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panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
Today I had full charge at 8:30am. Had to charge again at 3:30pm when it was down to 7%. Off the charger full around 5:30pm and already down to 13%. Any obscure tricks to try? This is driving me crazy.

Gave up on the Always on Display and battery life is back to all day. No point in offering that feature in my opinion since it makes the watch unusable.
 
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luxx80

macrumors newbie
Feb 11, 2008
25
14
I was having all kinds of battery issues with all my apple devices. My watch went from lasting 14-18 hours to maybe 8 hours a day. And this is without doing much on it. My new iPhone 11 Pro's battery was also draining much more rapidly then my old iPhone XS. Then last night I undocked my MBP w/ Catlina and noticed that the CPU was pegged and the fan was out of control. Research led me to https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/dmbuj5/_/f6wta8z which then led me to https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/terrible-battery-life.2199887/post-27997820
. I had the exact same symptoms.

While it seemed like it was a watch issue, it really was an issue w/ my apple account.

Looking back I can confirm that it all started when I first upgraded to Catalina.

I performed the instruction from the second link this morning and can report all my devices are back to normal. I have been keeping an eye on the database and it's not growing anymore. My watch is losing ~2.5% per hour again.

I don't know if you recently installed macOS Catalina. If so, I recommend following otech's instructions.

Good luck
I’ve not updated to Catalina but thank you for the info. Not sure because I’ve not updated it and am on an older MacBook Pro if that could be causing an issue.
[automerge]1575782232[/automerge]
Gave up on the Always on Display and battery life is back to all day. No in offering that in my opinion since it makes the watch unusable.
I have kept mine on Wake to Raise off but agreed, I’m bummed I can’t have it on just to save the little bit of battery life I get. What’s the point. Thanks for the info. ??
 

Oleksi

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2018
48
44
My AW5 (44mm) battery life:

With AOD ~3% per hour
Without AOD ~2-2.5% per hour
 

jpn

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2003
1,854
1,988
That seems to be related to an issue with your iCloud Keychain. Try using a different AppleID and see if you still have the issue. That is just only to isolate the issue of course. I know it isn’t viable to permanently change your AppleID.


hi
i had the same problem for about 3 days of near constant very loud fan running.
i really needed to find a solution and tried various things.
i deleted a lot of suspect apps but it didn't help.

then i cam across the fix (for me9).
it was mentioned in apple community support discussions, and, in reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/dmbuj5

follow the steps provided by "nielsvz" to delete a small database called
"com.apple.security.keychain-defaultContext.TrustedPeersHelper"

on my 2018 MacBook Air i had 3 small files in Library/Keychains:

com.apple.security.keychain-defaultContext.TrustedPeersHelper.db-wal
com.apple.security.keychain-defaultContext.TrustedPeersHelper.db-shm
com.apple.security.keychain-defaultContext.TrustedPeersHelper.db

after i just deleted these 3 files the problem has not reappeared.
all that i needed to do was sign back into iCloud on my mac
at that time, Keychain won't appear with a check mark.
but i waited a bit for my iPhone iCloud settings to force the mac iCloud settings to also sync Keychain. i didn't do anything overt to check it
and it worked.
these files are replaced by the system with new ones.
and the problem hasn't reappeared.
but it actually solved 2 issues for me that i didn't know were related:
1 the constant fan (due to Trusted Peers Helper) always running stopped
2 battery life on my mac AND my iPhone has recovered to what it was prior to Catalina & iOS13.
 
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spaceman_spiff

macrumors newbie
Dec 16, 2019
28
28
California
Figured I’d cross-post my S5 battery anecdote here in the big thread.


42mm aluminum S5 LTE here.

I wake up at 6am, do a 60-90 minute workout every day (strength with phone or outdoor run with no phone). On runs, I Bluetooth music to Wireless Beats Pro from a playlist stored on my watch. Every day around 6/7/8pm, it's bugging me to go into power reserve. Once a week, in addition to my morning workout, I play beer league hockey at night and use the Hockey Tracker app. If I don't do my evening charge after I get home form work, it will die mid-game without a doubt. AOD is on (I find it ridiculous that I would have to turn off the core feature of the watch to reach advertised battery life), and my only 3rd party complication is Dark Sky. No noise/compass complications either.

It's extremely rare when I can last until 11pm when doing any sort of workout and I almost always have to do a 20-minute evening charge to make it the whole day. It's super disappointing compared to my old Series 3 LTE in which I'd go to bed regularly at 40% (20% on hockey nights). I never had to charge mid-day, even on it's 2-year old battery. My 5 is super disappointing when it comes to battery.

That said, I've done the chat support a handful of times, and have done the whole update software, un-pair/re-pair thing. 6.0 was even more garbage. 6.0.1 made some improvement, but still short of the usage stated on Apple's website (18 hours, with 4 of those on LTE, with one hour workout, etc). 6.1/6.1.1 no improvement over 6.0.1.

Finally, after my 3rd or 4th online chat, they had me set up an appointment to bring it in. The dude at the Apple store said that he's personally serviced a few people with the same issue with the 5. But of course, my battery (and theirs) all pass diagnostics with flying colors. He's having mine sent in for repair regardless, since it doesn't reach the advertised battery life, but he's also done this for other people, and the repair center just sends it right back when it passes diagnostics. He said one guy had to send his back 3 times before they just swapped it out with a new one, and he no longer had a battery issue.

Just got an update from the repair center earlier today and they shipped it back saying there’s nothing wrong with it and they couldn’t reproduce the issue. Sheesh.

Of course I’m outside the return window from Best Buy, so I can either complain to Apple some more or just deal with it. Sucks.
 

panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
Figured I’d cross-post my S5 battery anecdote here in the big thread.


42mm aluminum S5 LTE here.

I wake up at 6am, do a 60-90 minute workout every day (strength with phone or outdoor run with no phone). On runs, I Bluetooth music to Wireless Beats Pro from a playlist stored on my watch. Every day around 6/7/8pm, it's bugging me to go into power reserve. Once a week, in addition to my morning workout, I play beer league hockey at night and use the Hockey Tracker app. If I don't do my evening charge after I get home form work, it will die mid-game without a doubt. AOD is on (I find it ridiculous that I would have to turn off the core feature of the watch to reach advertised battery life), and my only 3rd party complication is Dark Sky. No noise/compass complications either.

It's extremely rare when I can last until 11pm when doing any sort of workout and I almost always have to do a 20-minute evening charge to make it the whole day. It's super disappointing compared to my old Series 3 LTE in which I'd go to bed regularly at 40% (20% on hockey nights). I never had to charge mid-day, even on it's 2-year old battery. My 5 is super disappointing when it comes to battery.

That said, I've done the chat support a handful of times, and have done the whole update software, un-pair/re-pair thing. 6.0 was even more garbage. 6.0.1 made some improvement, but still short of the usage stated on Apple's website (18 hours, with 4 of those on LTE, with one hour workout, etc). 6.1/6.1.1 no improvement over 6.0.1.

Finally, after my 3rd or 4th online chat, they had me set up an appointment to bring it in. The dude at the Apple store said that he's personally serviced a few people with the same issue with the 5. But of course, my battery (and theirs) all pass diagnostics with flying colors. He's having mine sent in for repair regardless, since it doesn't reach the advertised battery life, but he's also done this for other people, and the repair center just sends it right back when it passes diagnostics. He said one guy had to send his back 3 times before they just swapped it out with a new one, and he no longer had a battery issue.

Just got an update from the repair center earlier today and they shipped it back saying there’s nothing wrong with it and they couldn’t reproduce the issue. Sheesh.

Of course I’m outside the return window from Best Buy, so I can either complain to Apple some more or just deal with it. Sucks.

Definitely poor service by Apple on this one. AOD has to be off to even use it.
 

superstarmc

macrumors regular
Jun 13, 2011
227
10
I just got the Apple Watch watch 5. I got so use to the two day battery life on my series 3. Maybe a future update can improve some stuff.
 
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Nütztjanix

macrumors 68000
Jul 31, 2019
1,535
985
Germany
I just got the Apple Watch watch 5. I got so use to the two day battery life on my series 3. Maybe a future update can improve some stuff.
Many of us were hoping that since day one. We're now 3 updates in (6.0.1, 6.1 and 6.1.1) and I have not seen a significant improvement - still far off from 2 year old Series 3 battery life.
 
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rbart

macrumors 65816
Nov 3, 2013
1,207
889
France
Series 4 and 5 have very similar battery life, but Series 3 is far better (smaller screen, slower SOC, bigger battery).
Some people have abnormal battery life, but normal behaviour is not to have Series 3 capacity. We all know it lasts longer and watchos update will not change the game
 

Nütztjanix

macrumors 68000
Jul 31, 2019
1,535
985
Germany
But you should at least be able to get the promised 18hr battery life without having to turn off any stock features like AoD, noise monitoring or background refresh for 1st party apps.
 

Otflyer

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2017
1,474
999
SF Bay Area
Keep taking it back and calling support until they fix the issue. I know that’s a hassle but, that appears to be the only way forward.
 

fredash

macrumors member
Dec 11, 2018
37
28
But you should at least be able to get the promised 18hr battery life without having to turn off any stock features like AoD, noise monitoring or background refresh for 1st party apps.

This is the case for me.
AppleWatch S5 with AOD on, RTW on, Background on... only noise off (but i could put it on without any problem). 2,5% battery/hour.
Yesterday, with a 16 hours journey and a 1h running workout with GPS and HeartRate monitoring, i had 48% left at the end of the day.

BTW, my AppleWatch S4 was using a little more than 2%/hour.
 

Nütztjanix

macrumors 68000
Jul 31, 2019
1,535
985
Germany
Keep taking it back and calling support until they fix the issue. I know that’s a hassle but, that appears to be the only way forward.
Problem is, the nearest Apple Store is about 150km away. And that’s not even far for Germany - we don’t have many. Could easily be way farther away.

This is the case for me.
AppleWatch S5 with AOD on, RTW on, Background on... only noise off (but i could put it on without any problem). 2,5% battery/hour.
Yesterday, with a 16 hours journey and a 1h running workout with GPS and HeartRate monitoring, i had 48% left at the end of the day.

BTW, my AppleWatch S4 was using a little more than 2%/hour.
You do realise that you are part of the minority of S5 owners posting here, don‘t you?
 
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fredash

macrumors member
Dec 11, 2018
37
28
Problem is, the nearest Apple Store is about 150km away. And that’s not even far for Germany - we don’t have many. Could easily be way farther away.


You do realise that you are part of the minority of S5 owners posting here, don‘t you?
Sure but this is my experience. If you take time to read the posts you will see that I am not alone.
 
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spaceman_spiff

macrumors newbie
Dec 16, 2019
28
28
California
Figured I’d cross-post my S5 battery anecdote here in the big thread.


42mm aluminum S5 LTE here.

I wake up at 6am, do a 60-90 minute workout every day (strength with phone or outdoor run with no phone). On runs, I Bluetooth music to Wireless Beats Pro from a playlist stored on my watch. Every day around 6/7/8pm, it's bugging me to go into power reserve. Once a week, in addition to my morning workout, I play beer league hockey at night and use the Hockey Tracker app. If I don't do my evening charge after I get home form work, it will die mid-game without a doubt. AOD is on (I find it ridiculous that I would have to turn off the core feature of the watch to reach advertised battery life), and my only 3rd party complication is Dark Sky. No noise/compass complications either.

It's extremely rare when I can last until 11pm when doing any sort of workout and I almost always have to do a 20-minute evening charge to make it the whole day. It's super disappointing compared to my old Series 3 LTE in which I'd go to bed regularly at 40% (20% on hockey nights). I never had to charge mid-day, even on it's 2-year old battery. My 5 is super disappointing when it comes to battery.

That said, I've done the chat support a handful of times, and have done the whole update software, un-pair/re-pair thing. 6.0 was even more garbage. 6.0.1 made some improvement, but still short of the usage stated on Apple's website (18 hours, with 4 of those on LTE, with one hour workout, etc). 6.1/6.1.1 no improvement over 6.0.1.

Finally, after my 3rd or 4th online chat, they had me set up an appointment to bring it in. The dude at the Apple store said that he's personally serviced a few people with the same issue with the 5. But of course, my battery (and theirs) all pass diagnostics with flying colors. He's having mine sent in for repair regardless, since it doesn't reach the advertised battery life, but he's also done this for other people, and the repair center just sends it right back when it passes diagnostics. He said one guy had to send his back 3 times before they just swapped it out with a new one, and he no longer had a battery issue.

Just got an update from the repair center earlier today and they shipped it back saying there’s nothing wrong with it and they couldn’t reproduce the issue. Sheesh.

Of course I’m outside the return window from Best Buy, so I can either complain to Apple some more or just deal with it. Sucks.

Just got my watch back. The note said that they performed diagnostics and didn’t find anything wrong with it. However, “the diagnostics that were run may have solved your issue.” Uh huh, I’ll bet.
 

Nütztjanix

macrumors 68000
Jul 31, 2019
1,535
985
Germany
Sure but this is my experience. If you take time to read the posts you will see that I am not alone.
I did read every single post in this thread. You are not the only one, but neither am I.

Just got my watch back. The note said that they performed diagnostics and didn’t find anything wrong with it. However, “the diagnostics that were run may have solved your issue.” Uh huh, I’ll bet.
Sounds familiar. And without wanting to disappoint you - they didn’t solve mine.
 

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
34,317
49,614
In the middle of several books.
Series 5 off the charger at 5:45am every morning and back on the charger at 10pm with 35-45% left. I have everything turned on. When I was wearing it to bed, my day would end with 20-25%.

I bought a brand new s3 to wear for just sleep tracking with the pillow app, which helps save 16-17% battery my s5 cellular was draining overnight.

I am happy with my s5 performance.
 
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panzer06

macrumors 68040
Sep 23, 2006
3,282
229
Kilrath
Sure but this is my experience. If you take time to read the posts you will see that I am not alone.
Not alone for sure but as he stated, in the minority. The S5 is waaaay worse for battery for most people. I've replace it twice. I don't have time to waste doing that. For me its either return or no AOD
 

rbart

macrumors 65816
Nov 3, 2013
1,207
889
France
Not alone for sure but as he stated, in the minority. The S5 is waaaay worse for battery for most people. I've replace it twice. I don't have time to waste doing that. For me its either return or no AOD
No, the battery life is normal for most people, but there are some people who have a problem (hardware, software, settings, background tasks that kill battery ?)
On the forums, you have always more people who complain than happy people. People come here to get tips and help.
Series 5 battery life is the same as series 4 but is lower than series 3 who was the best.
Yesterday was an heavy day for my watch : 17 hours of usage including 3 hours on LTE only, including 1 hour running (LTE+GPS). All ON on my watch except noise and there was 10% remaining.
It's more than what apple is advertising.
 

reixer

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2019
27
12
No, the battery life is normal for most people, but there are some people who have a problem (hardware, software, settings, background tasks that kill battery ?)
On the forums, you have always more people who complain than happy people. People come here to get tips and help.
Series 5 battery life is the same as series 4 but is lower than series 3 who was the best.
Yesterday was an heavy day for my watch : 17 hours of usage including 3 hours on LTE only, including 1 hour running (LTE+GPS). All ON on my watch except noise and there was 10% remaining.
It's more than what apple is advertising.

It seems people here are comparing it to Apple Watch 3 without realizing that AW3 has bigger battery capacity than AW4 or 5. Include that with the fact that AW3 doesn’t have certain features both AW4 & 5 have and thus that is why you will experience longer battery life with AW3.

Apple was wise to keep advertising Apple Watch with 18 hour battery life even tho you can go much longer than that. That way they could keep adding features to the Apple Watch that impact battery life without having to decrease the battery life advertised because that would make bad advertising.
 
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spaceman_spiff

macrumors newbie
Dec 16, 2019
28
28
California
After getting my S5 back from Apple repair center, I’m seeing the same junk battery life. 4.5%/hour when it’s just sitting there taking a couple text justifications. When you calculate it with my 45-minute Outdoor Run (GPS on, LTE on but only received a couple text notifications), it brings it up to 5.4%/hour. Silly.

I’m going to try disabling the gymkit detection tomorrow, but not hopeful.
 

fredash

macrumors member
Dec 11, 2018
37
28
After getting my S5 back from Apple repair center, I’m seeing the same junk battery life. 4.5%/hour when it’s just sitting there taking a couple text justifications. When you calculate it with my 45-minute Outdoor Run (GPS on, LTE on but only received a couple text notifications), it brings it up to 5.4%/hour. Silly.

I’m going to try disabling the gymkit detection tomorrow, but not hopeful.
You should let the watch working through 3 days without modifying its settings... and see after that if battery consumption improves... i wonder if constantly modifying the settings of the watch is affecting the battery meter...
 
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MuffCabbage

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2012
197
23
Just joining the club of bad battery life (5%/hour without use and no screen use - such as overnight with theater mode on) on my S4 that I haven’t been able to solve.

My drain is just high drain but usage time is still very low. E.g. 30 minutes usage, 10 hours standby and 54% overnight.

Some of the things I’ve tried:
1. Turning off backgrounding
2. Turning off Walkie Talkie
3. Turning off GymKit
4. Turning off Hey Siri
5. Turning off Analytics
6. Turning off Handoff
7. Reset Movement Calibration Data
8. No third party apps
9. Remove weather complication
10. Turn off current city for weather
11. Re-pair (numerous times)
12. Reset all settings and pair again
13. Set up as new watch
14. Wiped iPhone and also clean installed iOS 13.3
15. Tried brand new iCloud account between phone and watch
16. Paired watch to a new/different phone as new watch
17. Reset Keychain and turned off keychain
18. Signed all devices out of iCloud and back in
19. Disable WiFi
20. Airplane mode + Theater mode overnight with WiFi and Bluetooth disabled in settings (still major drain)
21. Reset all iPhone settings
22. Reset iPhone network settings
23. Held phone and watch in the same wrist/hand
24. Numerous Soft Resets and reboots
25. Let it “settle” for a few days
26. Turned off Podcast sync
27. No Favorite photos to sync
 
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fredash

macrumors member
Dec 11, 2018
37
28
Just joining the club of bad battery life (5%/hour without use and no screen use - such as overnight with theater mode on) on my S4 that I haven’t been able to solve. Some of the things I’ve tried:
1. Turning off backgrounding
2. Turning off Walkie Talkie
3. Turning off GymKit
4. Turning off Hey Siri
5. Turning off Analytics
6. Turning off Handoff
7. Reset Movement Calibration Data
8. No third party apps
9. Remove weather complication
10. Turn off current city for weather
11. Re-pair (numerous times)
12. Reset all settings and pair again
13. Set up as new watch
14. Wiped iPhone and also clean installed iOS 13.3
15. Tried brand new iCloud account between phone and watch
16. Paired watch to a new/different phone as new watch
17. Reset Keychain and turned off keychain
18. Signed all devices out of iCloud and back in
19. Disable WiFi
20. Airplane mode + Theater mode overnight with WiFi and Bluetooth disabled in settings (still major drain)
21. Reset all iPhone settings
22. Reset iPhone network settings
23. Held phone and watch in the same wrist/hand
24. Numerous Soft Resets and reboots
25. Let it “settle” for a few days
let the watch working through 3 days without modifying its settings... and see after that if battery consumption improves
 
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