Terrible battery life

[Boardiesboi]

Seen on Reddit

Trying this out for today. Will be able to tell when it hits noon. I usually have more than 80% left.

 

[Donnation]

Trying this out for today. Will be able to tell when it hits noon. I usually have more than 80% left.

Yeah I don’t think that will do anything. I didn’t keep my display at minimum on my 4 and I’m not about to do that on the 5 as the Always on will he completely useless that dim. And I’ve always kept the noise app off as I have no use for it anyway.

 

[pirarre]

So I basically went a over 17hrs today on my AWS5. I could’ve went a lot more too. Majority of the day I had AOD and Noise off until after 13hrs. At which time, I had about 48% battery remaining, so I turned AOD on.

I just put it on the charger now and I had 35% battery left. I’m gonna charge it to 100% and turn on AOD and Noise and see how it goes.

 

[Donnation]

I’ve never had the noise app on and am still getting awful battery life. It isn’t just that one app that’s having problems so I don’t think we need to keep
hearing “turn the noise app off” because that’s not the only thing causing battery drain.

 

[Bengy66]

Here’s the problem I have with people turning off AOD to fix the battery...This was the tent pole feature of S5. I’m sorry but if this prolongs past an update, then apple needs to address it. Debating on cancel my order

 

[maugustine]

I turned off the noise monitoring and it made a huge difference. Battery is draining much slower now.
They may be able to fix this in software eventually but for now I don’t really need that noise monitoring feature.

 

[gymratjudy]

Here’s the problem I have with people turning off AOD to fix the battery...This was the tent pole feature of S5. I’m sorry but if this prolongs past an update, then apple needs to address it. Debating on cancel my order

Totally agree with u. What’s the point of getting the S5 n then turning off AOD especially for those of us who r upgrading from the S4.

 

[pirarre]

With any watch that has AOD it takes a hit on the battery. It did on Androidwear watches too. I always turned AOD off.

With the Apple Watch i didn’t think I would have to turn anything off to get good battery life. But if I do, so be it. I’m sure Apple will fix the issue with some OS update sooner or later.

I got everything on now and my battery hasn’t even went down 2% within this pass hour.

 

[cardfan]

I turned off the noise monitoring and it made a huge difference. Battery is draining much slower now.
They may be able to fix this in software eventually but for now I don’t really need that noise monitoring feature.

Yep why bother with S5 if you’re turning off the main thing about it?

 

[tl01]

I took my 5 off the charger about 2 hours ago and have essentially done nothing but open the Tesla remote app once....and it is at 32 percent. Hmm....... that won’t last a day?!
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I took my 5 off the charger about 2 hours ago and have essentially done nothing but open the Tesla remote app once....and it is at 32 percent. Hmm....... that won’t last a day?!
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I took my 5 off the charger about 2 hours ago and have essentially done nothing but open the Tesla remote app once....and it is at 32 percent. Hmm....... that won’t last a day?!

 

[BigMcGuire]

I ended 8-7:30pm at 60% with a 40 min run. Wife was at 28% - went running with me. But she has the smaller watch (and AOD on).

Definitely less than our AW 3 with AOD on. I’m going to keep my AOD off. Happy with my run - though don’t see two days happening like with my AW 3.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

44mm S5

Took watch off charger at 6:50am .

AOD enabled, Background Refresh disable.



Put watch back on charger at 10:43pm.

So for 15 hours and 53 minutes I had 29% battery left. Pretty much what I expected.

 

[KPOM]

Of course, bad battery life could also be a symptom of the new major WatchOS version (6) - we've certainly seen that before...

For now, I've set my Series 5 to require a tap to wake the screen. I figure that, in the past, 95% of the time when I raised my wrist it was just to see the time or my next appointment - which the always-on screen addresses.

On a side note - in the always-on low-light mode, my eyes find it much easier to quickly read the time if the watch face is analog rather than digital.

For me it’s definitely worse than the Series 4, but Apple completely undersold that model’s battery life, probably knowing that the Always On feature was in the works for this year. It still lasts as long as Apple claims.

 

[MisterSavage]

I'm about to go to bed and my battery % is in the 30's. Usually it's at least double that after a day's usage.

 

[maugustine]

Yep why bother with S5 if you’re turning off the main thing about it?

I got it for the always-on display, not the noise feature.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Today is a work day and my first full day using OS6 on my S4. I am a light user and after 13 hours my battery life is normally around 70% so will monitor through the day.
The watch has been in my wrist for an hour so far. Just lifted my wrist for the first time today to check the time and it’s still reading 100% which is a first as normally I lose between 5 and 6% an hour.
Will keep an hourly check

 

[throAU]

Am I the only one with terrible battery life since this update? I have the decible meter on as well as as the hourly ho ur notifications. Apple said this uses hardly any battery but I got up at 5 am with a full charge and now I’m at 9%

Yes

If it continues, wipe and reload

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Today is a work day and my first full day using OS6 on my S4. I am a light user and after 13 hours my battery life is normally around 70% so will monitor through the day.
The watch has been in my wrist for an hour so far. Just lifted my wrist for the first time today to check the time and it’s still reading 100% which is a first as normally I lose between 5 and 6% an hour.
Will keep an hourly check

Well it’s now two hours gone by with zero use and still showing 98%. No background apps running including the noise app so if anything, the battery life seems to be a slight improvement over OS5
I do t think I have done anything different to anyone else, except that when my phone bricked yesterday and I set up the replacement, I went back to an earlier cloud restore which was an iOS 12.4.1 cloud backup so pre-OS 6. When I re-Paired the watch, it automatically reinstalled OS6
Will post battery results after 13 hours

 

[MadCar]

This seems really inconsistent and I can't get why.

Yesterday mine was showing at 100% for a few hours a complete change to day one. But today less than 5 mins after it had been taken off the charger it had dropped 1% that is crazy.

18mins usage and 1hr27min off the charger and its down to 93%.

But everything is the same not done any more or less with it today than yesterday. I suspect there is a bug or three or a charging hiccup somewhere. Expect a jump after the the first update as something isn't quite right at all very inconsistent at the moment.

 

[Jarrodbcall]

Well it’s now two hours gone by with zero use and still showing 98%. No background apps running including the noise app so if anything, the battery life seems to be a slight improvement over OS5
I do t think I have done anything different to anyone else, except that when my phone bricked yesterday and I set up the replacement, I went back to an earlier cloud restore which was an iOS 12.4.1 cloud backup so pre-OS 6. When I re-Paired the watch, it automatically reinstalled OS6
Will post battery results after 13 hours

Adding my name to the list. I upgraded from a S4 and the battery is bad enough that I am planning on returning it if it doesn’t improve with the 13.1 release or some other thing before the window ends.

 

[Mercenary]

2 weeks it will improve. It takes time not for 'indexing' but for the phone to learn your habits and adjust accordingly. Or, turn off Background app refresh and get the extra battery now. But, instead of enabling potato mode just give it time.

You are also all checking it way more than usual. Every time you check the battery level you are eating away a huge part of the battery. Remember, the battery in these things are tiny and powering the screen is the single biggest battery drain. Apples own 18 hour life is based on 90 time checks. You will be doing this way more each time you check to see the levels.

If you upgraded from an S4 to S5 and disable AOD then you really need to re-think your reasons for upgrading as there is nothing else it does to justify the cost.

Noise monitoring will hit battery life. Apples own docs say this. To monitor levels it must always be listening, it must use processing power to then evaluate the level and see if it fits within it's rules of normal or loud and then process the result. It's an odd feature and a bit of a gimmick really. If your somewhere too loud, your ears are a good judge at telling you. I keep seeing people saying "Thanks apple, you saved my hearing" as they are at a rock concert. But then proceed to do nothing about the loud volume because... they are at an ***** rock concert which is to be expected! Turn off noise monitoring and just remember that if you are doing work in a loud environment or using power tools to protect your hearing. Dont have the apple watch tell you its loud and then say "Cool, it detected that. Back to my jackhammer". I tried it and it loved telling me that I was using a hand dryer or typing on my mechanical keyboard (love those cherry MX keys).

 

[yachtmac]

My battery for my new series 5 was 12% at 6pm after coming off the charger at 6.am. I have turned off noise app, siri raise to speak and have a black watch background. I did do two workouts - a 2k outdoor walk and a 40 min session indoors at the gym while listening to a downloaded podcast. I am really disappointed as my series 3 would go for almost two full days with same activity each day!
I sure hope this is a software issue and will be fixed with an update because at the moment 18hr battery life is just not happening!

 

[avkam]

Mercenary maybe be partly right, but I don't think this is happening here (for everyone). E.g my AW4's battery life was very short after WOS6 update, but yesterday I made a hard reset and after that everything has been back to normal. Loosing about 2-4% per hour, even when the noise detection is on.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Guys I am still checking my watch and after 3 hours, I was at 94% and now after 4 hours, 90% so no issues here. In fact it performing better than OS5
I don't have any third party apps on my watch and its mostly stock. Makes me wonder if it may be third party apps that aren't fully coded to work with OS6 that is causing the drain for some of you. Have any of you removed your third party apps and checked the usage then.
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Mercenary maybe be partly right, but I don't think this is happening here (for everyone). E.g my AW4's battery life was very short after WOS6 update, but yesterday I made a hard reset and after that everything has been back to normal. Loosing about 2-4% per hour, even when the noise detection is on.

Yep that's about the same for me. All good.

 

[BillGates1969]

Put on my watch when I woke up in the night to let the dogs out (sad I know) at 2am. Been on standby for 8 ½ hours now and 85% battery. From 2am to 7am was in theatre mode and I have turned off AOD and noise. Going to run with it today like that, then tomorrow do the same with AOD on as at least I will have a data point to compare with.

AW5 SSG 44mm LTE activated but not used today


EDIT: What i have noticed is that the 'raise to wake' is VERY sensitive on the AW5. So I am getting a lot more screen wakes than on my S4.