What’s the only thing that may be more important in an action camera than its video quality?

If you’ve handled a GoPro, you probably know that battery life can make or break an action camera.

Despite the Hero 9 being the best-reviewed GoPro in terms of battery consumption, it still doesn’t last very long, especially if you’re shooting in 4K or 5K modes.

If you’ve landed on this article, chances are, you know the struggle.

So without further adieu, let’s get into how you can extend your GoPro Hero 9 battery life for any purpose.

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How to Extend Your GoPro Hero 9 Battery Life

It’s important to note that not all of these settings optimizations may be for you. The best method for you depends on your usage.

For example, if you use a remote controller or connect the camera to your phone, disabling wireless connections may not make sense.

However, these tips individually most likely won’t extend the GoPro’s battery life by much.

Aim to do as many of them as possible while still keeping the features most helpful for you.

Lower Recording Mode

One of the most significant factors in battery consumption is your recording mode.

The higher the quality or FPS of your recording, the less time your camera will be able to record.

The extra time you’d get from lowering the recording mode is far from an exact science, but it’ll help.

If having 5K videos isn’t a priority to you, lowering it will make a noticeable difference.

Expect anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes of extra battery life, depending on the mode you use and the weather conditions.

Adjust Auto-Shutdown Time

While this won’t necessarily affect your battery life every time, this setting can save quite a bit when it’s in action.

Your GoPro will automatically power off after 15 minutes of inactivity by default. Set this to just 5 minutes to save battery when needed.

Disable Voice Command

Okay, let’s face it. Not a lot of people even remember the voice command features in GoPro Hero 9, let alone use it.

If you’re one of those people, then kudos! Keep using them if they make your life easier.

If not, disabling voice command features will make quite a difference now that the camera doesn’t have to keep its ears open for commands.

Disable Wireless Connections

This feature is understandably not as obscure as voice commands.

So if you use remote controls, the app, or other wireless features, find strategic times to turn them on.

For example, you could turn it off if you’re using the camera directly without a drone or a remote controller.

Turn it on only when you need to shoot something using the controls on your app. You get the picture!

Disable GPS

This feature allows your GoPro Hero 9 to create metadata for pictures and videos, such as where it was taken, how fast the camera was going, its altitude, etc.

These can be pretty useful and fun to tinker with, but if you’re not using your action camera for that sort of action, turning it off will improve your battery life instantly.

Disable Front Screen/Use Screensavers

This is probably one of the biggest battery life drainers on GoPro Hero 9 and 10—having two separate screens burns through the battery’s juice.

So if you’re not taking videos facing your cameras or you have no use for this secondary screen, you can turn it off entirely from the camera settings.

Alternatively, you can set the “Screensaver” to 5 seconds. That way, the screen goes black when you’re not using it or pressing any buttons.

In screensaver mode, your camera’s screens will be off while it’s on and recording.

Decrease Brightness

Following the same logic, you can decrease your brightness to expand the battery life on your GoPro.

Of course, this would make it a bit trickier to see the screen, but if we’re being honest, things aren’t exactly that visible on that little thing in the sunlight.

So we believe it’s worth it.

Use QuickCapture

Whether this saves battery when it’s on or off is completely dependent on your usage.

If you’re not familiar, QuickCapture is a setting that allows you to hit that big red circle on top to immediately start recording without having to turn your camera on or off.

If you find yourself spontaneously turning your camera on and off multiple times in a matter of an hour or two, having QuickCapture makes sense for you.

Powering up your camera takes a bit of, well, power! Having QuickCapture on may save you a small amount of battery juice along the way.

On the other hand, if you only turn on your camera when everything is set and ready, having QuickCapture on may drain a bit of battery with no real use.

In this case, it’s better to turn it off completely.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, our tips and tricks to improve a GoPro Hero 9’s battery life are not that complex, but all depend on your usage.

If you tinker around with these settings, you’ll find a combination that works for you while saving your battery for the important moments.

Add to that that most of these also work for other GoPro models, so when you do find the settings that work for you, you can theoretically apply them on all GoPro models and most action cameras in general.