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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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Went from a series 3 to series 5 cellular - dreadful battery life. So downgraded to series5 gps. Battery even worse. I have everything turned off AOD, raise to wake, background refresh, notifications, sound, noise detection.
to day needed a recharge after 12 hours and that was without ever touching the screen - I checked battery remaining every hour via phone and it varies between 8 and 10% per hour reduction.
this is absolutely useless as a watch that doesn't show the time or do anything that might cause a battery drain. My series 3 was great until watch 6 then that did a nose dive as well but nothing compared with my current series 5 gps.
to day needed a recharge after 12 hours and that was without ever touching the screen - I checked battery remaining every hour via phone and it varies between 8 and 10% per hour reduction.
this is absolutely useless as a watch that doesn't show the time or do anything that might cause a battery drain. My series 3 was great until watch 6 then that did a nose dive as well but nothing compared with my current series 5 gps.
I stopped believing in apples battery life claims of any of their products since the 2nd year they begun stating ‘all day battery life’ lol. Not 1 single product has lived up to that claim. Even close I’d say was the 2018 MBP.
Do you keep the always on display, noise monitoring and walkie talkie on? I’ll definitely try your suggestion, thanks!
Also, what watch face do you use? I only ask because I use the info graph which seems exceedingly complex compared to a time only face.
Also, what watch face do you use? I only ask because I use the info graph which seems exceedingly complex compared to a time only face.
This is what my wife and I saw.
S5 GPS. 30% nightly usage with AOD on. Also, it took awhile for our batteries to settle in (2-3-4 days).
First few days, my watch would end the day needing a charge to make it through the night. After I turned off AOD, and the usual stuff I had with my AW3, it went to "acceptable" but not as good as my AW3. Meanwhile my wife's AW5 would die half way through the day no matter what we did.
Resetting my wife's watch and setting up as new fixed all her problems. But like Moorpheus - turning off AOD made it so we could end the day in the 70-80%. Overnight 30%+ with AOD on vs off (2-6%).
With AOD off, the watch actually lasts quite a bit longer than our AW3 GPSs did.
Problem with AOD for me is raise to wake. I want to see notifications without having to tap the watch but can't stand the watch lighting up while I work at a computer all day. So AOD is off.
Like the brighter larger screen on AW5. Battery life is better (now) - and hopefully will get better with 6.1. Worth the $ to upgrade from AW3? Hmm, screen, ECG, better heart rate sensor, no lag.... ok sure.
My Series 3 updated and today it died between 7:45 and 1:45 while I worked at my desk; I got up once to fill my coffee cup and took my lunch break to run to Target.
"has" has in fully lived up to it's claims from full battery charge? Device launched just about 40 days ago ... we'll see, since I don't own one.
Sorry for this random reply to your post... fellow series 1 owner here, how is the performance on 6.1?
took off @ 9am, currently 2:48 and I'm @ 88%. No workouts just light walking around the house and went to grocery store. Fair amount of notifications (messengers, Snapchat, iMessage, FaceTime) I feel like my battery was a little bit better prior to watchOS 6. I've been using big numbers watch face all day today
Been using always on the whole day. Got up at 5. Work 8 hours and then did an hour something at the gym. Now going to bed with 29% battery. Have played around with complications and watch faces on my break and had a bunch of notifications come in during the day. I also have everything I know of on. Chimes every hour, noise app, walkie talkie. Haven’t activated LTE yet though..
I’m okay with this battery.
I’m okay with this battery.
likewise mine lasted from 9am to 1am and left watch on at night and was at 7% on the 22 hour total mark...think getting rid of Apple podcast app fixes it
Agreed Series 4 SS dying early in the evening and before update it lasted almost 2 days, it certainly had plenty of battery life when I went to bed. I tried turning off updates in the background etc and spent over an hour tweaking all the settings, restarted the watch and its still dying early into evening. I read one person said that the people stating it was dying was written by people who dont have apple products etc. Totally not tru I have had virtually every apple product available, every other iPhone, watch laptop and appletv not to mention Mac mini. This watchios6.0.1 needs a new update asap to bring the battery life back to the way it was.
After reconnecting and several hard resets it seems better. But always the first day. I wear the watch also at night (with theatre mode and no connection to my iPhone) and at 6 am I had 94% which is really good. After a normal day with normal notification I had at 6pm 60% which is also really good. But then a miracle happens. Between 6 and 9 pm I lose 10 % and after a night with theatre mode/no connection at morning I have 38%. At 3 pm the watch is at 10% and I get the feeling the draining after 60% is definitely faster. Again, with watchOS5 I had after 2 days 25% in the evening. Now, I have a half day less!!
Just recently bought a S5 Nike GPS, the first couple of days battery life was great. Then I remembered I could connect to macOS Catalina to unlock & stuff. Then battery life now bad, drain 10% per hour without using any apps. I'm thinking it must be something to do with that connection.
Totally agree mine is spent by 4pm and never had this problem before I did try reinstalling and that helps a little but not much, also iPhone draining faster.
Have you checked whether your watch comes up as duplicate devices in Settings under Health app and then Devices. Mine comes up as two devices: 1 paired but has no data, 1 unpaired but has all of the active data. I think it’s either a hardware issue that they missed because only few people have this issue or a communication issue that is software related. When there are two devices showing that means the watch has issues communicating with the phone and it can drain the battery.