Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

S6 Mysterious Increased Battery Drain

Itinj24

Itinj24

Contributor
Original poster
Nov 8, 2017
4,696
2,767
New York
For the whole year, I was getting phenomenal battery drain on my S6 (SBTi 44mm). I’d regularly be able to get 24+ hours out of it.

About a week after installing WatchOS 8, It’s been absolutely abysmal but was still great for the first week after installing WatchOS 8. Now, I’m lucky to get 12 hours. Doesn’t heat up or anything.

I upgrade yearly and I’ll only have this Watch for one more week but it’s still driving me nuts and I’m afraid it’s something that might carry over to the S7. I didn’t install any new apps (actually deleted a few) and tried several hard reboots.

Very confused. Anyone else got this?
 
Not having that drainage you’re talking about but I bought a series 6 44mm on December 5th and when I checked the battery capacity during the month of August it was already down to 93%
 
BreakingKayfabe said:
Not having that drainage you’re talking about but I bought a series 6 44mm on December 5th and when I checked the battery capacity during the month of August it was already down to 93%
Click to expand...
IIRC, I got mine in November (returned a launch day SS Graphite originally and had to wait for SBTi to become available) and I’m now at 88% but that was the case for the past few weeks. I don’t regularly check battery health.
 
i only have an s4 but have you restarted the watch since updating? that often fixes drains i have after an update.
 
mollyc said:
i only have an s4 but have you restarted the watch since updating? that often fixes drains i have after an update.
Click to expand...
Several times. I actually have this OCD where I reboot all my devices right before and right after an update but I’ve done several since. Think it got worse lol. Would be nice if WatchOS showed the culprit like iOS does.
 
Confirmed, more battery drain on the S6 with WatchOS 8.

Also confirmed that it will be fixed via Software Update after the Series 7 is released and people decided to upgrade on account of poor S6 battery life.

Also confirmed everyone will forget this happened, just like every year.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a GENUINE bug in the WatchOS software, it’s a whole new OS compared to WatchOS 7 after all 😆.

To OPs concern, fairly sure this won’t carry over to the new S7. That would defeat the purpose of this unexpected bug. S7 will have the same phenomenal battery life you and I used to get on the S6 and I’m sure I will write a post about how amazing it is (especially compared to the suddenly abysmal S6).
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Itinj24
bluegt said:
Confirmed, more battery drain on the S6 with WatchOS 8.

Also confirmed that it will be fixed via Software Update after the Series 7 is released and people decided to upgrade on account of poor S6 battery life.

Also confirmed everyone will forget this happened, just like every year.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a GENUINE bug in the WatchOS software, it’s a whole new OS compared to WatchOS 7 after all 😆.
Click to expand...
You know, I edited my OP a few times before posting… original sounded too much like a conspiracy theory. But… I’m definitely a believer. Few days before S7 preorders??? 🤔. Glad I’m not alone lol.
 
Haha, it will always remain a theory because Apple will never admit to it but sometimes the simplest explanation is the best one.

A deterioration of performance in peoples current devices will on the margin, result in more people upgrading.

Regardless, Apple is still the most customer friendly company with the best products.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sfrangu
bluegt said:
Haha, it will always remain a theory because Apple will never admit to it but sometimes the simplest explanation is the best one.

A deterioration of performance in peoples current devices will on the margin, result in more people upgrading.

Regardless, Apple is still the most customer friendly company with the best products.
Click to expand...
Speaking of which… couldn’t wait to turn in my 12 Pro for a shiny new 13 Pro. Ironically, Same issue with that as the Watch but that’s been going on since about April and made 10x worse after updating to iOS 15. You make a strong case lol. I feel a little better now that the S7 will be great… for the majority of the year at least.
 
Similar thing happened to me. My 12 Pro usually had 20% by the time I went to bed, but in the last 2 months suddenly I started hitting 20% by around 6pm (no rogue apps).

Interestingly, my AW S6 used to charge 66% in 1 hour when it was new (ambient ~24C), now charges to about 57% (on a lower capacity battery), so charging speed was also reduced… I’m sure that can be explained by “algorithm improvements” 😆
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itinj24
Sometimes unpairing and re-pairing the watch will fix battery problems. I had the same problem with watchOS 7 last year on my series 4. Re-paring my watch fixed the battery problems
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itinj24
Wesseldeg said:
Sometimes unpairing and re-pairing the watch will fix battery problems. I had the same problem with watchOS 7 last year on my series 4. Re-paring my watch fixed the battery problems
Click to expand...
Yeah I was thinking about that but it would be the third time in a month. I did it once in early September to try to fix another issue (AirPods Pro not dual connecting automatically to iPhone and Watch) and again when I got my 13 Pro The Watch was already running OS 8 at that point too. Eh, if I wasn’t replacing it in a week, I’d probably go through the hassle one more again just to cover every corner. Good idea though 👍
 
bluegt said:
Similar thing happened to me. My 12 Pro usually had 20% by the time I went to bed, but in the last 2 months suddenly I started hitting 20% by around 6pm (no rogue apps).

Interestingly, my AW S6 used to charge 66% in 1 hour when it was new (ambient ~24C), now charges to about 57% (on a lower capacity battery), so charging speed was also reduced… I’m sure that can be explained by “algorithm improvements” 😆
Click to expand...
For sure it can be explained... Battery performance throttles to preserve processor life, or wait, is that the other way around? Now I’m confused 🤣
 
Amazing!!!… Ordered the S7 this morning and battery life on my S6 has been a champ all day. Put it on early this morning at 0230. It’s now 2330 and I’m at 41% still lol.
 
Used to be that my S6 battery drained at 2.5%/hr, now it drains at 3.0%/hr.

No dramatic change in settings or usage… I was in lockdown when I got the S6 and still am hahaha.
 
It's actually very hard to prove that battery drain is taking place and it's not due to the user.
1) You need a baseline measurement from when you first got the watch, something to compare against
2) The usage pattern / setup needs to be the same
3) The baseline & the current measurements need to be done from 100-0%

Honestly, how many of us let our battery drain down to 0% for the purpose of measuring? 🤣Most of us will recharge overnight or at some point during the day.

This is why it is extremely hard to prove... and why Apple can get away with it.

However, I did the baseline measurements on the S6: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/series-6-battery-life-how-long-does-your-s6-last.2256065/

The baseline discharge was 2.5-2.6% per hour consistently, now I am running at 3.0% per hour. This doesn't seem dramatic but 2.5% per hour = 40 hours and 3.0% per hour = 33 hours, so it's actually quite significant.
 
bluegt said:
It's actually very hard to prove that battery drain is taking place and it's not due to the user.
1) You need a baseline measurement from when you first got the watch, something to compare against
2) The usage pattern / setup needs to be the same
3) The baseline & the current measurements need to be done from 100-0%

Honestly, how many of us let our battery drain down to 0% for the purpose of measuring? 🤣Most of us will recharge overnight or at some point during the day.

This is why it is extremely hard to prove... and why Apple can get away with it.

However, I did the baseline measurements on the S6: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/series-6-battery-life-how-long-does-your-s6-last.2256065/

The baseline discharge was 2.5-2.6% per hour consistently, now I am running at 3.0% per hour. This doesn't seem dramatic but 2.5% per hour = 40 hours and 3.0% per hour = 33 hours, so it's actually quite significant.
Click to expand...
I was getting the same up until a couple weeks ago (2.5%-3%/hour) which is outstanding for the Watch. Battery life was phenomenal. Now I’m getting a drain of about 5-6% / hour. Sometimes even 7%. I just check what time I put it on, usually on a cardinal number, check every hour and then take an average.
 
Apple_Robert said:
I haven't experienced any increase in battery draining with the series 6. Then again, I have a lowly peasant SS and not the overlord Ti model. :p
Click to expand...
SS>Ti

The finish, the color, the scratch resistance, the robust weight. Was never really happy with the SBTi. Just was upset they got rid of SBSS. Graphite isn’t bad, but it’s no SB.
 
Itinj24 said:
For the whole year, I was getting phenomenal battery drain on my S6 (SBTi 44mm). I’d regularly be able to get 24+ hours out of it.

About a week after installing WatchOS 8, It’s been absolutely abysmal but was still great for the first week after installing WatchOS 8. Now, I’m lucky to get 12 hours. Doesn’t heat up or anything.

I upgrade yearly and I’ll only have this Watch for one more week but it’s still driving me nuts and I’m afraid it’s something that might carry over to the S7. I didn’t install any new apps (actually deleted a few) and tried several hard reboots.

Very confused. Anyone else got this?
Click to expand...
I have the exact same problem and it presented in the exact same way as your watch’s drain. Did you fix it somehow or did you just get the new one?
 
Pyrazol said:
I have the exact same problem and it presented in the exact same way as your watch’s drain. Did you fix it somehow or did you just get the new one?
Click to expand...
My S7 is on order so still waiting for it. As for the S6, it seems to have corrected itself. It’s gotten better since I posted this without any additional input from me.
 
Itinj24 said:
My S7 is on order so still waiting for it. As for the S6, it seems to have corrected itself. It’s gotten better since I posted this without any additional input from me.
Click to expand...
Thank you. This is seemingly what happened to someone else as well, but my watch is still using up its battery in the first half of the day... :(
Last night it didn’t charge at all, I’m thinking it might just be a hardware thing after all 😶
 
Pyrazol said:
Thank you. This is seemingly what happened to someone else as well, but my watch is still using up its battery in the first half of the day... :(
Last night it didn’t charge at all, I’m thinking it might just be a hardware thing after all 😶
Click to expand...
Did you try a hard reboot? I’m hearing Unpairing usually resolves the issue too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back