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Some Apple Watch Series 5 Owners Seeing Issues With Inconsistent Battery Levels and Random Shutdowns

Strangely enough I just put my 5 on charge as it had flashed up the 10% warning and shut down. I did think it was weird as I thought I only charged it last night, perhaps I did!
 
centauratlas said:
On a related battery note, if you turn off the "always on" display, it improves battery life a lot. I usually keep the always-on display off so it behaves like a S4 and only rarely turn it on. Using it that way improves the battery life over the S4. Battery life is been my main gripe with the watch, but the way I use it, it goes all day and still ends up with 20-30% or so on the S5 vs 10-20% on the old S4.

Not that this is related to the issue in the article except that it is related to the battery, but might help.
Click to expand...

I turned off Always On over the winter when I was normally wearing long sleeve shirts / sweaters / jackets, since I couldn’t see the Watch anyway, without purposely stretching my arm out to get the Watch visible. I did turn it back on as things warmed up, but do remember how much longer the battery life was, so I just turned it back off again.

It’s kind of backwards, as in the summer, I’m awake and wearing my Watch for hours longer each day, when I could use more battery life, compared to the winter when I’m generally up later in the morning and in bed earlier at night.

The raise to wake is so quick, there really isn’t a reason to have the screen on all the time, imho.
 
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whyamihere said:
Exactly my situation with my series 4 for many months now. It would stay at 100% for hours and hours after being charged. Then it would drop to the 50s-60s. And next time I'd look, it would be dead.

Took it to Apple a while back and their test said the battery is fine.

It got to the point where I would have to charge it for at least an hour at least 2-3 times throughout the day to make sure it wouldn't just die on me.

This persisted through numerous updates, and multiple restores.

Based on some similar complaints online, I finally took it off for a week, let it die completely, put it in the freezer for a day, and let it thaw for a day. That was 2 weeks ago, and the battery % has behaved normally ever since. Just hoping it gets me through until the series 6 comes out.
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The freezer? Really? What's the purpose of that?
 
MacRumors said:


Some Apple Watch Series 5 owners have been experiencing battery issues with their devices that cause random shutdowns even when the Apple Watch is reporting high battery levels.

applewatchalwaysondisplay.jpg

An inconsistent reading of actual battery level appears to be at fault, as in most cases, the Apple Watch reports near 100 percent battery levels for most of the day before dropping down to close to 50 percent and then shutting off. Macrumors reader Todd describes the issue:Other users have seen a problem where the Apple Watch shuts down at around 50 percent battery, charges up to 99 percent in a short period of time, and then has problems charging fully to 100 percent.

There are complaints about these battery life issues on the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support Communities, plus iMore wrote about the issue earlier this year. From the Apple Support Communities:Apple Watch Series 5 owners have been complaining about battery life issues since the device was first released in September 2019, and while it doesn't appear to be a widespread issue, there are a good number of people who are experiencing problems.

Complaints have persisted across multiple watchOS updates, and there have been a reports about battery errors after the latest watchOS 6.2.6 and watchOS 6.2.8 updates. Some affected users have been able to solve the problem by getting a replacement watch from Apple, but other techniques, such as resetting the watch, re-pairing, deleting watch faces, and more have not worked.

Given the mixed reports about the battery problems and the length of time that people have been experiencing issues, it's not clear what's going on but it appears that Apple hasn't yet been able to fix the issue.

Article Link: Some Apple Watch Series 5 Owners Seeing Issues With Inconsistent Battery Levels and Random Shutdowns
Click to expand...
I too have this problem on an apple watch series 5 titanium
 
I had this issue with my series 4. It stabilized. Then came back with a vengeance. I had it replaced with Apple care. Haven’t had an issue since. Would have 60% then it would shut off. It would sit in the charger but not charge. It would show 100 percent for hours.
 
Theyayarealivin said:
Just hard reset the watch!
Click to expand...

I had the same thought as this resolved some battery calibration issues on my iPhone some time ago. More details at https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/force-restart-your-apple-watch/ or https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204510. Apple appears to describe it as a "force restart." I suspect a full erase, re-pair to iPhone, and restore might do the same, but it could still be that some settings are carried over from the backup that shouldn't.
 
centauratlas said:
On a related battery note, if you turn off the "always on" display, it improves battery life a lot. I usually keep the always-on display off so it behaves like a S4 and only rarely turn it on. Using it that way improves the battery life over the S4. Battery life is been my main gripe with the watch, but the way I use it, it goes all day and still ends up with 20-30% or so on the S5 vs 10-20% on the old S4.

Not that this is related to the issue in the article except that it is related to the battery, but might help.
Click to expand...
Erm, wasn't that the new feature for the S5?
 
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I have been having massive issues that are accelerating over a few weeks (down to basically watch becoming unusable). this is only fixed by unpairing and repairing the watch. The issue was confirmed with Apple many months ago and no fix yet.

The problem seems to be related to Core Data as far as I can tell from the logs and to the health database on the phone and watch specifically that is progressively consuming large amount of CPU on the watch increasing overtime (seems to be related to the size of that database).

I know at least 2 friends with the same issue - but others seem fine. So it is definitely triggered by something under some conditions - but once appears it seems to be consistent. Resetting watch either as new or from backup doesn't seem to matter.

Sad that Apple seem to be unable or unwilling to fix it since last year. It is likely more widespread that realized as not everyone will report the problem correctly nor Apple support people will route it correctly. But if you look inside the logs - it's just a mess overall in terms of what you see and it is pretty evident it is full of all kinds of issues.
 
I have a series 2. It has always said 100% battery for the first few hours. All my iPhones have done the same to some degree i.e. show 100% for a period when they cannot possibly be 100%
 
whyamihere said:
Wish I knew. Something to do with "resetting" the battery chemistry I guess. I read lots of reports online about people doing it with success. And I was desperate.
Click to expand...
Just be honest. You wanted a cool phone watch.

😁
 
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fernelius said:
I had the same thought as this resolved some battery calibration issues on my iPhone some time ago. More details at https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/force-restart-your-apple-watch/ or https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204510. Apple appears to describe it as a "force restart." I suspect a full erase, re-pair to iPhone, and restore might do the same, but it could still be that some settings are carried over from the backup that shouldn't.
Click to expand...

i did that twice. Solved the problem for a couple days. Apple support even had me remove specific watch faces. Nothing really worked until I got it replaced.
 
goonie4life9 said:
Folks, here's the word from Apple. The Senior Advisor I spoke to stated that he has never heard of battery issues with the Apple Watch. He said that if there was an issue, Apple would know about it before any user did, because Apple talks to over 1 million customers per hour, so the issue would show as a "Known Issue" before it ever affected any Apple Watch. Given this, he said the standard troubleshooting is to remove and re-seat the battery. Once you've done that, you'll need to plug the Watch into iTunes and do a DFU restore. Once you've done that, they'll send you an Apple Diagnostics file. You need to run Diagnostics, with Mail Logging enable to make-sure it isn't an issue with the Exchange server, zip the file, and submit it to Apple. This will then be sent to Engineering and they will get back to you within 48 hours with the official confirmation of a Duplicate Issue.
Click to expand...

You know - I was told the same story by at least 3 different senior advisors over the last 9mo. It is a pre-canned response - Apple will never admit there's an issue at that level - understandably so for liability reasons. Only when things blow out of the barn they will as with all well publicized prior issues. Really an unfortunate culture - regrettably. Probably results in reciprocally poor handling internally as well.

You can easily disprove it by simply simply filing a feedback ticket and eventually see >10 issues label on it - which means it is quite known.
 
Had this problem with my Series 4 on and off for several months now. Mine would shut down while showing 40% battery available and/or show 100% all day before rapidly dropping down to 40% then shutting down. Currently working fine since last update.
 
Hate to break everyone's bubble, but it's been happening since WatchOS 6, not just with series 5 watches. I have a series 2, series 3 LTE, series 4 LTE, but skipped series 5. My series 2 & 3 have no issues. But since WatchOS 6 was released, my series 5 randomly powers off without warning. To the amount that I am mentally aware of how long the series 5 has been on my wrist triggering me to check the battery level. After wearing it to bed, and all morning and well into the afternoon it still sometimes displays 100% battery. But I know it's about to crash so I swap watches.
 
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Has anyone tried calibrating your battery?

www.ifixit.com

Battery Calibration

All newly-installed smart batteries should be calibrated as soon as possible. This helps your phone or laptop get an accurate reading on the battery’s state of charge.
www.ifixit.com www.ifixit.com

I don't have AW5, I have AW4 but it seems like this is worth a shot if you have this issue.
 
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I have a series 4 and it’s like constantly turns off and resets and stays at the Apple logo untill it’s dead
 
I started having this problem with with my S5 with watchOS 6.1.2. My watch sometimes gets stuck at 100%, sometimes doesn't (the charge, turn off, trick seems to stop that), but it always turns off at a certain percent (right now, always at 66%; previously it was 48%). Attaching the charger boots it up, and it says it's at 66%. Use it for a min, and it shuts down again when it hits 66% again. When this first happened, Apple Support had me send my watch in to them in February to research the issue, and they sent me a new one. That new one shipped with 6.1.2, and I left it at 6.1.2 for a few weeks even after 6.1.3 was released. It worked fine. Then I upgraded to 6.1.3 and the issue came back again. I spent a couple weeks with a really good high-level support guy, which ultimately ended up with me putting the 6.2 beta on it, so that I could send them in and they could downgrade it, in effect wiping it entirely including the firmware, from their own devices. They sent it back (same watch) with 6.1.3 and it worked perfectly again. I installed 6.2 myself, and it still worked, so I considered it fixed. I upgraded to 6.2.1, 6.2.5, 6.2.6, no problem, all worked fine. I installed 6.2.6 on June 1, and it WAS fine. But now four days ago - the problem came back again for no discernible reason. I've tried: unpairing/re-pairing; restoring from a backup; setting up as a new watch; completely wiping my iPhone and setting up as new, then pairing the watch; charing to 100%, turning off for 30 mins, charging up again; and probably other things I'm forgetting. I decided not to contact Apple Support this time since they were completely stumped last time (although they were very nice and TRIED to help) and ended up not helping.
 
Is someone from Ford Motors involved in the design?

I had a Ford Pickup Truck that went from a full tank of gas down to a half tank,
then would suddenly run out of gas. 🤣
 
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