Returned the Series 5 because of this issue. With workouts it was barely making it to the end of my day.
AOD wasn’t worth the battery anxiety.
AOD wasn’t worth the battery anxiety.
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Apple Watch Owners Complain of Battery Life Issues With Both Series 5 and Older Models With watchOS 6
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S4 w/6.0.1 I charge before I prepare for bed (bath, read a book, relax, etc). 100% at bed, I put the watch into theater mode, as well as Do Not Disturb Mode, and run the AutoSleep App while I'm asleep. When I wake up, I usually find the battery at ~85% with previous WatchOS releases, but with 6.0.1 and the same patterns, I wake to find my watch with about ~95% charge. Overall, I'm seeing an improvement.
I'm still wearing my Aluminum 44mm S4 cellular with watchOS 6. I love the new features (i.e. noise monitoring) and I have not noticed any decrease in battery life. When I go to bed I normally have around 60-65% battery remaining.
No issues at all with my series 5. Worked great tracking long walks in Vegas last week and I got better than advertised battery life.
S5 44mm sport model here, yes initially I had BAD battery life on it for the first few days, even with AOD disabled...
But now after installing 6.0.1, still having AOD off, battery is coming back in line with my old S3 42mm...
But now after installing 6.0.1, still having AOD off, battery is coming back in line with my old S3 42mm...
The new Apple Watch Series 5 models come equipped with an always on display, a feature new in 2019. With the always on display, some element of the screen is always lit, even when the wrist is down.
It's a good way to keep an eye on the time or to keep track of a workout without needing to raise a wrist, but its use at this time requires compromising on battery life.
Though Apple says the Apple Watch Series 5 offers the same 18-hour "all day" battery life as the Series 4 model, a multitude of complaints on the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support forums suggest that's not the case.
A 36-page forum thread is filled with battery life complaints about the Apple Watch Series 5, starting from September 20, the day the device was released. MacRumors reader Radeon85, for example, said that he was seeing significant battery drain until he turned off the always on display.Several of us here at MacRumors have the new Apple Watch Series 5 with always on display and have indeed experienced our Apple Watch batteries draining much more quickly than the prior Series 4 models. Workouts, LTE, and other battery draining functions combined with always on can result in major drops in battery life. As described by MacRumors reader Yachtmac:Battery problems don't appear to be limited to the Apple Watch Series 5, which suggests that watchOS 6 is also perhaps impacting battery life. The Noise app may be one culprit, and some users have also cited cellular connectivity, though both Cellular and GPS models appear to be affected by battery life problems.
MacRumors forum member Michael says that since watchOS 6 was released, his Apple Watch Series 4 battery has been dying faster, a sentiment echoed by many other MacRumors readers who have noticed issues since beta. From MacRumors reader Canyonblue737:On the Apple Watch Series 5, battery life can be improved by disabling Always On under the Display & Brightness section of the Apple Watch app on iPhone, but on the Series 4, it's less clear what might be causing problems.
MacRumors readers have reported some fixes that have helped improve battery life on both the Series 4 and Series 5, such as force restarting the device or unpairing and re-pairing, but there does not appear to be a single solution that has worked for everyone.
Apple has already updated watchOS to version 6.0.1, and that update fixed some bugs, but according to the release notes, it did not address battery life. watchOS 6.0.1 may include some battery optimizations though, as there are some reports on the forums of improvements after updating. From MacRumors reader Haruhiko:Apple has also released the first beta of a watchOS 6.1 update to developers, and that update seems to include some battery fixes. We've heard reports from forum members that watchOS 6.1 significantly improves battery life, and in our own experience, we've also seen better battery life after installing the update. From MacRumors forum member Rogertoh16:watchOS 6.1 is still in the early stages of beta testing so additional optimizations could be added before the software sees a release, and many of the battery life woes associated with watchOS 6 and the Series 5 could be addressed soon.
Are you experiencing battery life issues either with the Series 5 or with an older Apple Watch updated to watchOS 6? Let us know in the comments.
Article Link: Apple Watch Owners Complain of Battery Life Issues With Both Series 5 and Older Models With watchOS 6
The new Apple Watch Series 5 models come equipped with an always on display, a feature new in 2019. With the always on display, some element of the screen is always lit, even when the wrist is down.
It's a good way to keep an eye on the time or to keep track of a workout without needing to raise a wrist, but its use at this time requires compromising on battery life.
Though Apple says the Apple Watch Series 5 offers the same 18-hour "all day" battery life as the Series 4 model, a multitude of complaints on the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support forums suggest that's not the case.
A 36-page forum thread is filled with battery life complaints about the Apple Watch Series 5, starting from September 20, the day the device was released. MacRumors reader Radeon85, for example, said that he was seeing significant battery drain until he turned off the always on display.Several of us here at MacRumors have the new Apple Watch Series 5 with always on display and have indeed experienced our Apple Watch batteries draining much more quickly than the prior Series 4 models. Workouts, LTE, and other battery draining functions combined with always on can result in major drops in battery life. As described by MacRumors reader Yachtmac:Battery problems don't appear to be limited to the Apple Watch Series 5, which suggests that watchOS 6 is also perhaps impacting battery life. The Noise app may be one culprit, and some users have also cited cellular connectivity, though both Cellular and GPS models appear to be affected by battery life problems.
MacRumors forum member Michael says that since watchOS 6 was released, his Apple Watch Series 4 battery has been dying faster, a sentiment echoed by many other MacRumors readers who have noticed issues since beta. From MacRumors reader Canyonblue737:On the Apple Watch Series 5, battery life can be improved by disabling Always On under the Display & Brightness section of the Apple Watch app on iPhone, but on the Series 4, it's less clear what might be causing problems.
MacRumors readers have reported some fixes that have helped improve battery life on both the Series 4 and Series 5, such as force restarting the device or unpairing and re-pairing, but there does not appear to be a single solution that has worked for everyone.
Apple has already updated watchOS to version 6.0.1, and that update fixed some bugs, but according to the release notes, it did not address battery life. watchOS 6.0.1 may include some battery optimizations though, as there are some reports on the forums of improvements after updating. From MacRumors reader Haruhiko:Apple has also released the first beta of a watchOS 6.1 update to developers, and that update seems to include some battery fixes. We've heard reports from forum members that watchOS 6.1 significantly improves battery life, and in our own experience, we've also seen better battery life after installing the update. From MacRumors forum member Rogertoh16:watchOS 6.1 is still in the early stages of beta testing so additional optimizations could be added before the software sees a release, and many of the battery life woes associated with watchOS 6 and the Series 5 could be addressed soon.
Are you experiencing battery life issues either with the Series 5 or with an older Apple Watch updated to watchOS 6? Let us know in the comments.
Article Link: Apple Watch Owners Complain of Battery Life Issues With Both Series 5 and Older Models With watchOS 6
I had massive battery issues with S4 since updating to WatchOS 5.3 this spring. I upgraded to WatchOS 6.01 - no better. I then upgraded to S5 - same problem. Here're the symptoms:
1. It works fine for about a week
2. Then battery life starts degrading to a point of completely running if in a few hours
3. Activity syncing is getting longer an longer (from 30mins to hours of delay)
4. You can see healthd daemon being killed for CPU overuse on iOS with the stack in sqllite
5. I tried everything (disabling background refresh, all other features) - nothing
6. Resetting the watch as new fixes the problem for about a week and then it starts all over again
7. I contacted Apple Support several months ago, installed debug profile, sent them the logs, they filed a bug
8. Been pinging them since - no updates
9. I have a friend with S3 experiencing exact same issue
10. If you look on Reddit - lots of people see similar issues
11. I bet a lot of people go to Apple Store, replace watches talk to support around around the same basic problem
12. I took me many tries to convince Apple Support to even investigate this (they claimed there had no reports of such problem - hard to believe)
Something is very broken within Apple Engineering and product organizations and culture
I'm a light Apple Watch user, but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. S4, aluminum, no cell features.
Same.
To add further, I'm on Watch OS 6 currently and I’m not using the Noise App (pointless for my own needs).
I had bad battery life the first few days but things turned around after I turned it off/on and they got even better after upgrading the software on my phone and watch two days ago. I'm back to close to my S4 battery usage with AOD, raise to wake, Siri, noise detection all on.
That sure sounds like an issue. On my 4 I can get two days out of it if need be. Typically and in the high 60s when going to bed, likely 70s.
5% per hour = 20 hours. Apple claims 18 hours. Forums erupt in outrage...
🙄
🙄
I mean, you could have just waited for the month or so at the most for them to patch it? apple clearly stated battery life would be the same so its obviously just a bug
No such issues here with Series 5.
Perfectly good battery performance, including compared with my previous Series 4.
Perfectly good battery performance, including compared with my previous Series 4.
I bought my Series 5 on launch day, and returned it 7 days later.
I couldn't get more than 8-12 hours out of it, while my S4 could easily get at least two days, almost nearly three days (if I tried). AOD and Compass, with S0 level of battery, wasn't worth $500+ to me. I'll wait for the S6.
I couldn't get more than 8-12 hours out of it, while my S4 could easily get at least two days, almost nearly three days (if I tried). AOD and Compass, with S0 level of battery, wasn't worth $500+ to me. I'll wait for the S6.
S4 off the charger since 4am this morning it is now a little after 1pm ET and im at 84%. Mild usage
S5 Titanium 44mm, definitely worse battery life than my S4! I turned noise detection off, but still not so good. It's been on my wrist since 5:35am, been through an hour workout, and it's now (1:12pm) at 66%. My S4 would've been in the upper 70's or low 80's.
My battery life is better after the 6.0.1 update. Not what it was on Watch OS 5 but much better. My watch would have been dead by now on 6.0. It is currently at 57%.
Folks upgraded to Series 5 and now are having to turn always on OFF LMFAO! I'll stick to my S4 
until Series 6 when they upgrade battery.
[automerge]1570036651[/automerge]
until Series 6 when they upgrade battery.[automerge]1570036651[/automerge]
Exactly I knew that battery was going to take a hit with that AOD. Ill wait til S6 next year when they upgrade the battery.
I thought there was going on with my Series 4. Normally on weekdays, when I go to bed, my battery is about 75%. Yesterday, I tried updating from 6.0 to the newest one (6.0.1? 6.1.1?). Anyway, I couldn't update because my watch was well under 50%. I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary. Here's hoping the update last night will help.
Zero issues here in terms of battery life, although I’ve noticed more loading/reloading of apps and more stutter on my series 3. Not a great update IMO.