Battery Problems?

[Wando64]

My Series 4 has always had what I considered to be amazing battery, and this was in line with what reported by other S4 users.
My normal pattern is to wear it 24/7 and recharge only while I get ready in the morning (~1hr) and when I read in bed in the evening (~1hr).

All of a sudden a week ago the battery has degraded considerably and I am no longer able to stick to my pattern.
It no longer lasts all day (or barely does) and discharges 50% over 8hrs of sleep. Charge also seems to be slower, though I am not entirely sure of this.

I have re-paired the watch twice and done a number of soft resets to my iPhone. None of this has helped.

The battery stats tell me that it is still at 95%, but I am planning to take it to Apple in the hope they might detect a fault and agree to an out of warranty battery swap.

Does any of you have any suggestion as to what else I could be doing to restore normal functionality or to convince Apple that they should allow a battery swap?

Please don’t suggest switching off functionalities such as Sound alert and the like.
The watch was working absolutely fine with them on, and they are on for a reason.

EDIT:
Over the last two weeks the watch would discharge 50% overnight (8hrs) even though the battery capacity was still 95%, but this morning (10 Jan) the watch has lost less than 20% over the same 8 hours without me doing anything different.
However I‘ve also noticed that the battery capacity now reads at 87%.

I can only imagine that the capacity has reset itself to more accurate levels and the watch is responding to this change, perhaps by reducing the CPU clock, hence the improved battery duration which appears to be back to normal (early days, I know).

 

[Jackbequickly]

Sounds like your battery is dying. The battery stat app is not perfect.

 

[Shanghaichica]

How old is the watch? The battery would eventually degrade over time.

 

[Wando64]

The watch is approx 4 years old.
What surprises me is that it wasn't a gradual degrading, but literally from one day to the next.

 

[Monkswhiskers]

I think sometimes they just collapse. The other possibility is an errant app running in the background so maybe do a reset or unpair etc.

 

[Wando64]

I can live with replacing the battery, but will Apple agree to do it when the watch is telling me it is still at 95% ?

 

[wilberforce]

I can live with replacing the battery, but will Apple agree to do it when the watch is telling me it is still at 95% ?

Almost no chance. 99 of 100 reports of people taking their watch in for battery diagnostics have resulted in denial. A very few people have been able to pay $79 to get battery "replaced" when it is over 80% health, they must have lucky or the Apple genius was in an exceptionally good mood.

In actuality they just give you a new watch replacement, hence they don't want people basically getting a new watch for $79 by asking for "battery replacement." (They don't actually attempt to physically replace the battery).

I suppose give it a try, but lower your expectations.

 

[wilberforce]

Another thought: the way the battery health diagnostic works, it will give a more accurate reading if you run the battery down almost all the way, then recharge fully, and maybe do this a few times. Pretty unlikely it will suddenly change from 95% to 80%, though.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Take it to Apple and let them test it. Even Apple has to suspect the capacity app when a 4 year old watch says it is at 95%. Something is wrong.

 

[Wando64]

After two weeks of this nonsense I had booked a Genius appointment for today, however I cancelled it this morning after noticing the most peculiar thing.

Over the last two weeks the watch would discharge 50% overnight (8hrs) even though the battery capacity was still 95%, but this morning the watch has lost less than 20% over the same 8 hours without me doing anything different.
However I‘ve also noticed that the battery capacity now reads at 87%.

I can only imagine that the capacity has reset itself to more accurate levels and the watch is responding to this change, perhaps by reducing the CPU clock, hence the improved battery duration which appears to be back to normal (early days, I know).

Does anyone know if this is a thing? I mean, clock reduction according to battery capacity? (I.e. the same as in iPhone 6 and original SE)

 

[BenGoren]

The two most obvious possible faults are software and hardware.

It’s not hard to imagine, for example, a fumble-fingered developer of one of your third-party apps accidentally changing something-or-other such that, instead of doing something once a minute, it started doing it once a second (or some variation on the theme). Your watch went downhill when it got the update with the bug; yesterday it got an update with the bug fixed.

Hardware … I wouldn’t be shocked if water incursion caused symptoms like that. It’ll definitely make the battery life suck really badly in the ways you describe. It’s not hard to imagine enough water having evaporated by now to “fix” it.

If it was software, it probably won’t happen again. If it does happen again, you might want to do some troubleshooting removing third-party apps, etc.

If it was hardware … it will happen again. And there’s not much you can do short of replacement.

b&