Series 5, battery drain, always

[rickeames]

I feel like a broken record, and if I don't figure out this problem, upgrading to a 7 isn't going to be in the cards.

I charge my watch to 100% every night before I sleep. I put it on around midnight. I get up at 6, I'm usually around 91%. There are days, no different than any other days, where the watch will NOT make it to the end of the day. Today is one of those days. It's 3:50pm and I just had to put the watch on the charger at 17%.

That's obviously ridiculous, but Apple provides little in the way of knowing what in the world is causing the drain. App gone crazy? Background process being weird? Unlock my iPhone turned on? I just don't know what could cause that kind of drop in a day. I've done the unpair/repair trick multiple times this year when it starts to do this, but seriously -- I shouldn't have to do this often, and yet I do.

Anyone else have any wisdom as to why a watch would run crazy on battery like this?

 

[The_Interloper]

I think it’s a combination of things.

1. The software isn’t as optimised as Apple would like you to think;
2. The SOC isn’t as power efficient as Apple would like you to think;
3. The physical limitations of the hardware and battery in the watch.

The third one is important as it’s something that no other manufacturer has been able to fix either without severely compromising functionality (e.g. no external apps, no voice assistant etc). I have a Series 5 cellular and also agree that the battery life is pretty dismal at times, but think about it – this is a device with a tiny battery that has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth constantly connected and, in my case, has an always-on display. One day is pretty much it as far as battery life is concerned.

Should Apple do better? Should they have improved it by now after six generations? Of course, but they are pushing thermal envelopes here. I’ve been trying out the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and that has a similar issue in that the hardware is very impressive but the battery life is compromised for such a full featured device.

It’s all very well people comparing it to the likes of Garmin and Fitbit watches – I’ve even done that myself – but the reality is those devices don’t have anywhere near the same functionality. A good example is Garmin’s VivoActive 4 – this has a 44mm MIP display that is great in sunlight but pixelated and atrocious to look at under other lighting conditions. The display never turns off, yet it has around a week of battery life.

The Garmin Venu, on the other hand, is exactly the same watch but with a smaller 42mm OLED display and this only gets 2 to 3 days of battery life (without AOD, 1-2 days with it always on), even with no voice assistant or the ability to make and receive calls. So it’s a compromise between 1. functionality and 2. battery life and something as full featured as an Apple Watch packs in the former at the expense of the latter.

 

[The_Interloper]

duplicate post, removed

 

[wilberforce]

My S5 does fine on battery, and I don't baby it. (I use AOD, listen to podcasts, take phone calls, do workouts, use maps, etc.)
Sometimes I have found mysterious battery drain on devices like phones, where it cannot get a good bluetooth/wifi/cellular/GPS signal and boosts power trying to make a connection.

I suggest try a process of elimination: try to get the watch to a usage state where the battery DOES last, then gradually add back features.
For example:

delete all non-Apple apps
put it on charger overnight (do not sleep with it on)
turn off wifi and cellular
keep your iPhone close to it continuously (to reduce bluetooth energy)
disable always on display
do no workouts
listen to no music or podcasts
etc.

I realize this is not how you want to use it. But you need to get to a baseline where the battery does last, then you can figure out which app/feature/usage condition is causing issues

 

[BigMcGuire]

My S5 does fine on battery, and I don't baby it.
Sometimes I have found mysterious battery drain on devices like phones, where it cannot get a good bluetooth/wifi/cellular/GPS signal and boosts power trying to make a connection.

I suggest try a process of elimination: try to get the watch to a usage state where the battery DOES last, then gradually add back features.
For example:

delete all non-Apple apps
put it on charger overnight (do not sleep with it on)
turn off wifi and cellular
keep your iPhone close to it continuously (to reduce bluetooth energy)
disable always on display
do no workouts
listen to no music or podcasts
etc.

I realize this is not how you want to use it. But you need to get to a baseline where the battery does last, then you can figure out which app/feature/usage condition is causing issues

I've had to do this a few times over my Apple Watch ownership - doesn't depend on the hardware, it's software based imo. I've even reset my watch several times to get rid of a weird drain. But over the course of 4 years of Apple Watch ownership - MOST of those years have been problem free.

By default I have AOD off, notifications off, and I can easily do 1.5 days without even trying (with workouts) on my S3, S5, and S6 watches. (I sleep with the watches on - AutoSleep).


I'd love to know what apps the OP has on their watch. I only have a few because I mostly use my watch as a fitness tracker/sleep monitor/etc.

 

[Wando64]

Before you do anything else, just unpair the watch from your phone, reset to factory and re-pair it as a new watch.
You can restore from backup if you prefer. It shouldn’t make much difference in relation to your issue.
It can be done in about 30 minutes.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK)

Unpairing your Apple Watch restores it to its factory settings.

support.apple.com

 

[nburwell]

I noticed inconsistency with my S5 battery that irritated me to no end. I thought it might have been to AOD, so I turned that off and didn't notice an improvement. I turned cellular off as well, and that didn't do it either. I did a factory reset and that helped out for a a couple days. Even deleted and re-installed apps on my AW and that didn't help either.

I just resorted to the fact it is what it is from a battery perspective. I did recently upgrade to a Ti S6 and subsequently sold the S5. Battery on my S6 seems to an improvement as I'm putting the watch on a charger with it at 40% rather than it being in the teens percentage wise.

 

[Itinj24]

I noticed inconsistency with my S5 battery that irritated me to no end. I thought it might have been to AOD, so I turned that off and didn't notice an improvement. I turned cellular off as well, and that didn't do it either. I did a factory reset and that helped out for a a couple days. Even deleted and re-installed apps on my AW and that didn't help either.

I just resorted to the fact it is what it is from a battery perspective. I did recently upgrade to a Ti S6 and subsequently sold the S5. Battery on my S6 seems to an improvement as I'm putting the watch on a charger with it at 40% rather than it being in the teens percentage wise.

Same here. S5 SBSS had atrocious battery life. My S6 SBTi is (well, was) phenomenal on battery till about WatchOS 7.5. Now it’s just good.
S5 drained about 8%/hour
S6 (pre 7.5) drained about 3%/hour
S6 (post 7.5) drains about 5%/hour
Everything turned on.

I think there was a bad batch of S5 batteries out there. There were a lot of battery complaints for the S5 on here.

 

[spurbs]

My battery started dying faster and faster. Turns out the Digital Crown was broken (or dirty), so the watch screen never dimmed and the battery died. I didn’t notice until my screen started scrolling on its own!

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The battery on my series 5 has gotten worse in recent months. Some days mine doesn’t make it to the end of the day before going into power saving mode. My series 2 was worn for 3 years with a better battery experience than this. I don’t intend replacing my watch this year as it’s only just coming up to 2 years old. I may contact Apple and ask why the battery is so poor all of a sudden.

 

[PaladinGuy]

The battery on my series 5 has gotten worse in recent months. Some days mine doesn’t make it to the end of the day before going into power saving mode. My series 2 was worn for 3 years with a better battery experience than this. I don’t intend replacing my watch this year as it’s only just coming up to 2 years old. I may contact Apple and ask why the battery is so poor all of a sudden.

Good luck. They don’t seem to care. I have had mine looked at and shown how my series 4 that over a year older has better battery health. They said it was normal.