Best settings to save battery life (Watch S5)?

[iOnAsJ]

A few weeks ago, the battery of my Apple Watch (S5, 44mm, currently Watch OS 6.2.6) simply started to drain too fast. By 3-4 PM, I had 20-30% left and after that moment, it drained even faster. I charge the Watch during the night, so this kind of behavior didn't seem normal. Luckily, the local Apple reseller was able to return it to Apple and offer me a new one.

However, the Watch 5 his battery isn't great - no surprise there - and I was wondering what are the most significant battery drainers according to you? Due to my previous situation (cf. supra), I've read quite a lot about it, but I'm curious what your experiences are.

Here are my main settings:
- Background refresh is turned off
- I don't use AOD (only 'raise to wake', but I'm experimenting by turning this off as well)
- Brightness as low as possible (does the trick for me)
- Automatic downloads/updates are off
- Work-out with power saving (heart rate off)
- Siri disabled
- Uninstalled Noise, Breath and monthly cycle app.
- Notifications are limited to the ones I 'd like to see on my Watch - the rest is for the iPhone

I still have these questions:
- What's the impact of mail notifications? I've disabled them as a test today.
- Impact of the watch face you use? Which ones are the most battery friendly?
- Impact of dock apps? I've installed all 10 slots.


==> Just to help out others as well. Very curious about the Watch 6 battery improvements, which are definitely necessary to track sleep in a user friendly way. Charging 1-2 times during the day isn't really user friendly for a watch. 😁

 

[Freakonomics101]

I have everything set by default and I still get phenomenal battery life results on my Series 5, even it being the cellular model (not enabled very often but battery drain during use isn’t bad). I can easily achieve 2 days on a single charge.

I’m even on watchOS 7.0 beta 2.

 

[waw74]

if you haven't unpaired and re-paired, I would try that

I had an OS update screw something up once, and my battery would completely drain in 3-4 hours.
The re-pair straightened out whatever was messed up.

You can backup when you unpair, and restore from that backup, so you shouldn't loose anything.

one thing to note, after re-pairs and OS updates, it seems to take a few days for the battery to stabilize,
I don't know what it's doing in the background, either more processing as it organizes itself, or if it has to analyze the battery usage for a few cycles to calibrate it.
Just don't pass final judgment on battery life for a few days.

I don't do workouts often, when I do, I still have plenty of power left at the end of the day.
all of the things you have turned off to save power, I have turned on
with a series 5 cellular, I normally have 30-40% at the end of the day. and will charge overnight
If I forget to charge at night, I'll make it about 30 hours (on the low end) on a charge before it shuts down,


one thing to keep in mind, the closeness of your phone will affect battery life.
and the wifi and cellular radios only power up if they're needed,

if your phone is towards the distance limits of bluetooth, your watch will use a little more power to be able to reach it.
If you're on the "edge" of bluetooth range and go back and forth, the wifi will keep powering up and down.
when out of BT range, the wifi kicks on full time, using more power
and when out of wifi range, the cellular kicks on, using even more power than wifi.

 

[iOnAsJ]

I have everything set by default and I still get phenomenal battery life results on my Series 5, even it being the cellular model (not enabled very often but battery drain during use isn’t bad). I can easily achieve 2 days on a single charge.

I’m even on watchOS 7.0 beta 2.

Is the battery life better with Watch OS7?
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if you haven't unpaired and re-paired, I would try that

I had an OS update screw something up once, and my battery would completely drain in 3-4 hours.
The re-pair straightened out whatever was messed up.

You can backup when you unpair, and restore from that backup, so you shouldn't loose anything.

one thing to note, after re-pairs and OS updates, it seems to take a few days for the battery to stabilize,
I don't know what it's doing in the background, either more processing as it organizes itself, or if it has to analyze the battery usage for a few cycles to calibrate it.
Just don't pass final judgment on battery life for a few days.

I don't do workouts often, when I do, I still have plenty of power left at the end of the day.
all of the things you have turned off to save power, I have turned on
with a series 5 cellular, I normally have 30-40% at the end of the day. and will charge overnight
If I forget to charge at night, I'll make it about 30 hours (on the low end) on a charge before it shuts down,


one thing to keep in mind, the closeness of your phone will affect battery life.
and the wifi and cellular radios only power up if they're needed,

if your phone is towards the distance limits of bluetooth, your watch will use a little more power to be able to reach it.
If you're on the "edge" of bluetooth range and go back and forth, the wifi will keep powering up and down.
when out of BT range, the wifi kicks on full time, using more power
and when out of wifi range, the cellular kicks on, using even more power than wifi.

Oh, I've re-paired (and afterwards did a complete re-install from scratch) a few times.
Interesting (and right) comment on the bluetooth use. I will always remember that you have to keep your iPhone nearby, bluetooth always on, to save optimal Watch life.

 

[fbara]

I'm on watchOS 7 dev beta 2 on my test S4. Battery life is the worst I've seen since I got this device. I have to charge once in the morning and again in the evening after work. It was better on watchOS 6.2.x.

I did the unpair/re-pair dance, went thru and turned off background processing for apps that don't need it, nothing seems to have helped.

I know early beta builds don't focus on battery life, at least they haven't in the past, so I'm hoping I'll see better life as the cycle continues.

 

[Shirasaki]

I might be lucky but my S4 battery life goes down as what I would expect for battery life. I was using AutoSleep for sleep tracking for over a year and it did not impact battery life much if at all. I usually only recharge once per day for a little over 2 hours and thats it.

AOD might have something to do here I guess, but watchOS 7 might not be the cause imo. With that being said, given the sheer complexity of watchOS I wouldn’t be surprised that something could potentially go wrong at some point on someone’s watch.

 

[Freakonomics101]

Is the battery life better with Watch OS7?
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Oh, I've re-paired (and afterwards did a complete re-install from scratch) a few times.
Interesting (and right) comment on the bluetooth use. I will always remember that you have to keep your iPhone nearby, bluetooth always on, to save optimal Watch life.

Surprisingly, at least with my own personal experience, battery life has been the same as the latest build of watchOS 6. Some are seeing the opposite. It must be a coin toss. But I’ve been very happy with the betas so far. Beta 1 had zero resprings. Beta 2, I’ve only seen one, which has been out for 2 weeks.

iOS and iPadOS 14 has also been very pleasant for me. These betas are impressively stable for a very first stage of 14.

Edit: I have sleep tracking on watchOS 7 disabled since I find it to be useless. AutoSleep has been great so I’m going to continue to use it.

Hand washing feature has been great, no issues whatsoever.

 

[mk313]

I agree with the unpair & repair suggestion. I had a similar issue in the past (sudden, rapid draining of the battery). Turned out that the audible app was hanging & draining the battery. Repairing the phone fixed it.

You could also try removing all of your third party apps & seeing if that fixes the issue. If it does, slowly add them back until you find the culprit (or else, removing and reinstalling it might fix the issue)

 

[iOnAsJ]

Surprisingly, at least with my own personal experience, battery life has been the same as the latest build of watchOS 6. Some are seeing the opposite. It must be a coin toss. But I’ve been very happy with the betas so far. Beta 1 had zero resprings. Beta 2, I’ve only seen one, which has been out for 2 weeks.

iOS and iPadOS 14 has also been very pleasant for me. These betas are impressively stable for a very first stage of 14.

Edit: I have sleep tracking on watchOS 7 disabled since I find it to be useless. AutoSleep has been great so I’m going to continue to use it.

Hand washing feature has been great, no issues whatsoever.

Great, good to know about watchOS 7.
Are there any additional battery saving possibilities built-in?

I'm also using Autosleep right now, it does the trick. But I have to admit I'm very curious about the sleep tracking on Watch OS 7 - did you compare them?
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I agree with the unpair & repair suggestion. I had a similar issue in the past (sudden, rapid draining of the battery). Turned out that the audible app was hanging & draining the battery. Repairing the phone fixed it.

You could also try removing all of your third party apps & seeing if that fixes the issue. If it does, slowly add them back until you find the culprit (or else, removing and reinstalling it might fix the issue)

Trust me, I've tried anything I could imagine: un-pairing, re-pairing, re-installing (even from scratch), deleting and re-installing apps... It was the hardware. I 've read about the draining impact of the audible app. I've also disabled most of my mail accounts' notifications - apart from 'VIPS' that is.

I've set up this particular thread to become more aware of which settings/apps might cause a battery drain.
All in all, I absolutely love the Apple Watch and its possibilities. Certainly when the sleep tracking will be added in WatchOS7, I can't imagine what more to expect from my Watch, apart from a better battery. 2 days without a charge would already be great...

 

[techno-Zen]

I can get around 24 hours with background app refresh, full brightness and AOD on.

30+ hours with AOD off

 

[Apple_Robert]

I'm on watchOS 7 dev beta 2 on my test S4. Battery life is the worst I've seen since I got this device. I have to charge once in the morning and again in the evening after work. It was better on watchOS 6.2.x.

I did the unpair/re-pair dance, went thru and turned off background processing for apps that don't need it, nothing seems to have helped.

I know early beta builds don't focus on battery life, at least they haven't in the past, so I'm hoping I'll see better life as the cycle continues.

I have read several posts of this very nature. The terrible beta battery (and one of my favorite apps doesn’t work on WatchOS 7) is keeping me on WatchOS 6 with my series 5. My series 3 hasn’t had a battery drain issue with watchOS 7. Granted, I am only using it for sleeping right now. After 7 hours, it has only drained 12% with a basic time face.

 

[PaladinGuy]

I have everything set by default and I still get phenomenal battery life results on my Series 5, even it being the cellular model (not enabled very often but battery drain during use isn’t bad). I can easily achieve 2 days on a single charge.

I’m even on watchOS 7.0 beta 2.

Do you have a 40mm or 44mm model?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have everything set by default and I still get phenomenal battery life results on my Series 5, even it being the cellular model (not enabled very often but battery drain during use isn’t bad). I can easily achieve 2 days on a single charge.

I’m even on watchOS 7.0 beta 2.

With Apple’s new Sleep app, does the AOD turn all the way off during sleep mode? I saw a YouTube video that looked like it did but, I wasn’t sure.

 

[iOnAsJ]

I can get around 24 hours with background app refresh, full brightness and AOD on.

30+ hours with AOD off

Seems a lot! What watch face are you using?
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I have read several posts of this very nature. The terrible beta battery (and one of my favorite apps doesn’t work on WatchOS 7) is keeping me on WatchOS 6 with my series 5. My series 3 hasn’t had a battery drain issue with watchOS 7. Granted, I am only using it for sleeping right now. After 7 hours, it has only drained 12% with a basic time face.

Hope it'll improve in the next betas then. And even then: a better battery life is necessary for the Apple Watch 6.
You can't expect your users to be willing to charge each day/overnight when your biggest competitors offer battery life that suprasses the AW by far.

 

[SOG1969]

A few weeks ago, the battery of my Apple Watch (S5, 44mm, currently Watch OS 6.2.6) simply started to drain too fast. By 3-4 PM, I had 20-30% left and after that moment, it drained even faster. I charge the Watch during the night, so this kind of behavior didn't seem normal. Luckily, the local Apple reseller was able to return it to Apple and offer me a new one.

However, the Watch 5 his battery isn't great - no surprise there - and I was wondering what are the most significant battery drainers according to you? Due to my previous situation (cf. supra), I've read quite a lot about it, but I'm curious what your experiences are.

Here are my main settings:
- Background refresh is turned off
- I don't use AOD (only 'raise to wake', but I'm experimenting by turning this off as well)
- Brightness as low as possible (does the trick for me)
- Automatic downloads/updates are off
- Work-out with power saving (heart rate off)
- Siri disabled
- Uninstalled Noise, Breath and monthly cycle app.
- Notifications are limited to the ones I 'd like to see on my Watch - the rest is for the iPhone

I still have these questions:
- What's the impact of mail notifications? I've disabled them as a test today.
- Impact of the watch face you use? Which ones are the most battery friendly?
- Impact of dock apps? I've installed all 10 slots.


==> Just to help out others as well. Very curious about the Watch 6 battery improvements, which are definitely necessary to track sleep in a user friendly way. Charging 1-2 times during the day isn't really user friendly for a watch. 😁

Just curious...why do you need to track your sleep? As long as you get 8+ hours and you wake up feeling good...whats the point? I believe an app to track your erection would be far more useful.

 

[iOnAsJ]

Just curious...why do you need to track your sleep? As long as you get 8+ hours and you wake up feeling good...whats the point? I believe an app to track your erection would be far more useful.

Out of curiosity and because I want to improve my sleep pattern.
Why else would you monitor anything? Same goes for sports. If you don't measure, you don't know what you're actually doing or might be able to improve.

 

[techno-Zen]

Seems a lot! What watch face are you using?
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Hope it'll improve in the next betas then. And even then: a better battery life is necessary for the Apple Watch 6.
You can't expect your users to be willing to charge each day/overnight when your biggest competitors offer battery life that suprasses the AW by far.

I'm all over with my faces. nothing minimal. Carrot, Fantastical, home, messages are common.

 

[iOnAsJ]

For who'd be interested: I've tried out a few new settings and tried to complete a battery re-calibration, as someone mentioned in another topic (charge to 100%, switch off the watch for 30 min.).

On top of that, I did a simple reset. Afterwards, battery life seem to have improved dramatically: up to 2 days with AOD off, background refresh off and the other settings mentioned above. Watch face is the Meridian one (black), which I like, but also seems to be quite energy efficiënt.