepost=1463091492][/doublepost]
Matthew.H said:
I just turn my 6S off in the evening and turn it on again the next morning. Uses less battery and I don't need anyone ringing me at 3am.
Click to expand...
That's what do not disturb is for.
 
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Murgatroyd

Murgatroyd

macrumors regular
Feb 26, 2010
113
6
Staten Island, New Yawk
After reading this article I always enable Airplane mode at night. I'd like to do something about the Internet cable router situated next to my bed, but turning this off at night and then on in the morning seems a tad too much of a habit I prefer not to engage myself in. So it goes

The Mercola website is an excellent source of information for those so inclined towards many health issues.
 
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smacrumon

smacrumon

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 15, 2016
2,683
4,011
Thanks everyone, some interesting and different combinations!
 
P

pmau

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2010
1,569
854
I know I'm late but I want to comment on AirPlane mode and reachability.

There is a Framework (code) in iOS that tells an App what network connectivity is available.
For example you can disable mobile data for specific Apps.

Unfortunately most Apps are really badly written and just fire HTTP requests at will.
This situation has been getting worse since Apple allowed limited background network activities with scheduled requests.

The problem arises that stupid Apps are trying to make networking calls even though no reachable network is available.
So it might even be that your battery suffers from AirPlane mode because Apps are trying again and again to schedule their code to make network calls.

Just something to consider.

But in general I also use the approach to go to Airplane mode and then enable Wifii to ensure not to get distracted by calls or SMS but still let some Apps have networking available.
 
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Newtons Apple

Newtons Apple

Suspended
Mar 12, 2014
22,757
15,253
Jacksonville, Florida
My iPhone has never been turned off. It replaced my landline and I run all of my business on it so at night I turn the volume down so that I can hear it if I am awake and not hear it if sleeping. It is on 24-7 since introduction day
 
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poakenfold

poakenfold

macrumors newbie
Jan 24, 2016
6
4
I do power off my iPhone once every 3 days whenever i get time. Gives a breather to the processor and if I'm not wrong I've read many articles from experts, it does elongate your phone's life in the long run. But it doesn't make much difference since most people upgrade every 2-3 years.
 
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S

Shadowbech

macrumors G3
Oct 18, 2011
9,038
5,894
I just simply have a scheduled DND from 10 pm to 7 pm. I never practice turning off my phone every night and to turn it on the next day. Just a waste of time and plus turning it on uses a bit more power at first as it requires the CPU to do a lot of thinking. Plus you have to enter the passcode for the first time after every reboot (if you use Touch ID that is). Just too much hassle. I do however reboot the device once a week.
 
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