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

[nickdalzell1]

I have a Series 5 and battery life is the one thing it does well. I can get 2 days max with AOD on.

What it fails at:

1. ECG never worked for me (inconclusive all the time!)
2. Fall detection too sensitive--thought hand clapping or using a hammer qualified as a fall.
3. Siri randomly stopped taking commands, fixed by resetting but will fail again later
4. Bluetooth/wifi handoff issues. Walk out of bluetooth range, then back, it stays on wifi, never reconnects to Bluetooth, or the opposite, won't connect to wifi without help.

5. Workout detection very hit or miss--the exercise ring fills, but it never starts a workout.

Ended up being such a headache I went back to the Galaxy Watch, which only has one issue-lacking a proper Radio app. I miss asking Siri (when she cooperated) to 'play some 80s music'.

 

[PaladinGuy]

My Series 5 and Series 4 both started off with terrible battery life on OS 7 for the first couple days. Thankfully, I turned them both off and back on, and they seem to be back to normal now. No clue if the power cycling fixed it or if the software settled in. I’m just glad it’s back to normal.

 

[Kellie Brewer]

I have the series 5. It has recently (past week) been shutting off like its out of battery nearly the same time every single day. I have looked at the battery life on it and it shows 50% or higher every time this happens. It won't turn on until I put it on the charger for about 10 minutes and it comes back on like nothing ever happened.

 

[Vonkruel]

I own a series 4 and have in recent weeks been encountering similar problems described here. Mine would shut down consistently at 75% life and need to be on the charging dock in order to boot up. Seems to be a software calibration issue described by some here. FWIW I followed the instructions described here: https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-fix-apple-watch-battery-percentage/ on fixing this battery percentage issue and everything's been working normally for the past few days. Best of luck.

 

[coldshot]

I had this issue and software updates fixed it; however, I have just discovered that this can also happen by choosing the incorrect watch face. I know this sounds strange but when I install the Nike Compact face I get this problem. At least that is what it appears to be, but I am certain I only changed this feature and then the power management issue returned.

 

[Collywobbles]

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.

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

Whilst it feels like one, it isn't an April fool... Now on Version 7.3.3. Suddenly we're getting battery problems again. I've been sitting in a chair for 20 minutes enjoying a hot beverage, to see my battery percentage drop 6%!!! Yesterday, from a 100% start, by 2 pm I had to put it on charge as it was down to 24%!! This is happening with a series 4 and a series 5.

 

[mm4e]

Whilst it feels like one, it isn't an April fool... Now on Version 7.3.3. Suddenly we're getting battery problems again. I've been sitting in a chair for 20 minutes enjoying a hot beverage, to see my battery percentage drop 6%!!! Yesterday, from a 100% start, by 2 pm I had to put it on charge as it was down to 24%!! This is happening with a series 4 and a series 5.

Same here, it's absolute bullsh*t. My Series 5 has been getting 14-16 hours if I'm lucky, was easily getting 24+ before 7.3.3.

 

[Collywobbles]

Same here, it's absolute bullsh*t. My Series 5 has been getting 14-16 hours if I'm lucky, was easily getting 24+ before 7.3.3.

I wear mine overnight (a series 4), charging early evening. It's been using about 4 or 5% overnight and good to go all day. Since the update, overnight wearing has been draining it as much as 25%, meaning I've been having to charge it in the morning too. And yesterday, I didn't get it past the afternoon without requiring a further charge, that's 8 hours.

I'm just stunned this multibillion-dollar organisation is so $#it; it really doesn't matter how good the hardware is when the software constantly lets it down. Big Sur is just riddled with bugs after nearly 12 months; soon they're going to be peddling yet another version like this was some kind of success.

 

[mm4e]

I wear mine overnight (a series 4), charging early evening. It's been using about 4 or 5% overnight and good to go all day. Since the update, overnight wearing has been draining it as much as 25%, meaning I've been having to charge it in the morning too. And yesterday, I didn't get it past the afternoon without requiring a further charge, that's 8 hours.

I'm just stunned this multibillion-dollar organisation is so $#it; it really doesn't matter how good the hardware is when the software constantly lets it down. Big Sur is just riddled with bugs after nearly 12 months; soon they're going to be peddling yet another version like this was some kind of success.

When did you update to 7.3.3? I did on Saturday and my battery life was HORRID for the first 48 hours, but I spoke with Apple Support and they said it can take a few days for it to "adjust," for lack of a better word, to the new OS. Last night I only lost 12% overnight as opposed to 20+ the few nights prior, so I'm hoping things are on the upswing and my battery life will be back to normal soon.

I hear you on how annoying a double-charge day is. Apple Watch has a bad enough battery life in the wearables space already (IMO totally worth the tradeoff, at least when it's functioning properly), having to charge it multiple times during waking hours is ABSURD.

 

[nburwell]

I'm still getting inconsistent battery levels on my S5 even though it's basically a brand new case that I purchased from Best Buy a couple months ago. I first restored from backup and wasn't getting good battery out of it, so wiped it and setup the watch up as new. I can get great battery levels one day, and then the next day, the battery barely makes it through the day. Definitely very frustrating that software updates haven't fixed this.

 

[Collywobbles]

When did you update to 7.3.3? I did on Saturday and my battery life was HORRID for the first 48 hours, but I spoke with Apple Support and they said it can take a few days for it to "adjust," for lack of a better word, to the new OS. Last night I only lost 12% overnight as opposed to 20+ the few nights prior, so I'm hoping things are on the upswing and my battery life will be back to normal soon.

I hear you on how annoying a double-charge day is. Apple Watch has a bad enough battery life in the wearables space already (IMO totally worth the tradeoff, at least when it's functioning properly), having to charge it multiple times during waking hours is ABSURD.

Just asked the wife, it seemed longer but she says it was in the last couple of days. We did the phones and pads at the same time when they went to 14.4.2. Pity, it doesn't tell you the date when you updated on the update tab when it says "your software is up to date". To Apple, consider that a suggestion...

So you're saying Apple is suggesting it's busy doing nothing, because I have exactly zilch on it. Not one app, nada... Bar the Apple apps (that is). I use it to keep time (strangely), monitor activity, heart rate and the occasional bit of home control (via voice) etc.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Has anyone had the bug where the battery is showing 0% yet the watch remains on? I have. Since that happened a few times, (usually when I wake up and get the good morning charge level alert) I no longer sweat at it showing like 28% before bed.

The watch after the alarm is dismissed shows this:

Good Morning

Battery Level 0% (sometimes it's single digits).

Takes a little over an hour to charge to 100% if that happens but oh well. Still works.