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Battery at two years of use

R

Retops

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 10, 2008
214
108
Oklahoma
Bought my Apple Watch in July 2015 and have used it daily since then including an hour of exercise daily. Don't use apps much but do read news notifications all day long.

This month my battery has started to deplete before day's end. I typically go from 0700 to 2400 with watch on and then recharge over night. I used to have 20% or more battery at bed time, but now I am usually at less than 5%. I suspect this is normal wear since my cycle count would be over 700 by now.

I would check with Apple but my Apple care expired last month. Should I think about buying a new battery soon or just wait for the new watches to come out?
 
Retops said:
Bought my Apple Watch in July 2015 and have used it daily since then including an hour of exercise daily. Don't use apps much but do read news notifications all day long.

This month my battery has started to deplete before day's end. I typically go from 0700 to 2400 with watch on and then recharge over night. I used to have 20% or more battery at bed time, but now I am usually at less than 5%. I suspect this is normal wear since my cycle count would be over 700 by now.

I would check with Apple but my Apple care expired last month. Should I think about buying a new battery soon or just wait for the new watches to come out?
Click to expand...

I would wait. It's a matter of weeks before you know if a new "Series 3" Watch might launch. If a new Watch doesn't launch, then I would reassess if you want to replace the battery in your Watch or upgrade.
 
I had similar problems with my AW2,even if it's not that old. After about a week,the watch was back to normal battery stats. So,use it normally for a week or two,do a restart and the problem might be solved.
 
Retops said:
Bought my Apple Watch in July 2015 and have used it daily since then including an hour of exercise daily. Don't use apps much but do read news notifications all day long.

This month my battery has started to deplete before day's end. I typically go from 0700 to 2400 with watch on and then recharge over night. I used to have 20% or more battery at bed time, but now I am usually at less than 5%. I suspect this is normal wear since my cycle count would be over 700 by now.

I would check with Apple but my Apple care expired last month. Should I think about buying a new battery soon or just wait for the new watches to come out?
Click to expand...
You might also try to unpair and pair it again, it can help sometimes. I have a launch day watch I wear daily that will still make it through the day but has needed to be paired again several times in the past to make it so. I think I am getting ready to pass my watch on and get the next version so I will be waiting to see if anything is announced next month.
 
Also, make sure an app hasn't changed. I remember some posts on here about shortened battery life around the start of baseball season. It turns out that the MLB at bat app was now updating with game scores and using more battery than n it had been all winter
 
What also helps with the battery is turning off Settings > General > Background App Refresh in the Watch App on your phone.

Something that maybe isn't really needed.
 
i recently went through the same thing and did a "setup as new watch" for the first time in the 2+ years I've had my watch. Battery life increased by like 30%. Obviously there was an OS or app bug that was draining the battery.

I used the opportunity to remove most of the watch apps that I no longer used....the list went from 30-40 to maybe 15.
 
I've noticed my battery getting quite bad the past few months - worn it practically every day since April 2015. Tried an unpair and re-pair but not really made any difference. Going to wait and see what Series 3 brings - if it's only LTE, will try and pick up a second-hand Series 2.
 
I just started having this same issue with my Launch version Watch, by 4pm it is down to 5% battery, and it used to go all day. I'm going to try the restart and re-setup to get rid of a bunch of apps.

The only thing I use it for is as an activity monitor and I read incoming text messages. That's about it. I would like to upgrade so I can wear it in the water and 'get credit' for calories burned while swimming!!
 
Series 0, Two years later and I get 15-20% at the end of the day (9PM) versus 40% when it was new. Not bad for a tech-oriented watch. OS4 would be its last, I think? Hopefully they will be able to optimize it some more down the line. Imma use mine for 2 more years if possible.
 
Series 0. I'm getting 10% by days end - after being in airplane mode most of the day. I've unpaired. Turned off background apps and deleted a ton of apps I don't use. Only marginally better. Time for a new battery or new watch. We'll see what series 3 brings.
 
I bought my 38mm Series 0 in July, 2015 as well. It has been on my wrist every day between 17 and 22 hours a day ever since. It's pretty rare that it ever gets below 10%, but if I happen to record a 2 hour workout that will definitely cause it to drain faster.

I used to just charge it overnight in nightstand mode, so I was wearing it around 17 or 18 hours a day. Some time in the last year I started using the Pillow app to track my sleep, so now I have two charging times in every 24 period... which probably helps avoid getting too low:

I charge the watch up to 100% while I'm getting the kids and myself ready for bed, reading, etc. I put it back on before I go to sleep. When I wake up it will usually have around 85% remaining, so I put it back on the charger while I take a shower and get dressed. That 20 minutes or so will get it back up to 100% (or pretty close). Then I will wear it from about 7:30 AM until 9 or 9:30 PM when it goes back on the charger. After 14 or 15 hours it usually has 20% left (or more) if I did not record any workouts. A one hour workout will knock it down to around 10% and a longer workout will put me into low power mode by 9 or 10pm if I don't charge it by then.

As far as I can tell the battery life hasn't changed much for me. I'm sure it isn't as good at two years as it was at 1 year, but it seems to be holding up well (knock on wood). I'm hoping to get another year out of it before I upgrade.

Sean
 
Appreciate all the tips and I have had some success shutting the watch off and restarting and dumping unneeded apps.
As a result, I am usually at 15% now around 11 pm and that includes a one hour workout daily. I'd like to get another year out of this series 0 if I can.
 
People with battery issues might consider installing the developer beta on the watch - watchOS 4 - and then taking it in and requesting a downgrade... there was a thread on here of apple replacing with a Series 1 for that
 
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