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High usage times/battery drain?

R

rya326

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2015
4
0
Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker. Just got my Watch yesterday (Stainless Steel Link, 42mm) and noticed it drained really quickly when I got it. Whatever, I thought, since I had just opened it and was using it rather heavily. It was 80% when I first set it up at 6pm; by 12am, it was totally dead and in power saving mode.

I charged it all last night and took it off the charger at about 7:30am this morning. By noon, I was at around 50%. At 1:30, I was at around 36%. Now I'm at 33%.

I checked my usage/standby time in my app and it showed me that I was using my watch for 4hrs+ out of 5+ total. I've used it extremely lightly-- I checked in once on Swarm at my office and I got some notifications. No work outs, no music, no phone calls, etc. I just did a hard reset to see if that'd fix the problem, but it's still draining really quickly.

Recommendations?
 
Last edited:
rya326 said:
Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker. Just got my Watch yesterday (Stainless Steel Link, 42mm) and noticed it drained really quickly when I got it. Whatever, I thought, since I had just opened it and was using it rather heavily. It was 80% when I first set it up at 6pm; by 12pm, it was totally dead and in power saving mode.

I charged it all last night and took it off the charger at about 7:30am this morning. By noon, I was at around 50%. At 1:30, I was at around 36%. Now I'm at 33%.

I checked my usage/standby time in my app and it showed me that I was using my watch for 4hrs+ out of 5+ total. I've used it extremely lightly-- I checked in once on Swarm at my office and I got some notifications. No work outs, no music, no phone calls, etc. I just did a hard reset to see if that'd fix the problem, but it's still draining really quickly.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...
The 4+ hours of usage certainly isn't right. There's some rouge app in there most likely. I'd go through and remove all 3rd party apps, then add back one by one, one app each day, and verify no impact to the battery.
 
xraydoc said:
The 4+ hours of usage certainly isn't right. There's some rouge app in there most likely. I'd go through and remove all 3rd party apps, then add back one by one, one app each day, and verify no impact to the battery.
Click to expand...

Just did, thanks. I was unaware that an App could operate in the background like that on Watch and have it show up in "usage"
 
rya326 said:
Just did, thanks. I was unaware that an App could operate in the background like that on Watch and have it show up in "usage"
Click to expand...

I don't know that they can, either. Though not sure what else to do besides a reboot of both watch & phone.
 
rya326 said:
Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker. Just got my Watch yesterday (Stainless Steel Link, 42mm) and noticed it drained really quickly when I got it. Whatever, I thought, since I had just opened it and was using it rather heavily. It was 80% when I first set it up at 6pm; by 12am, it was totally dead and in power saving mode.

I charged it all last night and took it off the charger at about 7:30am this morning. By noon, I was at around 50%. At 1:30, I was at around 36%. Now I'm at 33%.

I checked my usage/standby time in my app and it showed me that I was using my watch for 4hrs+ out of 5+ total. I've used it extremely lightly-- I checked in once on Swarm at my office and I got some notifications. No work outs, no music, no phone calls, etc. I just did a hard reset to see if that'd fix the problem, but it's still draining really quickly.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

Same issues. Apple can't figure it out.
 
3 hours, watch down to 76%

usage: 2:25
standby: 3:02

I haven't opened any apps on the watch.

first Yosemite (BTMM), then the heart rate, now this :mad:
 
vegetassj4 said:
3 hours, watch down to 76%

usage: 2:25
standby: 3:02

I haven't opened any apps on the watch.

first Yosemite (BTMM), then the heart rate, now this :mad:
Click to expand...

How long have you had yours for? I'm going to wipe my watch and my phone, and start both from factory settings tonight and hope it fixes the issue for tomorrow. Then I'll gradually build back my apps, etc. back up
 
rya326 said:
How long have you had yours for? I'm going to wipe my watch and my phone, and start both from factory settings tonight and hope it fixes the issue for tomorrow. Then I'll gradually build back my apps, etc. back up
Click to expand...

2 weeks. This problem started yesterday after I tried an unpair/ pair in hopes the heart rate would go back to normal.
 
rya326 said:
Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker. Just got my Watch yesterday (Stainless Steel Link, 42mm) and noticed it drained really quickly when I got it. Whatever, I thought, since I had just opened it and was using it rather heavily. It was 80% when I first set it up at 6pm; by 12am, it was totally dead and in power saving mode.

I charged it all last night and took it off the charger at about 7:30am this morning. By noon, I was at around 50%. At 1:30, I was at around 36%. Now I'm at 33%.

I checked my usage/standby time in my app and it showed me that I was using my watch for 4hrs+ out of 5+ total. I've used it extremely lightly-- I checked in once on Swarm at my office and I got some notifications. No work outs, no music, no phone calls, etc. I just did a hard reset to see if that'd fix the problem, but it's still draining really quickly.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

I'm having the same issues, except I've had the watch for over a month now. Battery was far exceeding Apple's estimates up until yesterday. I'd generally finish each day with 20-30% battery left without babying the battery at all (lots of time checks, notifications, workouts, etc.). I had gotten to the point where I didn't even think about the battery, let alone check it, it was a non-issue. Then all of a sudden I got a notification yesterday at like 3 or 4 in the afternoon that I had 10% left! It was a normal day, I used my watch the same as any other when I didn't have issues. What a bummer, first time it had died on me. It was incredibly frustrating to have a useless, dead watch on my wrist for the rest of the day. I didn't realize how much the watch had been integrated into my life until then; man, I missed it!

The only thing I did recently out of the ordinary was unpair/re-pair my watch two days ago because I was getting notifications on the phone first instead of the watch (also just started happening after a month or so of working as intended).

Trying another restore from backup now to see if it helps at all. Not sure what to do next if it doesn't.

It's too bad the battery usage info in the watch app doesn't show usage per app like it does on the iPhone. I did however check my iPhone battery usage info because it drained a little more than usual yesterday when I had issues with the watch. I noticed that Messages.app (background activity) had used 44% of my battery over the last 24 hours. I wasn't receiving or sending any more or less messages than usual.

I updated to 1.0.1 when it came out on the 19th and didn't have any immediate issues with it other than the heart rate bug we're aware of. It certainly didn't impact battery life, at least not for the first week I was running it.
 
macmurray said:
The only thing I did recently out of the ordinary was unpair/re-pair my watch two days ago because I was getting notifications on the phone first instead of the watch (also just started happening after a month or so of working as intended).
Click to expand...
Battery usage appears to be greatest when you first get the watch. And un-pairing and re-pairing does fix the notifications/messages issue that was introduced with 1.0.1 but you've essentially gone back to day one as far as battery usage. And that notification issue will recur. It did with me. I now just go to the phone's notification's settings and toggle one or the other off and then back on. That usually fixes it for a while. But in the end it's going to take another update to fix this.

Usually it takes about a week for the function and usage of the watch to settle down, my battery life got considerably better around that time. Also if there's a rogue app or function causing a problem doing that hard restart with both the buttons should deal with that and won't hurt anything.
 
I have the same problem since yesterday after I unpaired and re-paired my watch to try to solve a notification issue. I have had the watch since launch day and the battery life had been stellar up until yesterday.
Now the watch didn't last more than 8 hours today with my normal usage (which is light)
My iPhone6 also lists the Messages as the highest battery usage (background activity)
I did a wipe of the watch (again!) and also restored my iPhone this evening and the watch still appears to be draining fast. There are no third party apps currently on my watch.
 
I did a unpair/restore from back up and it seems to have gotten battery life back to normal for the most part. It maybe draining a little faster than I'm used to, but maybe I'm checking it more.

Not very happy about this whole ordeal. I'm worried about lasting through the day now and will have to carry my charger with me just in case. I went a month with great performance and now this... Pretty disappointed.
 
rya326 said:
Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker. Just got my Watch yesterday (Stainless Steel Link, 42mm) and noticed it drained really quickly when I got it. Whatever, I thought, since I had just opened it and was using it rather heavily. It was 80% when I first set it up at 6pm; by 12am, it was totally dead and in power saving mode.

I charged it all last night and took it off the charger at about 7:30am this morning. By noon, I was at around 50%. At 1:30, I was at around 36%. Now I'm at 33%.

I checked my usage/standby time in my app and it showed me that I was using my watch for 4hrs+ out of 5+ total. I've used it extremely lightly-- I checked in once on Swarm at my office and I got some notifications. No work outs, no music, no phone calls, etc. I just did a hard reset to see if that'd fix the problem, but it's still draining really quickly.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

Swarm had always been a battery sucker for me since it split off from 4SQ. Maybe they haven't optimized their app and your check-in made your watch give its location for those 5 hours constantly...

I mean I did that once and I had to force close the app for location services to stop. Not an app I'm fond of. Just a thought.
 
Maybe take it back to an apple store? I have a 38mm watch, I put it on this morning at 7:30am, and it's 8:40pm now, and I'm at 54% battery remaining.
 
Check the usage on your phone and see if the times match up.

This is probably going to sound like a pain in the ass, but, I suggest you restore both your iPhone and reset your Watch, then re-pair them.

Since iOS and WatchOS are heavily connected, it sounds like something isn't termination its connection to your phone - probably not a 3rd party - but some sort of 1st party app (with special permissions) or internal process that is hanging and keeping connections alive.

Good luck, mate!
 
vegetassj4 said:
3 hours, watch down to 76%

usage: 2:25
standby: 3:02

I haven't opened any apps on the watch.

first Yosemite (BTMM), then the heart rate, now this :mad:
Click to expand...

Where are you guys seeing the usage times? Still running 1.0 but don't see it under Settings - About.

Edit: it's in the iPhone app.
 
Last edited:
Had crazy drain yesterday on first day with 38 SS ML on 1.0.1. Nothing disabled and brightness etc at default.

Not sure what was causing but off the charger at 7am and down to 30% by lunch. Nothing major aside from checking time, emails and clearing the odd notification. Checked usage to find over 4hrs usage and 5hrs standby. Dead by 2pm.

Recharged fully when I got home and disabled all third party apps (about ten in total). Used for a while then left on the charger overnight. This morning, took it off at 7am and at lunch I'm on 92%. Usage 32 mins, standby 5hrs 20. At work so just checking SMS and emails as well as checking time.

Either the battery needed a few cycles or disabling 3rd party apps worked. I'll be adding them back one per day to see if one of those is the culprit.
 
Okay, I think I have found a fix somewhat. I did several things and not sure which one worked 100%. I did a system restore of both devices and then re-paired. What I think did the trick was the following. I went into the watch settings and then to notifications..Every single app on my iPhone 6 was checked to send notifications to the iPhone which I think was constantly interacting with the phone. I would guess that the more apps you have on your phone, the quicker the battery dies. I unchecked about 95% of the apps and I have been getting way better battery life.

Also, my standby and usage times are starting to have a better spread than I did yesterday. My phone has been off of the charger for an hour and I am still at 100%, which for the last few days I would have been down to 90 already.

Try disabling the notifications and see if that helps!!!!
 
I think I fixed mine, also. I completely just wiped my phone and my watch-- everything back to factory settings. I was having storage problems on my phone, anyways, so I figured it was a good time to just pull the plug and start fresh. I had much better battery life after I did that last night. Let it charge all last night...took it off the charger at 7:40 to go to work and, now, at 9, I'm still at 100%. I have no 3rd party apps, though, and have only used the watch thus far to check time, respond to a few texts, and send a few touches. Very glad I found a fix-- at this time yesterday I was already down to around 80%. I'll selectively install 3rd party apps as I need them and monitor them individually to see what might be draining my battery (if it happens again).
 
vegetassj4 said:
3 hours, watch down to 76%

usage: 2:25
standby: 3:02

I haven't opened any apps on the watch.

first Yosemite (BTMM), then the heart rate, now this :mad:
Click to expand...

latest factory reset (no 3rd party apps) appears to have done the trick. I havent charged since my previous post and am at 5%. i also ignored the powersave mode at 10%.
 
I am experiencing this exact same problem. Barely use the watch for anything other than occasional checks of the time and incoming text messages and it says I hVe been using it for hours and it is dead by 3pm.
 
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