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Poor battery life on new Apple 6

P

PVRappleuser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2021
2
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I got a new Apple 6 watch that is currently on watchOS7.2 and I’m getting beyond terrible batter life.
In two hours it’s gone from 95% to 72%. It’ll be dead before bed time.
Things I’ve done:
1. Turned off background app refresh
2. Turned off the majority of the notifications for apps I don’t need.
3. Turned off “hey Siri” and other Siri options
4. Turned the brightness to the full low
5. Turned off audible alerts

I’ve read reports of battery life being over 40 hours on this watch, but mine is dying super fast. The only thing I can think of is I have a US cellular plan, but spend most of my time in Mexico where it doesn’t connect. Is it possible the watch is spending too much effort trying to connect to a cellular plan that doesn’t exist where I’m at?

Thank you!
 
My battery life was bad, too. The only thing I turned off was AOD (always on display). Now it lasts 2-3 days.
 
So I turned off the cellular plan so it’s not actively trying to connect. Still just as bad. Went from 80% to 35% in about 3 hours.
I guess I could try to turn off AOD, but isn’t that one of the best features???
 
Apple_Robert said:
When it is constantly trying to find signal it is. With general use, it doesn't have as big an impact, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Good to know. I still don’t use it. I always have my phone on me so no need. When I tried it as a free trial I did notice a considerable battery drain. Still lasts all day but my 6 was about 20% lower day to day towards the end.
 
I think there is an issue with watchOS. I'm on year 3 with my Series 4 so I know it's battery routine well. After the most recent update to the OS my battery was significantly diminished. I put it on before bed fully charged for sleep tracking and would always wake up with 75%-80% available, but suddenly was waking up at 50% and had to charge it multiple times during the day.

After about a week or so it suddenly snapped back to normal. There's some corrupt process.
 
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I recently got a AW6 but not a cellular one. I'm not fussed about sleep tracking so in general i wear it from 7am to around 11pm and then charge it overnight. Generally its down to anything between 35% and 50% in the main by the end of the day depending on what i've been doing with it. Tends to be lower if i've used it to track a walk or alike.

I did notice not having something like a weather complication makes a difference. When i had one of those i would see the GPS arrow in the control panel suggesting it was using GPS a lot i suspect to pick up where i was to show the weather. For a while now i've just got four complications which show pedometer++, cardiogram HR reading, date and activity rings. I dont get the GPS arrow in control panel and the battery is very good. Today for example i put it on just after 7am at 100% and just now (10:20ish'am in the UK) its at 94%.
 
I have an AW 6 40mm. I have use everything except sleep tracking. At bedtime I turn on Airplane Mode and Theatre till 6 in the morning. Other than that I have AOD all the time. I charge my watch every other day (so 48 hours) before breakfast. Within that 48 hours I’ll do somewhere between 1.5 and 2 hours running. My first AW (always had Garmins) and pleasantly surprised at the battery life given the quality of the display and various capabilities.
 
My AW6 with cellular use approx 3% per hour. Everything is on and I use AutoSleep during night.
 
I’m amazed by the battery life on mine , much better than my 8 plus

Normally have 75% left every night before charge
 
I came back today just to find some threads and post about how good I think the S6 battery life is. First of all, it’s certainly better than the S4 that it replaced.. even when new. While not a HEAVY user, I get about 25 texts, 15 alerts, 10-30 application alerts (things like stock trades and such) and usually get about 45-60 minutes of 1 workout in a day. A walk (with phone, so not solely onboard watch GPS use), or strength workout (utilizing a seperate Bluetooth sensor connected to the watch) and 2 days a week, I do both workouts, so 50 minutes strength training and 45-60 minutes walk. I also have the O2 sensor to take readings, the HR sensor on and I use the watch for sleep tracking with at least two apps.. pillow and sleepdwatch. I don’t know if they both simply access the same biometric date or if they are both doing something separate on the watch. I also have the AOD turned OFF.. With the new S6, I get JUST about 48 hours of usage between charging with the watch near about 2-4% remaining at the ~48 hour mark.

I think I could probably extend that a bit if I turned off some of the constant monitors, but all in all I’m totally pleased with the battery life.
 
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rhinosrcool said:
My battery life was bad, too. The only thing I turned off was AOD (always on display). Now it lasts 2-3 days.
Click to expand...
I just finished up a two week test of AOD on and AOD off... all things being relatively equal. 1.5-2 hours of workout over a two day period. With AOD ON, I can get to about 36 hours before hitting 10% remaining, with AOD OFF, I can get to 48 hours with 10% remaining. This is also with sleep tracking enabled across a couple apps. For now, I’m just going to keep AOD OFF, since for me it doesn‘t really add enough value and having the extra HALF A day of battery life is preferred.
 
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tivoboy said:
I just finished up a two week test of AOD on and AOD off... all things being relatively equal. 1.5-2 hours of workout over a two day period. With AOD ON, I can get to about 36 hours before hitting 10% remaining, with AOD OFF, I can get to 48 hours with 10% remaining. This is also with sleep tracking enabled across a couple apps. For now, I’m just going to keep AOD OFF, since for me it doesn‘t really add enough value and having the extra HALF A day of battery life is preferred.
Click to expand...

This is my first Apple Watch. I’m still learning, especially about battery life. Thanks for the info.
 
Have the same problem w my series 6 OP

I just learned to top it up, unfortunately apple did a test on it and said it’s functioning fine.
Hopefully new watchOS fixes it. Have a series 5 that lasts me the day
 
Be interested to know if those with issues have a complication showing weather info set on their watch face? I did for a bit and then i changed to a watch face that didnt and noticed a change in battery life. I then went back to a weather complication but had it set to my local town without using GPS to find where i am and show local to me weather. I found that previously the weather complication led to the watch using GPS all the time as if brought up the control centre on the watch the green GPS arrow showed that GPS was being used.

I've set weather on my watch to never use GPS and then the complication just shows the weather for whichever town i set it show for. 99% of the time my local area is fine for this and i can just change it if i need to or check my phone for weather elsewhere.
 
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bransoj said:
Be interested to know if those with issues have a complication showing weather info set on their watch face? I did for a bit and then i changed to a watch face that didnt and noticed a change in battery life. I then went back to a weather complication but had it set to my local town without using GPS to find where i am and show local to me weather. I found that previously the weather complication led to the watch using GPS all the time as if brought up the control centre on the watch the green GPS arrow showed that GPS was being used.

I've set weather on my watch to never use GPS and then the complication just shows the weather for whichever town i set it show for. 99% of the time my local area is fine for this and i can just change it if i need to or check my phone for weather elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Mine shows blue arrow in the control center, not green what that means?
I also tried setting weather town manually but blue arrow shows still.

Anyway, I'm using the same settings as in my AW3 and it has no issue with battery life like my new AW6 (GPS, no cellular).
Currently monitored today draw about 16% in 4 hours (4% per hour). I was in the same location all the time and had one short phone call using the watch. I have AOD on with screen brightness minimal. Battery life in this sucks big time and seems even worse than AW6 40mm. In our AW3's 42mm had better run times on battery than 38mm.

My AW6 seems to use 1% per hour even while on in use (it is not on my wrist and display is off).
 
0906742 said:
Mine shows blue arrow in the control center, not green what that means?
I also tried setting weather town manually but blue arrow shows still.

Anyway, I'm using the same settings as in my AW3 and it has no issue with battery life like my new AW6 (GPS, no cellular).
Currently monitored today draw about 16% in 4 hours (4% per hour). I was in the same location all the time and had one short phone call using the watch. I have AOD on with screen brightness minimal. Battery life in this sucks big time and seems even worse than AW6 40mm. In our AW3's 42mm had better run times on battery than 38mm.

My AW6 seems to use 1% per hour even while on in use (it is not on my wrist and display is off).
Click to expand...
I think blue arrow not filled in means something used location in the past hour, solid means using now.. green means GPS, same alternate criteria, I think.

Years ago I turned off the iPhone ‘local” weather setting which always used location data, mostly GPS to give you local weather. It was a battery drain somewhat back then, it’s Probably gotten better.. I would imagine the same setting ON on the AW, would be similar, trying to use location or GPS to get location data. I don‘t use that one either and always have my phone with me at least when doing outdoor activities so the watch gets location data over BLE from the phone and therefore doesnt’ try and get GPS location data on the watch. that is the most power consuming activity the watch can do until it starts playing videos.
 
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tivoboy said:
I think blue arrow not filled in means something used location in the past hour, solid means using now.. green means GPS, same alternate criteria, I think.

Years ago I turned off the iPhone ‘local” weather setting which always used location data, mostly GPS to give you local weather. It was a battery drain somewhat back then, it’s Probably gotten better.. I would imagine the same setting ON on the AW, would be similar, trying to use location or GPS to get location data. I don‘t use that one either and always have my phone with me at least when doing outdoor activities so the watch gets location data over BLE from the phone and therefore doesnt’ try and get GPS location data on the watch. that is the most power consuming activity the watch can do until it starts playing videos.
Click to expand...
I guess that is not the culprit here then. Also I have the same setting in my over 3 year old AW3 and it has excellent battery life. I guess batteries are just worse in AW6 than AW3...?
 
0906742 said:
I guess that is not the culprit here then. Also I have the same setting in my over 3 year old AW3 and it has excellent battery life. I guess batteries are just worse in AW6 than AW3...?
Click to expand...
I think there is no question that battery life on the AW6 is better than on the AW3 overall..so it probably lies in settings such as SpO2 sensor or AOD most likely. I also find that I have to restore from backup TWICE and then let the watch settle a few days.
 
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tivoboy said:
I think there is no question that battery life on the AW6 is better than on the AW3 overall..so it probably lies in settings such as SpO2 sensor or AOD most likely. I also find that I have to restore from backup TWICE and then let the watch settle a few days.
Click to expand...
I just tried without AOD and it is 3% per hour (lost 6% just under 2 hours). Battery life is definitely terrible in AW6 and far from my over 3 year old AW3. With my AW3 I easily get 48 hours between charge and still about 1/3 battery left consistently.

My AW6 with screen brightness at lowest possible setting and AOD on uses battery about 4% per hour, AOD off about 3% and idle 1% or little more while not on my wrist. Practically need charged every day even with AOD off.
Huge disappointment but seems to be pretty in line with all new gear being worse than old in battery quality.

Both watches pretty much at default settings. I never adjusted anything off in my AW3 so it has all app refresh thing running background and default location services running, just as in my new AW6.
My wife has AW6 40mm and it seems to have somewhat better battery life, so I guess the smaller one uses less power and has better battery. But even that is not so impressive compared to gen 3 AW's.
 
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PVRappleuser said:
So I turned off the cellular plan so it’s not actively trying to connect. Still just as bad. Went from 80% to 35% in about 3 hours.
I guess I could try to turn off AOD, but isn’t that one of the best features???
Click to expand...
Did you find any solution for bad battery life?
 
0906742 said:
I just tried without AOD and it is 3% per hour (lost 6% just under 2 hours). Battery life is definitely terrible in AW6 and far from my over 3 year old AW3. With my AW3 I easily get 48 hours between charge and still about 1/3 battery left consistently.

My AW6 with screen brightness at lowest possible setting and AOD on uses battery about 4% per hour, AOD off about 3% and idle 1% or little more while not on my wrist. Practically need charged every day even with AOD off.
Huge disappointment but seems to be pretty in line with all new gear being worse than old in battery quality.

Both watches pretty much at default settings. I never adjusted anything off in my AW3 so it has all app refresh thing running background and default location services running, just as in my new AW6.
My wife has AW6 40mm and it seems to have somewhat better battery life, so I guess the smaller one uses less power and has better battery. But even that is not so impressive compared to gen 3 AW's.
Click to expand...
If that is the case, as hard as it sounds, I’d open a ticket with apple. Overall consensus is between battery and SOC the AW6 is the best of the bunch. Good luck,
 
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