Optimized battery charging does not work

[rhaezorblue]

I’ve had my optimized charging turned on for my series 6 for weeks and weeks and it always charges up right away, never holding at 80% even though it gets put on the charger around the same time every night. The only thing I can think of why is that it follows the optimized charging pattern from your iPhone, as I have the 12 Pro Max and charge it at different times since it’s battery life is so amazing

 

[rhaezorblue]

Everyone else having this same behavior on their series 6?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I have never thought about optimized charging with my watch. I do with my phone. I charge at the same time every night with the watch and I have an app that alerts me when the watch is fully charged.

 

[jz0309]

I have it turned on on my S4 and it is working as expected ... I put my watch on the charger every night and leave it there til I get up, I do charge my phone every other day so for me, there is no dependency between the 2 ...

 

[rhaezorblue]

Soon after I put my series 6 on the charger every night, if I look at my phone for a little bit I see the alert the the watch is finished charging.. it never does optimized charging.. ie waiting until morning to finish going from 80% to 100%

 

[jz0309]

Does optimized charging work on your phone? I had turned it on for my phone several months ago and it never worked until I checked all the required settings again a couple weeks ago, and voila, working now - in case watch requires the same phone settings

 

[Coltaine]

I’ve had my optimized charging turned on for my series 6 for weeks and weeks and it always charges up right away, never holding at 80% even though it gets put on the charger around the same time every night. The only thing I can think of why is that it follows the optimized charging pattern from your iPhone, as I have the 12 Pro Max and charge it at different times since it’s battery life is so amazing

I though about the same thing last night and checked on my AW 6 - optimized charging does not work there, even though it has been turned on for weeks and my charging behavior is ridiculously predictable (watch goes on the charger every night around midnight and goes off the charger every morning between five and six o'clock.
It work flawlessly on my iPhone 12 and even on my AirPods Pro.

I now toggled it off and on again, see what happens over the next weeks.

 

[rhaezorblue]

Does optimized charging work on your phone? I had turned it on for my phone several months ago and it never worked until I checked all the required settings again a couple weeks ago, and voila, working now - in case watch requires the same phone settings

Yes its turned on in my iPhone 12 Pro Max's settings, but since I work from home I basically only charge it whenever it needs it during the day. Watch goes on the charger every night around the same time

 

[jz0309]

Yes its turned on in my iPhone 12 Pro Max's settings, but since I work from home I basically only charge it whenever it needs it during the day. Watch goes on the charger every night around the same time

check the settings below, copied from the doc linked at the bottom ... my significant locations did not include my home and after I turned it on, it started working on my phone, its in your phone settings.

Turning on these location settings in the Settings app on your Apple Watch can help Optimized Battery Charging identify situations where it shouldn't be used:

• Privacy > Location Services > Location Services
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > System Customization
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations > Significant Locations

Apple Watch Battery and Performance - Apple Support

Understand Apple Watch performance and its relation to your battery.

support.apple.com

 

[rhaezorblue]

check the settings below, copied from the doc linked at the bottom ... my significant locations did not include my home and after I turned it on, it started working on my phone, its in your phone settings.

Turning on these location settings in the Settings app on your Apple Watch can help Optimized Battery Charging identify situations where it shouldn't be used:

• Privacy > Location Services > Location Services
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > System Customization
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations > Significant Locations

Apple Watch Battery and Performance - Apple Support

Understand Apple Watch performance and its relation to your battery.

support.apple.com

That may have been it, as I have had Significant Locations turned off for a few years now. I'll see if that fixes it, thank you

 

[jz0309]

That may have been it, as I have had Significant Locations turned off for a few years now. I'll see if that fixes it, thank you

it sure is odd that it is a requirement for optimized charging

 

[BugeyeSTI]

check the settings below, copied from the doc linked at the bottom ... my significant locations did not include my home and after I turned it on, it started working on my phone, its in your phone settings.

Turning on these location settings in the Settings app on your Apple Watch can help Optimized Battery Charging identify situations where it shouldn't be used:

• Privacy > Location Services > Location Services
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > System Customization
• Privacy > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations > Significant Locations

Apple Watch Battery and Performance - Apple Support

Understand Apple Watch performance and its relation to your battery.

support.apple.com

I have all that enabled on my watch and have never seen any notification that optimize charging is doing anything.. On my phone it has been working and notifies me on the lock screen but nothing on the watch...

 

[jz0309]

I have all that enabled on my watch and have never seen any notification that optimize charging is doing anything.. On my phone it has been working and notifies me on the lock screen but nothing on the watch...

when you look at settings/battery, on the usage graph - does it show if the charge tops and 80% before charging full?
I always charge overnight, so no idea if I get notifications or not but the graph indicates that it's sitting at 80% for several hours and then charges full ...

 

[rhaezorblue]

My iPhone's optimized charging worked fine, atleast when I was charging it at night - my watch has never worked. Now I tend to wait to my iPhone gets low and then charge it up to 85% during the day since its healthier for the battery, supposedly.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

when you look at settings/battery, on the usage graph - does it show if the charge tops and 80% before charging full?
I always charge overnight, so no idea if I get notifications or not but the graph indicates that it's sitting at 80% for several hours and then charges full ...

Yes, I get that with the notification on the phone. When I don't get the notification the graph shows that it charges straight to 100%. Since there is no graph on the watch, I assume the notification would pop up if it was working but I have yet to see one

 

[jz0309]

Yes, I get that with the notification on the phone. When I don't get the notification the graph shows that it charges straight to 100%. Since there is no graph on the watch, I assume the notification would pop up if it was working but I have yet to see one

You don’t get this? Yesterday was a bit different as I updated the watch and kept it on the charger for a little longer...

 

[BugeyeSTI]

You don’t get this? Yesterday was a bit different as I updated the watch and kept it on the charger for a little longer...

Holy crap! I could of swore I didn't have that graph last time I checked. I'll have to look at it tonight when I charge to see if it's stopping at 80%.. Thank you for posting that pic!

 

[mamalig]

I just found out about optimized charging It's very convenient. While you sleep, the Apple Watch will charge up to 80% and the charge will turn off, which prevents damage to the battery. Cool!

 

[uandme72]

I just found out about optimized charging It's very convenient. While you sleep, the Apple Watch will charge up to 80% and the charge will turn off, which prevents damage to the battery. Cool!

It’s indeed convenient if and when it works.
mine has not worked so far even once.

 

[jz0309]

It’s indeed convenient if and when it works.
mine has not worked so far even once.

does it work on your phone?
there are some specific settings required: #9

 

[uandme72]

does it work on your phone?
there are some specific settings required: #9

I have enabled all the settings quoted above.
yet it has never worked on my phone.
I don’t know what is missing.
the phone remains at home for similar hours daily.

 

[jz0309]

I have enabled all the settings quoted above.
yet it has never worked on my phone.
I don’t know what is missing.
the phone remains at home for similar hours daily.

sorry, the only other thing I can think of is to contact apple ... if that's worth the effort for you as I'm guessing they might have you do un-pair/pair which is a time consuming process and can be tricky - I'm not suggesting that as a fix to be clear, just seems to be the standard answer ...

 

[BugeyeSTI]

sorry, the only other thing I can think of is to contact apple ... if that's worth the effort for you as I'm guessing they might have you do un-pair/pair which is a time consuming process and can be tricky - I'm not suggesting that as a fix to be clear, just seems to be the standard answer ...

I get no notification that it is working but when I looked at the charging graph in the battery section I can see that it stops charging at 80% during the night then charges to 100% before the morning..

 

[jz0309]

I get no notification that it is working but when I looked at the charging graph in the battery section I can see that it stops charging at 80% during the night then charges to 100% before the morning..

yep, that's how I know mine works ...

 

[General Purpose]

Just thought I’d add to this because after 2 years of trying to figure out how to get this to work I think there is 1 important step that I’ve stumbled upon that No one has mentioned.

So yes you do have to have location services on yadda,yards but even with all that on it’s never worked for me. I update every single time there is an update to my phone and it still doesn’t work.

2 nights ago I just happened to put my watch on charge at the same time as my phone (normally I put the watch on charge shortly after getting home after work). Battery life in both phone and watch was approximately 60% remaining.

Woke about an hour later and grabbed my phone and noticed the watch was only charged to 80% along with the phone. Next day I checked the watches graph and sure enough it worked. It’s happened 2 nights in a row since I’ve deployed the same strategy.

So is that it? You literally just need to charge them both at the same time? If so why is this not documented everywhere. I’ll post again when I go back to my normal routine of putting the watch on charge when I get home and comment but very weird.