First Day Bugs

[thatsmyfish]

I Just received my watch yesterday. I've encountered a few issues so far. I'm not sure if it's first day setup stuff, software limitations or possibly a buggy unit.

So far I can feel the pulse for notifications. It's certainly softer than my pebble, but in the car it is more difficult to notice them.

I charged it throughout the night and it was at 100% I had it sync some music while on the charger and when I left the house I noticed I was down to 90%. It's 90 minutes later and I've used it sporadically since and I'm at 79%. Not sure if that was a fluke.

I ended up screaming "hey Siri" like a crazy person in the car to no avail. I was on the watch face and had just turned my wrist. I thought it was useless if there was any background noise, but I noticed upon getting to work that holding the crown only activated Siri once and then that stopped. I did a restart and Siri is working again.

The call volume worked fine in my house. Certainly softer than my phone on speaker but many here could not hear in a quiet environment, so I'm better off than them.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Updating...

I have had the watch on my wrist and off the charger since around 6:45 this morning. I've been trying not to play with it, have responded to texts, read emails...controlled music on my walk. I did a couple of heartbeat checks by accident pulling up glances, noted the watch face would turn on sporadically as I type, and I'm now at 47% battery remaining after 7 hours, but note I began to day with 90% for reasons I do not understand.

Also unexpectedly finding the white sports strap uncomfortable and pinchy. One size down and it's far too loose.

 

[flur]

It's possible it's just first day weirdness. I noticed the first day mine drained battery like crazy, but the next day it was fine. I've also found "Hey Siri" to work only about half the time. I do know that I can't say "Hey Siri" while I'm rotating my wrist - the screen has to be completely lit before calling to Siri. To use Siri with the button, I've found you have to hold it the whole time you're asking Siri a question as she stops listening if you stop pressing (so annoying).

I also had some haptic/sound setting weirdness that first day (getting sounds when notification volume was off, not feeling the haptic taps, etc), but that resolved itself.

If you're still having major battery drain after a few days, then that might be a sign that you have a defective unit.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Down to 43% from 47% about 35 minutes ago. Also loosened the band. I'm actually used to the haptic feedback so far and no issues with Siri since the reset. I disabled heartrate monitoring to see if that had an impact.

 

[susan12369]

It's possible it's just first day weirdness. I noticed the first day mine drained battery like crazy, but the next day it was fine. I've also found "Hey Siri" to work only about half the time. I do know that I can't say "Hey Siri" while I'm rotating my wrist - the screen has to be completely lit before calling to Siri. To use Siri with the button, I've found you have to hold it the whole time you're asking Siri a question as she stops listening if you stop pressing (so annoying).

I also had some haptic/sound setting weirdness that first day (getting sounds when notification volume was off, not feeling the haptic taps, etc), but that resolved itself.

If you're still having major battery drain after a few days, then that might be a sign that you have a defective unit.

Ditto to this about the battery - after a day or two, including a restart of both phone and watch, my battery started behaving normally. I would restart phone and watch, and wait a couple of days and if it's still not acting normally then contact Apple. I can normally go 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM and still have 40% or so. Note that doing workouts does drain a bit faster (I believe due to the constant HR monitor), but I usually have a 30 minute workout in there too.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Does this seem odd? It hit about 8% after 12 hours of use so I charged it fully. Took it off the charger at 100% and wore it for a few minutes - stayed at 100%. I put it in a nightstand drawer with the phone on top of the table at about 10:30pm and 7 hours later with no use it is at 90%

 

[za9ra22]

Does this seem odd? It hit about 8% after 12 hours of use so I charged it fully. Took it off the charger at 100% and wore it for a few minutes - stayed at 100%. I put it in a nightstand drawer with the phone on top of the table at about 10:30pm and 7 hours later with no use it is at 90%

Firstly, first day battery use is not usually a reflection of what will be typical battery use - the batteries used in these kind of devices require a certain amount of exercising before they reach full capacity, and the watch needs a full charge/discharge/recharge cycle to calibrate the battery meter. Before that, it isn't all that accurate.

You can expect the battery drain to run about 2-3% per hour with little use, therefore a little less than that if the watch is not being used at all.

I'd say your watch sounds fine.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Thanks! I am just over two hours with limited use and am at 94% now, so that's around my situation.

 

[J.C]

Agreed. Your battery will improve substantially after some use. Also, I do find that the battery drops faster from 100-85% than it does 85% onwards.

 

[jxburros]

I've noticed "Hey, Siri" works 100% when I'm by myself, but when I want to show someone, it's about 15%. Maybe she's shy?

 

[thatsmyfish]

Just for tracking, ran workout for 30 minutes in addition to using it for walking and texting as I did yesterday and am at 63%, up from the 43% from yesterday with more usage. Even though I started 10% higher today, that's an improvement.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Just in case this is useful for everybody, after eight days, I was getting 18 hours on the 42 if I was lucky. The lowest had it dying out around 12-13 hours. I'd have about 30-35 minutes of every active use and the rest just responding to notifications, etc. I did a Genius Bar appointment and they attempted two diagnostics on the watch and weren't able to get it to function. They put it in for a battery replacement, so in 3-5 days I'll update.

 

[papbot]

You'll notice that when you first take it off the charger, assuming you're charging it overnight, there will be a fairly quick battery drop but it's fairly short lived. On most days I've rarely gone below 40%.

 

[thatsmyfish]

To update, feeling let down at the moment. Got a call from the Apple Store that my watch was back. They were able to get the diagnostic to work and found that the battery was fine on paper so they just sent it back. The store had assured me that the battery would be replaced but that wasn't done.

After leaving the store, I found that the band was not included so had to go back. They found it in the back and had just neglected to include that package. No big deal. The two employees helping me were showing off their watches and one boasted about waking up 20%, taking a 45 minute run and going to work an hour later at 16%. I, on the other hand, resync'ed the watch, had it at 33% when completed, customized my watch faces for about three minutes, checked out which apps had installed over another 30 seconds, answered one text message without Siri, and am at 27% 24 minutes later.

I'm bringing the box with me to work tomorrow. One of the employees clearly felt bad nothing had been done and told me to come back for a Genius appointment if the battery hadn't improved, but in the six days I have been without my watch, I charged my pebble once for 90 minutes. If this is the battery life I get tomorrow, it's going back. I made sure they would allow a full return after 14 days as I've only had the watch for eight of them.

 

[cowfish]

First Day Bugs

You can try un pairing and re-pair the watch to your phone. If it wants to restore the watch from a backup after that, say no. Set it up as new. This will prevent any software bugs from re-occurring (hopefully). Also, make sure your watch has the latest 1.0.1 update. I've noticed better battery life after the 1.0.1 update.

 

[thatsmyfish]

You can try un pairing and re-pair the watch to your phone. If it wants to restore the watch from a backup after that, say no. Set it up as new. This will prevent and software bugs from re-occurring (hopefully). Also, make sure your watch has the latest 1.0.1 update.

Thanks! Restored as new (third time on this watch) and running 1.0.1. The battery is down 10% in the last 40 minutes. Charged to 33% capacity after restart and at 23% now. I responded to a text message at 25%, sent an emoji, and was at 23% when done. I'm going to give it a full charge tonight and see how the battery life progresses tomorrow.

 

[cowfish]

First Day Bugs

Have you tried holding down the digital crown and the friends button underneath until the apple logo shows to reset the watch, and also hold the power and home button on your iPhone to do the same? For me, lots of issues have been resolved by doing this on both my watch and phone. To tell you the truth, it's usually the reset of the phone that does the trick. I've been surprised how many times the watch was acting up and resetting the phone fixed it. Then again, the watch basically runs off the phone so it's not that surprising.

One other suggestion.

My daughters iPad had horrible battery life so I thought the battery was shot. Took it into the Genius Bar for replacement and they assured me the battery was fine and that their diagnostics had shown two programs were having tons of errors. I removed this programs and her battery was back to normal. With that said.. Maybe you have a bad program syncing to your watch with a bug in it that's draining your battery.. You can try un-syncing some programs from your watch and see if maybe that's the case..

 

[thatsmyfish]

Have you tried holding down the digital crown and the friends button underneath until the apple logo shows to reset the watch, and also hold the power and home button on your iPhone to do the same? For me, lots of issues have been resolved by doing this on both my watch and phone. To tell you the truth, it's usually the reset of the phone that does the trick. I've been surprised how many times the watch was acting up and resetting the phone fixed it. Then again, the watch basically runs off the phone so it's not that surprising.

One other suggestion.

My daughters iPad had horrible battery life so I thought the battery was shot. Took it into the Genius Bar for replacement and they assured me the battery was fine and that their diagnostics had shown two programs were having tons of errors. I removed this programs and her battery was back to normal. With that said.. Maybe you have a bad program syncing to your watch with a bug in it that's draining your battery.. You can try un-syncing some programs from your watch and see if maybe that's the case..

I wish they made it easier to even tell which apps you have running. I haven't reset the phone today but had a few days ago. I'm going to try it again as tomorrow is the last shot. I had found myself force quitting out of applications. This time it loaded everything onto the watch, not just the applications I selected, but I haven't used any today besides weather and battery.

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I just restarted both and will let you know. I am down 15% an hour from sending two text messages and at most four minutes of combined use.

 

[paulgandersman]

Today was my first day with the Apple Watch and I got even worse battery life than you! 9 and a half hours of use and it was down to 12%! I posted about it here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=21365299#post21365299

But after reading what people are saying in this thread, I'm feeling a bit relieved. Sounds like the batter just has to work its way up to holding a full charge.

 

[thatsmyfish]

It lasted something like 12-14 hours on my first day. It stabilized to 15-17 in later days but tonight I am losing about 15% an hour, although it was only charged a third up to start.


I am expecting to be back to normal tomorrow and will have to decide whether that is good enough. I got spoiled with my pebble this week and can't justify the expense unless I get the type of reliability so many others are getting here.

 

[cowfish]

First Day Bugs

Try taking all the apps off your watch, just to see what that does. If you battery life is better, you can add them back one at at time to see which, if any app is causing battery drain.

 

[thatsmyfish]

Try taking all the apps off your watch, just to see what that does. If you battery life is better, you can add them back one at at time to see which, if any app is causing battery drain.

I'm doing restart #5 right now restoring with no apps. I woke up at 2:30am and the watch was at 100%. I took it off the charger and went back to sleep. By 5am with no use it was at 87%. Compared to the store employee from yesterday I should have been able to take a 2 hour jog and have three hours of downtime.

I'm half tempted to leave it in the box all day and see what the battery strength is after full charge by the time I reach the Apple Store.

 

[MrGimper]

I upped my screen brightness to 100% because my battery was so good.

Yesterday I took it off the charger at 08:00, and put it back on the charger at 23:00 with 49% charge left.

 

[thatsmyfish]

I want your watch! . I am currently losing 10% an hour. I am at 3.5 hours and am at 66%. I hope it still has juice when I bring it in for a return!

 

[susan12369]

Your battery life definitely does not seem typical. I hope it hasn't turned you off to the watch completely. Not sure why they wouldn't just replace it, but if you otherwise like the watch, then return the one you have and get a new one. I haven't had any battery problems, lasts all day and usually have at least 40% charge still at the end of the day.