Apple watch battery draining a lot faster all of a sudden

[pedz]

I've had the watch (42mm) for about a month now and it has been great. But in the last couple of day the battery has been draining faster. I haven't been using any apps, just some notifications throughout the day and replying to the occasional text. By 9pm my battery is at 10%, which is very low given that I don't do a lot with it. Prior to the last couple of days I would end the day (10-11pm) with 30-40%.

Anyone else have this change in battery life? Any suggestions on possible causes?

Thanks for the help,
Peter

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Re-boot the Watch and iPhone.

 

[pedz]

Re-boot the Watch and iPhone.

Should have thought of that actually, thanks, I'll give it a try.

 

[anez]

Also don't let the battery level drop below 50% for a few days: recharge every time it hits the 50-60 mark. I find that any time I let the battery drop down to a low level (10-30%), it then seems to deplete faster for the next couple of days.

A day or two of charging once it hits 50% seems to sort it out, though. It's annoying to have to do this, but this has provided a temporary workaround, at least for me.

 

[pedz]

Also don't let the battery level drop below 50% for a few days: recharge every time it hits the 50-60 mark. I find that any time I let the battery drop down to a low level (10-30%), it then seems to deplete faster for the next couple of days.

A day or two of charging once it hits 50% seems to sort it out, though. It's annoying to have to do this, but this has provided a temporary workaround, at least for me.

Thanks, agree that is annoying and not sure I will be in a position to charge mid day, but will give it a try!

 

[anez]

Thanks, agree that is annoying and not sure I will be in a position to charge mid day, but will give it a try!

It's a right pain in the backside, all right, but it does seem to get the job done. I'm looking into picking up a second charger soon, as much to make this easier as to always ensure I have a backup.

The joys of early adoption, eh?

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Thanks, agree that is annoying and not sure I will be in a position to charge mid day, but will give it a try!

If you don't do a lot with it and your battery is 10% by 9 pm, something is clearly wrong and you need to fix the underlying culprit. Hopefully rebooting will remedy this. If not, you might have a corrupted backup or a defective battery.

But, yes, don't allow any lithium ion batteries to drop below 50% as it's not good for their health. I.e., charge on a nightly basis rather than try to squeeze two days out of a single charge.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

But, yes, don't allow any lithium ion batteries to drop below 50% as it's not good for their health.

I think this would depend on the specific chemistry of the battery. Some varieties undoubtedly handle deep cycling better than others, and Apple knowing many customers will be likely to run the battery way down each day should have picked a chemistry that can handle it (as best as can be expected from LiPo/ion anyway). If lots of watches start having battery failures in a couple years, Apple could be liable to do a product recall and replacement even if every single watch is out of warranty...

 

[Julien]

I think this would depend on the specific chemistry of the battery. Some varieties undoubtedly handle deep cycling better than others, and Apple knowing many customers will be likely to run the battery way down each day should have picked a chemistry that can handle it (as best as can be expected from LiPo/ion anyway). If lots of watches start having battery failures in a couple years, Apple could be liable to do a product recall and replacement even if every single watch is out of warranty...

All Lit-ion are basically the same. They will tolerate any charging cycle well. However the absolute best charging method that will preserve the most cycles is to not allow discharge below about 50% and to charge to only 90%. Of course this is impractical and not really necessary since even 'abused' you will get about 1000 cycles out of the battery. This would be about 3½ to 4½ years of heavy everyday use. And we all know what most 5 year old electronic devices do? Sit in the back of a draw or reside in landfills.

 

[pedz]

Rebooting the watch and the phone fixed it! At the end of the day today I still had 50% power, and I used the exercise app for about 20 minutes today. That is significantly better than the last few days. Hopefully it will get more stable with the fall update, though I don't mind the occasional reboot as I think overall it is pretty stable and impressive for a first iteration.

Thanks again for everyone's help, appreciate it,
Peter

 

[prycop]

Same thing happening here.
Coincidence or after phone upgrade to iOs 9 Beta 4, the watch is now warning of 10% battery around 9pm every evening.
Will try the reboot suggested here and see what happens.

 

[Shanghaichica]

My sports watch has done this a few times. I have rebooted it and it fixed the issue for weeks at a time. I've had my sports since launch.

 

[stevenbeerbaum]

My watch is also draining a lot. Already did three full resets of the watch (and one of the iPhone without restoring from Backup) but every day at 11pm I get a warning about 10% battery left.
Usage statistics say: 5 Hours Usage, 17 Standby.
Is that really that bad or just normal?

 

[jimrunner]

My watch is also draining a lot. Already did three full resets of the watch (and one of the iPhone without restoring from Backup) but every day at 11pm I get a warning about 10% battery left.
Usage statistics say: 5 Hours Usage, 17 Standby.
Is that really that bad or just normal?

 

[jimrunner]

My Apple Watch all of sudden began draining batter rapidly 2 days ago. Yesterday, I did a full reboot. I haven't changed the Apps' usage, and after 3 hours this morning, the watch has drained 2%. Perhaps the reboot did the trick.

 

[HiItsMe]

I've had my watch since a couple weeks after launch and usually have around 20% battery life at 10pm. (I start my day at 6am and use the workout app for around 45 mins/day). Now twice this week, the battery has gone dead by 2pm without having even used Workout. I didn't use any other apps and probably looked at the time ten times today. It was fully charged when I put it on this morning. What the what?

 

[jimrunner]

I've had the watch (42mm) for about a month now and it has been great. But in the last couple of day the battery has been draining faster. I haven't been using any apps, just some notifications throughout the day and replying to the occasional text. By 9pm my battery is at 10%, which is very low given that I don't do a lot with it. Prior to the last couple of days I would end the day (10-11pm) with 30-40%.

Anyone else have this change in battery life? Any suggestions on possible causes?

Thanks for the help,
Peter

 

[jimrunner]

Had same problem. Rebooted watch and back to normal. Good luck.

 

[Farsider]

I have the same problem. I've had the Watch for 2 months now. 8am start, Moderate usage + a 60 mins Workout and the Watch never dropped below 40% by 11pm. Since yesterday it drops from 100% to 70% in just 3 hours with virtually no usage and hits 10% by 10pm. My iPhone 6 Plus is also draining a lot faster than usual. Battery dropped to 60% after just 4 hours just listening to Music (not streaming).

Tried rebooting iPhone & Watch. Nothing. Tried hard resetting both, nothing. Problem remains.

Everything was great before iOS 8.4.1.

Wonder whats going on?

 

[someoneoutthere]

Since yesterday it drops from 100% to 70% in just 3 hours with virtually no usage and hits 10% by 10pm. My iPhone 6 Plus is also draining a lot faster than usual. Battery dropped to 60% after just 4 hours just listening to Music (not streaming).

I don't have 8.4.1; using 9 beta 3 but.. Here are some questions for you: Do you have Automatic App Install on? One or more of the apps that you are using may have got updated and became Apple Watch "eligible" - so all those installations might be draining batteries on both of your devices.
Also, I realized that when I try to listen to the music that I actually have on my Watch; I have to force touch and choose source each time. If I don't, the watch starts streaming it through my iPhone and I hear the tunes coming out from the iPhone speakerphones (drains the battery pretty well). Most of the time, the default Watch volume level is muted in the iTunes app (it also overwrites your phone's volume level if it is streaming through your phone) so you might want to double check and see if the Watch is actually trying to "stream" music.

 

[Farsider]

Thanks for the tips but Automatic install is off.

I've hard reset the Watch 4 times in the last 4 hours. Seems to have restored the battery drain to 'normal levels'.

iPhone is still draining away.

 

[Creek0512]

I have the same problem. I've had the Watch for 2 months now. 8am start, Moderate usage + a 60 mins Workout and the Watch never dropped below 40% by 11pm. Since yesterday it drops from 100% to 70% in just 3 hours with virtually no usage and hits 10% by 10pm. My iPhone 6 Plus is also draining a lot faster than usual. Battery dropped to 60% after just 4 hours just listening to Music (not streaming).

Tried rebooting iPhone & Watch. Nothing. Tried hard resetting both, nothing. Problem remains.

Everything was great before iOS 8.4.1.

Wonder whats going on?

Did you install any new apps that could be draining the battery? If so try deleting them and see if your battery life comes back.

 

[Farsider]

That's the strange thing - nothing's changed other than iOS 8.4.1 last week.

I did notice that the Watch kept loosing sight of my wrist (kept asking for the passcode every 5 minutes) but that's resolved itself now.

4 hard resets seems to have resolved the problem with the Watch. Hopefully that's the end of it.

 

[Arran]

...But in the last couple of day the battery has been draining faster. ...

That happened to me on two successive days after I'd owned the watch for a month or so. The watch started going into power reserve around 4PM (Normally it would still have 50+% remaining by 11PM). Most alarmingly, on the third day the watch did some weird buzzing and display flickering for about 90 seconds and then died!

I powered it hard down and then back up and it's been absolutely fine since. That was about six weeks ago.

I really thought it was a goner at the time. Seemed like water damage at the time (I've experienced similar before with wearables).

I guess it was just a software glitch? Don't really know what it was all about.

 

[harvard69]

I've had the watch (42mm) for about a month now and it has been great. But in the last couple of day the battery has been draining faster. I haven't been using any apps, just some notifications throughout the day and replying to the occasional text. By 9pm my battery is at 10%, which is very low given that I don't do a lot with it. Prior to the last couple of days I would end the day (10-11pm) with 30-40%.

Anyone else have this change in battery life? Any suggestions on possible causes?

Thanks for the help,
Peter

[doublepost=1463654000][/doublepost]I am having the same problem all of a sudden. I very rarely let my phone go below 50%, and all of a sudden it goes into survival mode by 9 PM Ugh not happy . To much money to have to remember to charge every night, and oh by the way I use it just as a watch. Calendar,text and weather.