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Terrible battery life

4th full day with the S5 44m, and at 12 hour mark I have 17% remaining, with what is more or less light usage, the worst day so far. Didn’t use the watch away from the phone where the cellular turned on, didn’t stream music, didn’t use the GPS, didn’t do workouts— I did talk to my sister for ~10 minutes using the watch as a speaker phone, otherwise just using it for time.

AOD, noise, etc.. all on for today.

Generally my S3 was at ~60% (give or take, potentially more) with similar usage.

Honestly at this point am considering going watchless for this generation... I was hoping this was going to be on par with the S3, but so far it seems to be draining at twice the rate. Really disappointed. We’ll see as the return windows comes up next week.
 
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Been using mine for a few days now. I’m not impressed with the battery life at all.

My wife’s series 4 that is 1 year old had 40% at the end of the day. My series 5 was at 25%. All I did was a 10 minute walk.
 
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I'm on S4 and my watch also drains like hell since WatchOS 6. I think it may be related to the WatchOS. I even unpaired and repaired my watch.
 
Tried my S0 to S5. Both was in airplane mode / Bluetooth and WiFi off. Background noise turned off. AOD = on. No interaction with the clock except having the time. I usually dont use the watch at all except for having the time and in the gym. S5 lost 16% more battery than my 4 year old S0. S5 was 96% at start and S0 was 100%. From 9am to 10pm ;( I think if i used the watch it wouldnt last very long :(


https://twitter.com/x/status/1176597004530671617
 
I have turned off AOD and my S5 is back to normal. Luckily I upgraded not for AOD, but because I was desperate to go Stainless again after an Aluminium S4.

I did find though that if I put on AOD and take off raise to wake the battery life is pretty much the same as without AOD. The raise to wake is very sensitive.

I think it is definitely software and will be fixed OS updates. The problem with no public watch beta is that the beta pool is a lot smaller.
 
My battery life was pretty crappy the first couple of days but it is back to normal now. 6am-10:30 am and I da 27% left with average usage, a 30 minute workout, AOD On and Noise Off. This is for a stainless series 5.

I’m not sure what caused it to improve - in that time frame I installed 13.1, watchos 6.1, turned off the noise feature and changed from the Meridsn watch face. I suspect that the watch face and noise feature were the biggest issues. There is a reason Apple took the new faces out for the latest beta.
 
First AW5 day going here. Loosing 2,5 -3 percent per hour. Some messages. Time. Couple of Siri commands. But, I’ve been testing this AOD off. I have installed 13.1. WOS6.
This 2-4% /hour has been normal for AW4. Tomorrow I’m going to test AOD on.
 
Here are my results with the S5 GPS model after factory reset and iOS13.1 on iPhone.
I gave it two day to reindex (off wrist on charger for 48h).

S5 GPS (EU model):
-AOD on
-Background refresh off (automatically turns on for complications)
-Wifi off
-Decibel meter off
-Watch turned on at 9am to 10pm (13h)
-Battery went from 100% to 64%

S4 GPS (EU model):
-Background refresh off (automatically turns on for complications)
-Wifi off
-Decibel meter off
-Watch turned on at 9am to 10pm (13h)
-Battery went from 100% to 69%

Battery life is slightly worse when compared to the S4, but not significant.
AOD does not kill your battery, it's the background refresh, amount of apps in dock and decibels meter. Also, give it some time to index and keep it pluggen on the charger for at least 24h.
(I don't know if this is a bug or not, but the S5 seems to be stuck at 100% for hours after fully charged and suddenly starts to drop after some usage).
 
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So i did an un-pair and re-pair yesterday and updated to iOS13.1

Yesterday was much better and today is even better still. AOD on, background hardly changed.

Interestingly I'm using it no less but the usage is showing WAY lower than it was before. Its as if something was causing usage killing the battery that has disappeared.

Oh one other change is I'm not using the super bright white face as the wake dial, just everything gets brighter. As its an OLED display (black is effectively off) for me that also means its not using as much each time it wakes. I might revert to put that back on but that also might be having a positive effect.
 
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This was my yesterday with Series 5 on OS6:

Woke up with watch on, tracking sleep overnight, at 5:20, at 92%, placed on charger

Charged to 100% around 5:45, left on charger

Off charger 7:15 am at 100+ % (I believe battery calibration on these is not exact and there is charge beyond 100%, which is why might stay on 100% for a couple hours of wear)

AOD On, Noise Off, Background Refresh Off, Screen time setting 15 seconds per glance, complications as shown below, iPhone XS Max on iOS 13.0. Around 100 notifications. Watch used to get two factor code to unlock my virtual computer for work about 7 times. Checked usage on watch about 5 times and took screen prints throughout the day. 35 minute indoor treadmill run workout with watch also powering bluetooth Plantronics Backbeat Fit earphones.

Below are pics of where I ended up at bedtime. I was awake not quite 14 hours, so I learned ALL hours in use are counted as standby, even when watch clearly in constant use for workout, etc. You can't really add the two and count as good since actual usage double counted as "Standby"

I also learned I don't know how the watch calculates "Usage". There is no way the screen was on for over 5 hours, nor did I have an app running for that time, etc. Any help on how "Usage" is calculated would be appreciated.

Looks like watch might have just made 18 hours in this scenario if you add usage and standby, but as mentioned, "Standby" includes a workout with bluetooth. But my S4 would have been at 40% or more at bedtime.

Untitled by Jeff, on Flickr
Untitled by Jeff, on Flickr
 
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This was my yesterday with Series 5 on OS6:

Woke up with watch on, tracking sleep overnight, at 5:20, at 92%, placed on charger

Charged to 100% around 5:45, left on charger

Off charger 7:15 am at 100+ % (I believe battery calibration on these is not exact and there is charge beyond 100%, which is why might stay on 100% for a couple hours of wear)

AOD On, Noise Off, Background Refresh Off, Screen time setting 15 seconds per glance, complications as shown below, iPhone XS Max on iOS 13.0. Around 100 notifications. Watch used to get two factor code to unlock my virtual computer for work about 7 times. Checked usage on watch about 5 times and took screen prints throughout the day. 35 minute indoor treadmill run workout with watch also powering bluetooth Plantronics Backbeat Fit earphones.

Below are pics of where I ended up at bedtime. I was awake not quite 14 hours, so I learned ALL hours in use are counted as standby, even when watch clearly in constant use for workout, etc. You can't really add the two and count as good since actual usage double counted as "Standby"

I also learned I don't know how the watch calculates "Usage". There is no way the screen was on for over 5 hours, nor did I have an app running for that time, etc. Any help on how "Usage" is calculated would be appreciated.

Looks like watch might have just made 18 hours in this scenario if you add usage and standby, but as mentioned, "Standby" includes a workout with bluetooth. But my S4 would have been at 40% or more at bedtime.

Unt
Untitled by Jeff, on Flickr
 
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Well today is much better after 13.1. S4 LTE off charger at 6am and right now at 8:10am it’s at 90% with one 30 minute workout and the usual notification’s. Background refresh and noise off. Good start so far!
 
Pseudo-Fed said:
This was my yesterday with Series 5 on OS6:

Woke up with watch on, tracking sleep overnight, at 5:20, at 92%, placed on charger

Charged to 100% around 5:45, left on charger

Off charger 7:15 am at 100+ % (I believe battery calibration on these is not exact and there is charge beyond 100%, which is why might stay on 100% for a couple hours of wear)

AOD On, Noise Off, Background Refresh Off, Screen time setting 15 seconds per glance, complications as shown below, iPhone XS Max on iOS 13.0. Around 100 notifications. Watch used to get two factor code to unlock my virtual computer for work about 7 times. Checked usage on watch about 5 times and took screen prints throughout the day. 35 minute indoor treadmill run workout with watch also powering bluetooth Plantronics Backbeat Fit earphones.

Below are pics of where I ended up at bedtime. I was awake not quite 14 hours, so I learned ALL hours in use are counted as standby, even when watch clearly in constant use for workout, etc. You can't really add the two and count as good since actual usage double counted as "Standby"

I also learned I don't know how the watch calculates "Usage". There is no way the screen was on for over 5 hours, nor did I have an app running for that time, etc. Any help on how "Usage" is calculated would be appreciated.

Looks like watch might have just made 18 hours in this scenario if you add usage and standby, but as mentioned, "Standby" includes a workout with bluetooth. But my S4 would have been at 40% or more at bedtime.

Unt
Untitled by Jeff, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Did not know that about standby as far as usage being included in the standby hours. I always thought you had to add both to get actual battery life number.
 
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NBAasDOGG said:
Here are my results with the S5 GPS model after factory reset and iOS13.1 on iPhone.
I gave it two day to reindex (off wrist on charger for 48h).

S5 GPS (EU model):
-AOD on
-Background refresh off (automatically turns on for complications)
-Wifi off
-Decibel meter off
-Watch turned on at 9am to 10pm (13h)
-Battery went from 100% to 64%

S4 GPS (EU model):
-Background refresh off (automatically turns on for complications)
-Wifi off
-Decibel meter off
-Watch turned on at 9am to 10pm (13h)
-Battery went from 100% to 69%

Battery life is slightly worse when compared to the S4, but not significant.
AOD does not kill your battery, it's the background refresh, amount of apps in dock and decibels meter. Also, give it some time to index and keep it pluggen on the charger for at least 24h.
(I don't know if this is a bug or not, but the S5 seems to be stuck at 100% for hours after fully charged and suddenly starts to drop after some usage).
Click to expand...

Used mine from 9am to 10pm. Wifi/bluetooth turned off. Only uses the clock for having the time. Noise was OFF, Background refresh off. Only thing that was on was the AOD.
Ended up with 54% without even touch the clock and my Apple watch S0 ended up on 74%.So pretty bad battery time for not even using the clock at all
 
gymratjudy said:
Did not know that about standby as far as usage being included in the standby hours. I always thought you had to add both to get actual battery life number.
Click to expand...

Seems obvious now since I tracked my total time on watch closely yesterday. Still wondering if Apple is inflating the "Usage" numbers too. In fairness, I don't know how long the remaining 15% would have lasted me and whether it would have discharged slowly or not. Can't stay awake that long with my early work start.
 
Standby beeing the total time after charge was obvious to me from the start, also on S4 from 5.2 on (my first AW). And im also in the dark where they get the Usage numbers from, as they are always much above that which i logged as actually using the watch for either apps, workouts, notifications or general interaction with the watch.

For instance i've picked the watch off charger yesterday evening at about 23:00@100%, put it on my wrist and put it in theater mode (silent, screen off, no waking the screen accidentally).
At 7:10 in the morning i've had 92%, 8:10 standby and 29min usage. Beats me where the usage came from as i sure as hell didnt use the watch in my sleep, i merely checked the time once during the night.

Now at 14:55 the watch is at 64% - AOD on, mic off, background refresh on for just 3 apps, less then 100 notifications, less then 10min of app usage. Not great, not terrible - 3.6 :)
 
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If I leave cellular on and am away from my phone in a low signal area (in other words, in our back yard) the battery drains REALLY fast. If I toggle cellular off, drain is pretty average. So I will just toggle cellular off until I need it.
 
my watch is way better today. took it off the charger at 8am and its 1026 and its at 94%. I did not do anything major except turn off the noise feature. AOD is on.
 
I received my new watch Friday and have also been deeply disappointed. First day, I started it off as a new watch, very minimal apps and almost all notifications turned off. Saturday, I had it off the charger from 3am to about 5pm and it was already at 20%. This has been pretty consistent so I've been monitoring. I may take this back to the store for a replacement if it doesn't improve.
 
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So past 2 days my battery has been pretty good, AOD on, noise off. Wake up 6:40am, put on charger for 2 hours until 08:40. General usage, no GPS, wake up the next morning with it about 24%.

Trying AOD off today, at 16:00 its on 82%
 
yeah you guys werent kidding about the battery life. it's complete a**

im sure an update will fix this though. doesn't seem like a hardware issue
 
Another update on my S4 LTE. Off charger at 6am and now at 12:10pm it's at 75%. So it seems 13.1 along with noise and background refresh off definitely helped. Even reminders works on my watch now.
 
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