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Some Apple Watch Series 5 Owners Seeing Issues With Inconsistent Battery Levels and Random Shutdowns
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Series 4 and 5 in our household. Both troubled by these updates; the Series 5 especially. Apple have promised us a replacement but we haven’t received it, and now I can’t see me to get in touch with anybody to complain about this. This is yet another major f*** up by Apple. They can’t expect you to pay the best part of a grand for a device and then they get it into a state where it’s unusable, without recompense.
Updates by these people are just getting worse by the day, the old man must be rolling in his grave. Tim Cooke doesn’t need $125m in shares he needs the sack... Year in year Apple is going down the pan.
Updates by these people are just getting worse by the day, the old man must be rolling in his grave. Tim Cooke doesn’t need $125m in shares he needs the sack... Year in year Apple is going down the pan.
Still happening on my Series 4. Was on a call, using the Watch, and the call just ended. Watch showed 54% battery. Shortly after...completely dead.
Update to my previous post here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ls-and-random-shutdowns.2248016/post-28727523
I called Apple support and they gave me the express replacement option for my AW S4 and they even waived the Apple Care replacement fee, kudos to Apple. Took 2 days to receive my replacement. Good thing I got it replaced because my Apple Care would have expired on September 14th.
I called Apple support and they gave me the express replacement option for my AW S4 and they even waived the Apple Care replacement fee, kudos to Apple. Took 2 days to receive my replacement. Good thing I got it replaced because my Apple Care would have expired on September 14th.
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Thrilled to know I'm not alone here though I've never been more pissed off with an Apple product. Have had a Series 5 since December and started having this issue about a month ago. Had been using a Series 1 for three years prior and never had any battery life problems whatsoever. Before this (and with my Series 1), I could record my walk to and from the office, use Spotify, not-so-covertly text under the table during meetings, log a 1-2hr workout in the evening, track my sleep overnight, and still have 10-20% left by morning.
It first started conking out at precisely 64%, and this past week it's been in the 70s but I haven't been able to keep track of the specific %. When I put it back on the charger, it's a 50/50 split between starting up from zero and from where it left off. The battery gets to 99% within 45 minutes at the most and takes another 20-ish to reach 100%. Once I put it back on, it lingers at 99% for an hour and spends another 4-6 in the 90s, then it's quickly downhill until shutting off in the 60s-70s.
I get it back up to 100% in the morning and really don't use it much during the day now that I'm WFH: check the weather, read texts every so often, record a <30 min walk while running errands a few times a week, do some laps in my 500sf apartment to hit my stand goal. I work out for an hour at 5pm; by then it's in the 80s so I have to give it a quick charge unless I want it to die halfway through the workout (my personal nightmare). Then I give it another charge back up to 99-100% before bed. It's usually in the low 90s when I wake up, but last night was the first time it died overnight so while I'm not sure of the exact battery percentage at time of death, I do know that it shut off after 5.5 hours.
I removed unnecessary apps, turned off Always On and followed all the other standard suggestions for extending battery life, even got a new USB-C charger (directly from Apple) thinking that maybe my USB charger was getting old or something - still no dice. Apple Support performed diagnostics and said it "passed the tests," so I unpaired and erased per their recommendations but the issue persists. I'd really prefer not to have to send it in for repair/replacement since I use it primarily for fitness purposes and am completely insane about tracking activity...
It first started conking out at precisely 64%, and this past week it's been in the 70s but I haven't been able to keep track of the specific %. When I put it back on the charger, it's a 50/50 split between starting up from zero and from where it left off. The battery gets to 99% within 45 minutes at the most and takes another 20-ish to reach 100%. Once I put it back on, it lingers at 99% for an hour and spends another 4-6 in the 90s, then it's quickly downhill until shutting off in the 60s-70s.
I get it back up to 100% in the morning and really don't use it much during the day now that I'm WFH: check the weather, read texts every so often, record a <30 min walk while running errands a few times a week, do some laps in my 500sf apartment to hit my stand goal. I work out for an hour at 5pm; by then it's in the 80s so I have to give it a quick charge unless I want it to die halfway through the workout (my personal nightmare). Then I give it another charge back up to 99-100% before bed. It's usually in the low 90s when I wake up, but last night was the first time it died overnight so while I'm not sure of the exact battery percentage at time of death, I do know that it shut off after 5.5 hours.
I removed unnecessary apps, turned off Always On and followed all the other standard suggestions for extending battery life, even got a new USB-C charger (directly from Apple) thinking that maybe my USB charger was getting old or something - still no dice. Apple Support performed diagnostics and said it "passed the tests," so I unpaired and erased per their recommendations but the issue persists. I'd really prefer not to have to send it in for repair/replacement since I use it primarily for fitness purposes and am completely insane about tracking activity...
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Nope, definitely not alone. My wife had the issue with two different Apple Watch 5s, I had it with one, and she's been hellbent on not buying anything Apple after the bull***t way they handled it:
- first time sent in and they denied watch had an issue, returned five days later, and she had no watch the whole time
- second time sent same watch in, new one returned after first one received, and she had no watch the whole time
- third time second watch was sent in after I called to demand they send a replacement in advance so she wouldn't be without a watch yet again; they didn't so she had to go without for several days
- I called back and complained yet again, and they offered me a "one time courtesy gift" of AirPods, which I accepted and then they didn't send them
- called back one more time to ask where the gift was and was told I turned them down which of course is nuts
- called back one more time to get another rep to escalate since last rep said she would do nothing and would not escalate
- gift finally sent
This is NOT the Apple I'd bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff from for personal and business use since the 1990s. Extremely disappointing, feels like they've turned into IBM (not a compliment by any means).
A replacement is better than those claiming hard resets. And a replacement doesn’t fix it. Deny deny deny. ... and next week you will be able to buy our best watch ever!!!!
Oh splendid, great to hear. I've always had really stellar experiences with Apple CS in the past but your story is extremely disappointing. Did you and your wife finally get your hands on properly working replacements or were they all still junk? And that gift situation - yikes!
I was thinking about going into the store (a big step for me, it'd be my first time setting foot in a "regular" retail store since March) for help but sounds like it might be pointless. Not even sure if it's worth pursuing at this point...I mean, of course I'd prefer to have a fully-functioning one since I spent a good chunk of change on it, not to mention the even larger chunk of change I've spent at Apple over the past decade, but the issue seems so widespread that I don't know if I want to deal with the weeks-long headache of getting a replacement if it's not even going to work as intended. The s****y battery life is manageable with WFH but if/when I'm out and about on a normal basis again, this is going to render my watch useless.
Maybe I should've added that hard resets were also a problem, though candidly the worst issue to us was still having the watch die while indicating 60% plus battery life while out and about with no other device except for that LTE Apple Watch.
Yes, or at least it seems so. 😉
Agree – one of the stupidest episodes I've seen from any company. Talk about something that would make you twice as made as you already are. And to top it all off, the first rep I followed up with was ultra-firm. At the time I asked, "So you're willing to lose a lifelong customer over a gift that Apple committed to sending me after screwing up in the first place?" The answer, "I have no choice."
My take is, if it's feasible and you intend to buy the new model buy it first. Then have this one replaced, and then sell it on eBay. But of course the "no need to waste time" part of me conflicts with the "this is a load of cr*p, why should I have to waste even a dime on this" part!
100% at 6am today. Dead by 2pm. And that’s a replacement.
My wife was down in the town when it happened. Had to go straight on charge when she walked back into the house.
My wife was down in the town when it happened. Had to go straight on charge when she walked back into the house.
Yep, that's pretty much it right there in a nutshell. Every bit as bad as the keyboard issues. Sorta pathetic.
Temporary fix is to charge to 100% and the and then turn the watch off for at least 30 minutes off the charger. This somehow recalibrates the battery. It definitely isn’t a permanent fix because I’ve had to do it about every 3 weeks, just did it yesterday.
I was given the same BS runaround by Apple that it’s fine and I even had it sent in for testing, was told it’s 100% fine even though it also somehow came back with a software update rolled back. This is definitely not the same Apple that cared about helping customers have positive experiences with their products.
I was given the same BS runaround by Apple that it’s fine and I even had it sent in for testing, was told it’s 100% fine even though it also somehow came back with a software update rolled back. This is definitely not the same Apple that cared about helping customers have positive experiences with their products.
I confess i ever had any keyboard problems. But that’s mechanics, this is different.
This is all about software quality issues and the lack of them.
This is all about software quality issues and the lack of them.
Are you sure it was the same watch, i don’t believe even they can roll back firmware upgrades on watches.
Have you noticed on the key notes they don’t quote customer satisfaction any more...
Probably because it has to be plummeting...
What does anybody reckon on their current ability to succeed on a platform shift, like they did when the old man was alive?
Probably because it has to be plummeting...
What does anybody reckon on their current ability to succeed on a platform shift, like they did when the old man was alive?
Unless they are reassigning the serial numbers to the replacements now. I literally got the email it was received by the service center and an email that it was back in the mail to me within 15 minutes of each other. Came back with the exact same battery issue. Only found the “fix” a week later on reddit. All of this was after 5 separate attempts to get them to help me over chat and over the phone. I’ve been remaining pretty calm because of the current health crisis and trying not to make a big deal out of this but it’s hands down the worst experience I’ve ever had with Apple and one of the worst customer service experiences I can ever recall having. Being told repeatedly that my own observations are wrong or not accurate is a hell of a way to get me to buy another Apple product.
Strange update...my watch appears to be working normally again. Didn't attempt any other fixes (either suggested in here or by Apple), it just suddenly went back to normal late Wednesday evening. Battery's draining as expected, no more turbo mode charging, haven't tried to see how low it gets before dying but it's stayed on in the 20s. Too soon to know if it's a permanent change or yet another fluke, but mysterious either way!
tried this on a series 4 and 5 and it does appear to have worked at the moment.
next week will be a telling time if they release the next version..
who's up for being the 'lab rat'?
next week will be a telling time if they release the next version..
who's up for being the 'lab rat'?
I just started having trouble with my watch battery over last weekend when my iPhone X updated the software to 13.7. It only lasts about 9 hours and used to last 16-18 no problem. I have done a hard reset, turned off app refresh(although it was fine before), I have unpaired, reset and re-paired twice - no help at all - any suggestions??
iOS 14 is out along with watchOS 7. My advice is... take the plunge. We have. The worst that can happen is you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. Other than that, it’s charge to 100% and turn off for 20 minutes or so. And you have to turn it off. On a series 4 that worked. On a series 5 that worked for a bit, so you’ll probably have to repeat it at some point.
The only thing that worked for me was to turn the watch all the way off and just leave it off for an hour or so. That did the trick and seems to have worked for many others on an Apple forums thread. Also - updating the OS has now helped lots of others as mentioned! Good luckN