The watchOS 10 battery life thread [MERGED]

[MacDaddyPanda]

I have auto launch audio disabled, but Apple Music still shows up on AW? WTF? I'm pretty sure during my commute when I listen to music this is contributing to the excessive battery drain. I was at 100% this morning and now it's 93% when I got to work. On my phone I disabled "Always On" as that seems to have been reenabled with the latest update. That seemed to slightly help with the battery drain there. But my watch still seems to be drastically draining at break neck speed. And I'm thinking there's a bunch of functions broken or not working correctly.

 

[smyrna5]

How long did it take for your Watch until everything was ‘normal’ again? Tomorrow will be a week since updating for me (also SE1).

As reported in my last 2-3 posted above I'd say 3 days for completely back to normal:

- Upgraded to 10.0.1 Saturday morning. Battery life was atrocious for about half a day. I did a restart or two in the afternoon, but did not unpair from my iPhone.
- Almost back to normal by Sunday afternoon
- Completely back to normal Monday going from 7:30 Am till 8:30 PM with 50% left (one morning workout listening to music stored on the phone).

Please remember this phone is only a week or so old, so battery health is still 100%. YMMV if your battery health is lower.

 

[Mercenary]

I want to know that too ... Series 7 here. OTOH , , optimised battery charging has not kicked in since the update .

Taken from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210512

Optimised Battery Charging needs at least 14 days to learn your charging habits, so it won’t engage before then. Also, your iPhone needs to experience at least nine charges of five hours or more in a given location for Optimised Battery Charging to engage.

While it’s for the iPhone I’d imagine the watch is similar.

Make sure significant locations is on and you are letting it charge for five hours or more.

 

[smyrna5]

Taken from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210512

Optimised Battery Charging needs at least 14 days to learn your charging habits, so it won’t engage before then. Also, your iPhone needs to experience at least nine charges of five hours or more in a given location for Optimised Battery Charging to engage.

While it’s for the iPhone I’d imagine the watch is similar.

Make sure significant locations is on and you are letting it charge for five hours or more.

Ive wondered about that. I've only been on 10.0.1 for 4 days now, but did notice my nightly charges go to 100%, even though I have optimized charging turned on.

 

[Yptcn]

Taken from https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210512

Optimised Battery Charging needs at least 14 days to learn your charging habits, so it won’t engage before then. Also, your iPhone needs to experience at least nine charges of five hours or more in a given location for Optimised Battery Charging to engage.

While it’s for the iPhone I’d imagine the watch is similar.

Make sure significant locations is on and you are letting it charge for five hours or more.

I know that for my phone which is new. I was wondering about my watch which isn’t ( Series 7 ) and OBC always worked fine before the Watch OS 10 updates .. Thank you for the link.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

I've been on the updated OS's for both Iphone and Watch for little over a week now. So another 6 days and I should see improvement? Because the watch battery drain is still atrocious.

 

[Mercenary]

I know that for my phone which is new. I was wondering about my watch which isn’t ( Series 7 ) and OBC always worked fine before the Watch OS 10 updates .. Thank you for the link.

Since upgrading iPhone and the watch both stopped optimising the battery charge.

My phone resumed with last nights charge so I expect the watch isn’t far behind.

 

[Yptcn]

Since upgrading iPhone and the watch both stopped optimising the battery charge.

My phone resumed with last nights charge so I expect the watch isn’t far behind.

I happy to learn I’m not alone in this boat ! Thank you 🙏🏻

 

[Major Foster]

As reported in my last 2-3 posted above I'd say 3 days for completely back to normal:

- Upgraded to 10.0.1 Saturday morning. Battery life was atrocious for about half a day. I did a restart or two in the afternoon, but did not unpair from my iPhone.
- Almost back to normal by Sunday afternoon
- Completely back to normal Monday going from 7:30 Am till 8:30 PM with 50% left (one morning workout listening to music stored on the phone).

Please remember this phone is only a week or so old, so battery health is still 100%. YMMV if your battery health is lower.

3 days? Ok, that ship has long sailed for me unfortunately. Tomorrow will be the 7th day of misery…

Overal battery health is indeed lower but starting the day with +-90% for the last years (!!!) to starting the day with +-20% the last week (!!!) is too big of a difference. That is massive.

I think something must be ‘syncing’ constantly that is not meant to be. I see no other explanation. Tonight I try to switch of Bluetooth and see what difference that makes (both phone and watch are already in airplane mode at night).

 

[Yptcn]

Since I turned off Bluetooth on both watch and phone , rebooted both and turned on again it’s been better but not as good as with WatchOS 9.

 

[smyrna5]

I'm not sure how important it is to the good battery life I'm now getting, but I have most location services on my iPhone and watch set to "use only while" app is being used. Some that I dont think need to know where I am like News, I have to set to never, and one that is an insurance tracker that lowers my rate is set to always on. I do know GPS is a battery killer, so you don't want it on any more than necessary.

 

[Mercenary]

Since I turned off Bluetooth on both watch and phone , rebooted both and turned on again it’s been better but not as good as with WatchOS 9.

I’ve turned everything off and am slowly turning them on to see what is draining it. So far? Nothing. Battery is now back to OS 9 levels and the only thing left to turn on is weather location.

But in the process I too disabled Bluetooth (as well as rebooting loads).

 

[jsangil]

Launched 10.1 beta 2 . Installing in my series 5. In 24 hours I will tell you news about battery issue.

 

[rbart]

I’ve turned everything off and am slowly turning them on to see what is draining it. So far? Nothing. Battery is now back to OS 9 levels and the only thing left to turn on is weather location.

But in the process I too disabled Bluetooth (as well as rebooting loads).

Without Bluetooth, you lose connectivity between the iPhone and the watch …
It’s a but extreme !

 

[Major Foster]

It also means that the problem could be both in iOS as in WatchOS right?

 

[rbart]

We are all convinced it’s something wrong with iOS AND watchOS

 

[smyrna5]

Without Bluetooth, you lose connectivity between the iPhone and the watch …
It’s a but extreme !

Agree. I've not turned it off on my SE1 because it is used for having my watch data displayed on my handlebar mounted iPhone when I use the cycling app. I think mercenary is using it to try and figure out which app using it might be draining the battery.

 

[Mercenary]

Agree. I've not turned it off on my SE1 because it is used for having my watch data displayed on my handlebar mounted iPhone when I use the cycling app. I think mercenary is using it to try and figure out which app using it might be draining the battery.

Correct. It was off for a day and battery on phone and watch were excellent. Leading me to believe the two were talking way more than they should.

It’s back on now and battery is relatively normal.

Background all refresh is on. Carrot installed. AOD is on.

The only things left for me to test to try and break it again are different watch faces and weather location services.

 

[Theryesider]

Never worried about my iwatch8 battery previously, now seem to be charging it more often definitely worse sine the update.

 

[judyg951]

Husband and I both have SS 8's. His battery life seems to be fine, but the battery life on my watch is terrible. I have been running out of power all the time. I charge it in the afternoon and it still dies. I tried turning off 'alway on' and that didn't seem to make much difference. I'm very annoyed and frustrated at this point. My watch would make it all the way through the day wihout needing to be charged.

 

[Debauch]

I’m at over two weeks since updating and my battery is still taking a beating. Removing weather widgets and complications helps a little bit still not as good at OS9 levels.

 

[mmacrumor]

I used to get 2 days out of ultra 1 with watch os 9 but with 10 it has gone down to 1.5 days. I take it to gym with no phone so each day it is on cellular for 2 hours at least.
I think the weather app was the culprit. After resetting the location and privacy settings in iPhone, the battery in the watch seems to be improved. Have to test for another 4 days to really know if I am back to getting 2 days out of the ultra

I am back to getting 2 days out of my ultra. Resetting privacy and location setting in iPhone helped.

After 2 days of usage put my watch to charger with 27% charge remaining.

Battery health is 98%. Watch OS 10 beta’s was the culprit. Otherwise the health would still be 100% I guess.

 

[Mercenary]

I am back to getting 2 days out of my ultra. Resetting privacy and location setting in iPhone helped.

After 2 days of usage put my watch to charger with 27% charge remaining.

Battery health is 98%. Watch OS 10 beta’s was the culprit. Otherwise the health would still be 100% I guess.

I second this. Resetting location and privacy is what I think fixed mine.

I tried toggling weather location but no joy. I’ve tried removing widgets and weather and all the tricks but it still drained.

After doing the reset I put all the widgets, apps and faces back in and battery life is back to OS 9 levels.

 

[Debauch]

Can you clarify what you reset for location and privacy? And is that under iPhone settings or the watch settings? Thanks.

 

[judyg951]

My batter is down to 95 after 2.5 hours of just sitting on my computer and cleaning up after the dogs outside. Nothing major. I upgraded the system last week and it's just been awful. I now have chargers in both cars and when I'm driving I put the watch on the charger. I have an 8 SS.
Not happy. Fix this Apple!!!