Battery Saving Tips

Follow these instructions to manage battery performance on your Nokia Lumia 520:

Battery management

There's a lot you can do to make the battery in your Windows Phone last longer between charges. The easiest way is to use Battery Saver. You can set it so that it will turn on any time your battery gets too low, or if you know in advance that your going to need to make every bit count, you can turn it on to make sure your battery lasts as long as possible.

When you turn on battery saver, your phone automatically turns off some of the features on your phone that use battery in the background. When Battery Saver is on your phone will no longer:

Automatically receive email or calendar updates - You can still sync your email manually whenever you want. 

Update some Live tiles - If the Tile uses something called push notification to get its updates, it will stop receiving those updates in Battery Saver mode. 

Allow apps to run in the background - You will only be able to use an app if its open.

You can still make and receive phone calls and text messages, and browse the internet. Below are some battery-saving tips to get you started.

To turn on battery saver

• On Start, swipe across and tap Settings then tap Battery Saver.
• If you want to turn on Battery Saver toggle the switch to On.
• If you want to amend the Battery Saver settings, tap advanced.

Reduce the time before the screen turns off

Set a shorter screen time-out duration and set your phone to lock. This helps save battery power and also prevents your phone from turning on by accident when you put it away.

Lower the brightness settings

On start, flick left to the App list and tap Settings. Tap Brightness, turn off Automatically adjust, and then select the level that you want to use instead.

Use a dark background theme

On start, flick left to the App list and tap Settings. Tap Theme, tap Background, and then tap Dark.

Sync music and pictures at your computer

When you are at your computer, connect your phone and sync your favourite music and pictures to it using the Zune software. You can then enjoy your favourite pictures and songs on your phone, even if you're in an area with poor reception.

Of course there's a lot of music out there that might not be in your collection, and streaming lets you enjoy new stuff while your on the go. But if your battery is running low or you can't be around a computer or an outlet, avoid long periods of streaming music because it uses more power. If you listen to your play lists with the screen turned off, make sure that the current play list doesn't include streaming items. If you're not an Xbox Music Pass subscriber, you can turn off Connect with Xbox Music in the Music + videos settings.

Turn off connections you are not using

When Bluetooth is turned on, your phone checks continuously for available accessories. So if you're not using a Bluetooth accessory, you can turn Bluetooth off. Also if you listen to music or talk on the phone for hours, try using headphones instead of a Bluetooth device. If you are using a Bluetooth accessory or the speaker in a call, press the Power button to turn the screen off.

Sync email and contacts selectively

To make your battery last a little longer, try one or more of these sync-related tips:

• Change the sync settings for your email accounts to a longer interval, especially for secondary accounts that you don't need to check as often. You can change the sync settings on a per-account basis. (On Start, swipe across and tap Settings then tap email + accounts. tap the account that you want to change the sync settings for, tap Download new content, choose a longer interval, and then tap Done).
• Choose which contacts are synced to your phone. If your email account doesn't include any contacts that you want to keep on your phone, you can choose to not have them synced to your phone. You can also keep your Facebook contacts separate from your other contacts too, which should help reduce the total number of contacts synced to your phone. 
  Be mindful that each time you visit What's New for People and Pictures, your phone uses extra power to sync and update.

Picture-taking tips

When you're done taking a picture, press the Back button to exit the camera viewfinder. (You can also press the Power button to put your phone to sleep.) When the viewfinder is active, the screen stays on longer. Also, when it's time to upload pictures, upload only the ones you want to keep and skip those not-so-great ones. This saves power and saves you time later when you want to sort your pictures at your computer.

Warning

Do not remove or replace the battery when the phone is turned on. If you have a spare battery, turn off your phone, and then replace the battery in your phone with the spare. This helps ensure that your data is saved properly. To turn off your phone, press and hold the Power button for three seconds until the goodbye message appears and the screen goes dark.