Terrible battery life

[al256]

I have a S4 on 6.1. With watchOS 6, I had the fastest charge times I've ever seen. I could feel how warm the watch was but now that I'm on 6.1, it's the slowest charge I've had. I only charge my watch when it's at 10% or below. Mainly this happens at work in the AM and I keep a charger on my desk for this purpose. But I'm stuck here, still waiting for it to complete the charge after what seems like three hours.

 

[yui4]

I’ve got a series 4 44mm that was recently replaced by Apple. Reception in work isn’t great but the battery is awful. I’m considering selling it and not getting another Apple Watch

 

[nalk7]

So my Series 5 has been pretty much the same on 6.1 vs 6.0.1 about 4-5% per hour. I’m thinking about unpairing and repairing it to my phone, did you guys set up as new or did you load a backup?

 

[eclipse01]

So my Series 5 has been pretty much the same on 6.1 vs 6.0.1 about 4-5% per hour. I’m thinking about unpairing and repairing it to my phone, did you guys set up as new or did you load a backup?

loaded a backup

 

[nalk7]

loaded a backup

Thanks I just have that a shot, let’s see how it goes!

 

[Coltaine]

At least the noise level detection application running in the background does not impact power reserve that much for me. I am just running a test on that. Same scenario as yesterday (described above), but cellular data not activated. Noise level detection running in the background. I am not sure, how many trainings I will log today. Probably one less than yesterday. I will report back tonight. At the moment I am three hours and ten minutes into the usage day (started again at 05.30 am and now it is 08.39 am as I am writing this) and the battery is draining at a rate of approx. 4% per hour, which looks pretty normal.

Just to follow up on my posting from above.

I kept testing my Apple Watch (Series 5, 44mm, natural Titanium) over the last few days, also with watchOS 6.1. Use case is as described in my very first post in this thread. In short: everything is switched on that can be switched on: all antennas, als Siri functions, noise level detection, always-on display etc.
I am a very active Apple Watch user, I log 2-3 trainings a day, use it for messages, emails, short phone calls. Most of the time the watch is attached to its paired iPhone, less often on WiFi and from time to time it runs on cellular.
I get at least the full promised 18 hours out of it EVERY day, it never gave up on me before that, on many days it runs even longer.
As far as I can determine, the worst power draw comes from extended time on cellular networks.
For my regular use case that power consumption is approximately 5.2% per hour. If I switch off noise level detection and cellular connectivity and log less trainings, I can get it down to just above 4% per hour.

So all in all, I am still pretty pleased with battery life on my watch.

 

[xraydoc]

AOD on
11 hrs 18 min standby
2 hrs 20 min usage
62% battery remaining

 

[nph]

Right now after 12 hours standby and 2 hours of active use I have 63% left! I am quite happy with that since this is with everything except Noise on! Once I fine-tune it to take off app refresh and Siri I expect I will be really satisfied with my AW 5.

I took 6.1 and noticed no improvement first 24 hours when it drained +4% per hour. Then I reset , un-paired and re-paired as new watch and now on the second day I have 62% left at this time. I have Nike cellular version and even though it is on I don't think it has been used much today.

Would you say this is as good as I should expect to see battery life even if I have seen reports about people having less than 3 and closer to 2% drain per hour?

I love the AOD and the speed of the AW 5 after coming from AW 2.

Now whether to upgrade my AW 2 before handing it over to another family member is the question.

 

[lexikon318]

I just put my wife’s Series 3 on the charger and couldn’t help but check out her battery life and usage. She has OS 6 and is at 22% ... after 1 day, 16 hours. Insane.

 

[yui4]

Last ditch attempt, I’m going to disable cellular until it’s needed, leaving phone at home, etc and see how that helps

 

[Der Keyser]

I‘m at the stage where I can‘t use my watch 4 LTE as intended. It only just holds battery for an 17 hour day with very light use, but doing an untethered workout kills it @ 3.5% battery/min. That’s a full 100% charge gone in 28 minutes. The watch was perfectly fine two weeks ago until I f***** up badly and installed WatchOS 6.....

 

[The Game 161]

off charge at 7.30am and at 15:50 it's at 64%

so not much difference and this is with raise to wake on....AOD on

 

[eclipse01]

I‘m at the stage where I can‘t use my watch 4 LTE as intended. It only just holds battery for an 17 hour day with very light use, but doing an untethered workout kills it @ 3.5% battery/min. That’s a full 100% charge gone in 28 minutes. The watch was perfectly fine two weeks ago until I f***** up badly and installed WatchOS 6.....

unpair/repair?

 

[nalk7]

So unpairing and repairing from a backup did the trick im currently at 45min use, 3:27h standby and 92% battery, this is waaay better than I was getting before, I’m sure it’ll get better as it settles down. For anyone still having issues, try doing that.

For context I’m on a 44mm S5, AOD on, celular on, but connected to wifi in my office.

 

[yui4]

Just sold my series 4. That’s me done

for now.....

 

[nicho]

For context I’m on a 44mm S5, AOD on, celular on, but connected to wifi in my office.

connected to WiFi and no phone around?

it may be because my work WiFi has an access portal and therefore the watch can’t login and it’s constantly trying to connect, but I find I lose battery life almost 3x faster if I don’t keep my phone with me and in my pocket. We’re talking the difference between dying on the way home from work and having about 45% battery left when I go to bed.

 

[nalk7]

connected to WiFi and no phone around?

it may be because my work WiFi has an access portal and therefore the watch can’t login and it’s constantly trying to connect, but I find I lose battery life almost 3x faster if I don’t keep my phone with me and in my pocket. We’re talking the difference between dying on the way home from work and having about 45% battery left when I go to bed.

Yeah it’s usually in my pocket, the only time I wear it completely untethered is when I go out for runs or when I forget my phone on my desk and I have to do something else around the building.

If you think it’s getting bad battery because it’s attempting to connect to the WiFi maybe you could try disabling WiFi through control centre while in the office.

 

[Der Keyser]

unpair/repair?

I have to every 3 days to use my watch. First day after repair it’s okay - it dies around bedtime. The next day when i go untethered for a 40 min walk around 4pm it will die at the end of that walk. Day three it will last me about 7 hours without untethered use at all, and I have to unpair/repair to be able to go for a day again.

I have severely regretted upgrading to WOS6 and IOS13..... it has cost me the use of my watch.... only a year old?

 

[Otflyer]

I have to every 3 days to use my watch. First day after repair it’s okay - it dies around bedtime. The next day when i go untethered for a 40 min walk around 4pm it will die at the end of that walk. Day three it will last me about 7 hours without untethered use at all, and I have to unpair/repair to be able to go for a day again.

I have severely regretted upgrading to WOS6 and IOS13..... it has cost me the use of my watch.... only a year old?

Do you have AppleCare? Call Apple support in any case.

 

[Boardiesboi]

6.1 has made a big difference to my S5 battery life.

Apart from the second day after the update where the battery dropped down to 35% at the end of the day, I’ve been consistently getting remaining batteries of 55-65% before I go to bed. Almost as good as my old S4.

 

[The Game 161]

6.1 has made a big difference to my S5 battery life.

Apart from the second day after the update where the battery dropped down to 35% at the end of the day, I’ve been consistently getting remaining batteries of 55-65% before I go to bed. Almost as good as my old S4.

You have raise to wake on or off?

 

[cosmic68]

Well mine seems to evened out as some people are reporting (on 6.1).

I currently have 58% on those numbers.

Series 5 LTE 44
AOD on
RTW on
Noise/Siri on raise/half background refresh off

Charged watch before bed to 100%.
Went to sleep and tracked with theatre mode for 7.5 hours at 10pm.
Been up since 7am. One 30 min exercise session with iPhone.

2:30pm 58%

 

[Boardiesboi]

You have raise to wake on or off?

AOD on. Noise app off. Background app refresh off.

 

[akidokraja]

View attachment 874719

Well mine seems to evened out as some people are reporting (on 6.1).

I currently have 58% on those numbers.

Series 5 LTE 44
AOD on
RTW on
Noise/Siri on raise/half background refresh off

Charged watch before bed to 100%.
Went to sleep and tracked with theatre mode for 7.5 hours at 10pm.
Been up since 7am. One 30 min exercise session with iPhone.

2:30pm 58%

This is how every S5 shoul be. Almost 48 hrs with AOD on and some light exercise.

 

[bbeagle]

Battery time has been pretty good today so far. First 90 minute workout with the S5, with no phone nearby, cellular on, wifi off, playing music. Elliptical workout 45 minutes, weights (with no workout on) the other 45 minutes. The battery went down from 84 to 62. (Only 22% in that time). That's pretty good. It should last the rest of the day with maybe 30% left.

Awesome. I usually workout between 60-90 minutes, and even if I workout for 3 hours this way, the battery should work fine for lasting the day.

(AOD is on, using AirPods Pro as the headphones)