How to Conserve Your Battery Life
This article provides tips on how to reduce battery usage while using Gaia GPS.
Start by changing the settings you would normally change to conserve battery, such as dimming your brightness and shutting down extraneous running applications. This WikiHow entry provides useful information on conserving the battery life of Android phones. You'll also find useful information under the section "Settings to Optimize Battery Life – iOS and Android Smartphones" in this Adventure Alan article.
Important! When the Battery Saver mode is active, track recording is limited to only when the app is open.
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You may desire to turn off your location services to extend battery life when out on a trek. There is no way to automatically turn off location based services in Gaia GPS on an Android device. While every phone has these services located in a different area, you'll want follow the same procedure regardless of type of Android you are using:
- Locate and turn off "Location" on your Android. (This prevents your device from sending information to apps that attempt to track you location.)
- Locate and turn off "Wi-Fi" on your device. (This will prevent your device from pinging and looking for different wi-fi devices in your area.)
- Locate and turn on "Airplane Mode" on your device. (When in Airplane mode your phone will receive data but will be unable to receive phone calls or texts.)
Depending on what model Android you have, putting your Android device in Airplane Mode may turn off the GPS in your device. Gaia GPS will not work if the GPS is disabled, so if you find that Gaia GPS doesn't work after turning on Airplane Mode, switch Airplane Mode off and then turn location and Wi-Fi services off on your device.
Note: Once the location and Wi-Fi functions are turned off, you will only have access to maps you've already downloaded onto your device.
Preserving Battery Life with the Device Hub
Through the device hub, you have the option of connecting an external device and creating tracks on Gaia GPS without needing to open the app and record directly on Gaia GPS. Recording tracks via a Garmin device can significantly conserve battery life, and you have the option to automatically sync tracks to your Gaia GPS account. Read more about connecting to the device hub and managing your device sync settings here.