Apple Watch Battery Life Worse after iOS 1.8.4 Apple Music Release?

[Applefloth]

Hey everyone.

I began following macrumors blog when the hype train started for the Apple Watch, and figured I would come back here to ask to see if anyone else is having a similar problem that I am having.

I updated my phone to 1.8.4 to try out Apple Music, and ever since then my Watch has been dying a LOT faster than usual. Prior to this update I would workout for an hour a day, use my watch quite a bit, and still have 20-30% when I went to sleep. Yesterday, I woke up at 7AM, did not workout all day, and my battery was at 3% at 10:30PM. I also did no more than check notifications and change songs a couple of times on my watch yesterday.

Has anyone else noticed a similar issue?/ does anyone know what might be causing this?

*If there is a thread regarding this please feel free to direct me there, but I did not see one.

Thanks!

 

[Armen]

Hey everyone.

I began following macrumors blog when the hype train started for the Apple Watch, and figured I would come back here to ask to see if anyone else is having a similar problem that I am having.

I updated my phone to 1.8.4 to try out Apple Music, and ever since then my Watch has been dying a LOT faster than usual. Prior to this update I would workout for an hour a day, use my watch quite a bit, and still have 20-30% when I went to sleep. Yesterday, I woke up at 7AM, did not workout all day, and my battery was at 3% at 10:30PM. I also did no more than check notifications and change songs a couple of times on my watch yesterday.

Has anyone else noticed a similar issue?/ does anyone know what might be causing this?

*If there is a thread regarding this please feel free to direct me there, but I did not see one.

Thanks!

I'm on iOS 8.4 and take my watch off the charger at 7am. By 7pm it's still at 60% charge.

You should try unpairing and then re-pairing your watch. this process seems to fix all sorts of goofy issues.

 

[FellaMeLad]

I noticed something a little similar when I updated my iPhone to 8.4 on Tuesday. Since I've had my Watches (my first was replaced within the first week due to a faulty haptic motor) I've been getting great battery life. From 100% when I put the Watch on at around 7am, to ~40% when I take it off around 11pm. And that's been fairly consistent for both watches.

On Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Apple released 8.4, (I'm in the UK), I applied it and started playing with Apple Music, streaming songs to my iPhone, etc.

Shortly after (maybe around 6pm) I felt a couple of taps and buzzes - my Apple Watch was at 10% and wanting to go into Reserve Mode! I was gobsmacked. It definitely felt like it was related to either the 8.4 update or the Apple Music app, but I'm not sure which. Not played with Apple Music since then and my battery life has returned to normal (it's 9.30pm here and I'm currently at 51%).

I'll do some more streaming with Apple Music on the iPhone again tomorrow and see if it canes the watch battery again.

Fella.

 

[Easttime]

No problems here.

 

[koolzero]

No issues either. Took it off the charger at 7:45am and I'm at 71%, I'm in KS. I am still eagerly waiting to see if there is going to be an AW OS update soon.

My iPhone 6 seemed to die faster but maybe it was just re-indexing everything, today it seems much closer to 8.3.

 

[Mlrollin91]

No issues here either. If anything battery is better on both devices (or I've just had mild usage since the update). I unplug around 7am and plug in around 11pm with 55%+ left on a daily basis. I've only ever dropped below 50% once. I have a 42mm btw.

 

[TwiceNightly]

Do you have the Twitter app on the watch?

I noticed the same as you, my battery was draining a lot faster than usual. I also noticed at around the same time that the Twitter app on my iPhone was using a lot of battery. I decided to take the Twitter app off my watch to see if it affected the battery and it did, my battery is now back to normal.

I wonder if when you open the Twitter app on your iPhone it is loading and transferring timeline and trend info over to your watch every time you open it (on the phone) so that it appears to load quicker or something like that? Anyway, removing it from the watch fixed my issue.

 

[MLVC]

Experiencing the same thing since iOS 8.4. I've removed Twitter, as suggested in the post above. I'm a bit reluctant to do the pairing again. Does that reset the activity app or not?

 

[FellaMeLad]

After yesterday's post, here's a quick update. I've been using the Apple Music app on my phone for almost three hours continuously this morning, while keeping a check on my Watch battery. This time, it's made no difference; I'm still at 84% on my Watch at 1.35pm

So I'm at a loss to explain why the Apple Watch battery was caned on Tuesday after updating iOS and using Apple Music on my iPhone. I guess it was just one of those 'glitches' that happen from time to time. BTW - I do have Twitter on my iPhone, but not on my Watch.

Applefloth: Are you still seeing the same problem today? Have you tried resetting and/or unpairing/repairing the Watch?

Experiencing the same thing since iOS 8.4. I've removed Twitter, as suggested in the post above. I'm a bit reluctant to do the pairing again. Does that reset the activity app or not?

When you unpair your Watch, a backup of your data is made which will be restored to your Watch when you re-pair it

Fella.

 

[MLVC]

Thank you. It seems a bit random, the whole battery issue. I think I'll just monitor it for a couple of days before decided what to do.

 

[batristain]

I noticed the same issue once I enabled iCloud on my phone. I don't understand how it's affecting my watch. I have checked every playlist to download so it will play in offline mode. It shouldn't impact the watch but there's some kind of correlation. I've had my watch since launch day and never had an issue with it lasting from 7 am until 11 pm each night. This morning I worked on enabling iCloud across my phones, ipad, and Mac..put the watch on at 8 am and by 1 pm I was at 46% so I charged it back to 100%. I put the watch back on around 345 pm and it's now nearly 9...it's at 64%. I did a reset hoping it would help but it did not.....

 

[kitkat2]

I've been getting terrible battery life for the past two days. Usually I have tons left by the end of the day but today it died around 5pm. I logged two workouts but otherwise wasn't actively using it much. This having to take it off and let it recharge thing is already getting old.

 

[batristain]

I had the same issue. The only way around it is to download songs for offline. For some reason streaming music impacts my phone and watch battery. I have no idea why but this is my conclusion bas ed on unscientific tests conducted today. Once I downloaded all my songs for offline battery life went back to normal. I then tried downloading new playlists from Apple music and voila crappy battery life again on watch and phone. Once all songs were downloaded I charged my phone and watch back up and from 330 today until now at 9 pm my watch is at 77% ...that's average for me I have a 38 mm.

 

[TrueBlou]

I had the same issue. The only way around it is to download songs for offline. For some reason streaming music impacts my phone and watch battery. I have no idea why but this is my conclusion bas ed on unscientific tests conducted today. Once I downloaded all my songs for offline battery life went back to normal. I then tried downloading new playlists from Apple music and voila crappy battery life again on watch and phone. Once all songs were downloaded I charged my phone and watch back up and from 330 today until now at 9 pm my watch is at 77% ...that's average for me I have a 38 mm.

I get the streaming music affecting the phone battery as it has to constantly use a data connection. But I don't get how it's affecting the watch, streaming from the phone to the watch should be the same regardless of the source.

 

[TwiceNightly]

I get the streaming music affecting the phone battery as it has to constantly use a data connection. But I don't get how it's affecting the watch, streaming from the phone to the watch should be the same regardless of the source.

Could it be because it is constantly updating the glance?

 

[TrueBlou]

Could it be because it is constantly updating the glance?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't constantly update the glance, I think it just does it when you look at it.

 

[batristain]

I get the streaming music affecting the phone battery as it has to constantly use a data connection. But I don't get how it's affecting the watch, streaming from the phone to the watch should be the same regardless of the source.

I agree it makes no sense. I also removed the music player from Glances. I hadn't made any other app changes.