Well, given that 10.2 beta is under development, there will be, I assume, several iterations of beta before a release candidate is marked.
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The watchOS 10 battery life thread [MERGED]
- Thread starter szilske
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True but this is first time in a really long time I’ve had such a terrible battery leak from a beta on my watch
It is really worrisome. I have contemplated putting my Watch on a charger on most days until this issue is resolved. I once experienced battery health RAPID degradation on my iPhone due to an updated iOS (it wasn't beta; I've never ran beta iOS or watchOS software). I was rather pissed.
The issue is obviously not only a watchOS problem.
It's probably a syncing issue that loops or constantly fails. It can be music, podcast, photos, app data, iCloud items ...
but there is not an easy way to fix it definitely for everyone.
No problem for me in my family (U2, U1 and S7), but I had issues at the beginning with my ex-S5
We can also assume that watchOS10 is a bit more taxing battery, and for people with old watches (S4/ S5) or with poor battery health, it's way more impacting.
It's probably a syncing issue that loops or constantly fails. It can be music, podcast, photos, app data, iCloud items ...
but there is not an easy way to fix it definitely for everyone.
No problem for me in my family (U2, U1 and S7), but I had issues at the beginning with my ex-S5
We can also assume that watchOS10 is a bit more taxing battery, and for people with old watches (S4/ S5) or with poor battery health, it's way more impacting.
On my S8 97% SoH it’s also noticeable worse.
- WatchOS9: 48h up to 55h until 15-30%
- WatchOS10: 36h up to 40h max until 15%
Just added few widgets but the most battery eating are not there as on WatchOS9 and not used - so no background noise analysis, no hand washing reminder, no weather and compass related info…
- WatchOS9: 48h up to 55h until 15-30%
- WatchOS10: 36h up to 40h max until 15%
Just added few widgets but the most battery eating are not there as on WatchOS9 and not used - so no background noise analysis, no hand washing reminder, no weather and compass related info…
Oh wow. How interesting.
Curious to see how Apple responds through their watchOS update.
It would be interesting to see what Apple identifies as the specific causes (regardless of whether they fix it or not).
Followup to this observation. A few days post-10.1 clean install on a Series 7 aluminum, and a clean 17.1 install on an iPhone 12 mini, the Series 7 today, for the first time in several days, now seems to be using battery more "normally," akin to usage pre-10.1.
For the first time since the 10.1 clean install, today while in Theater Mode since this morning, the Series 7 has lost 3% of reserves, and currently is showing 97 percent remaining with normal usage. This includes checking messages, time checks, weather checks, haptic map directions, and countdown timer. No usage of third party apps, and no widgets.
This is much more in line with past experience. And is much different than 48 hours ago, when ~20% of battery was reported depleted in a couple hours while in Theater Mode.
Perhaps it takes a few days for 10.1 to properly calibrate the charge/deplete cycle to know what battery percentage is remaining?
For the first time since the 10.1 clean install, today while in Theater Mode since this morning, the Series 7 has lost 3% of reserves, and currently is showing 97 percent remaining with normal usage. This includes checking messages, time checks, weather checks, haptic map directions, and countdown timer. No usage of third party apps, and no widgets.
This is much more in line with past experience. And is much different than 48 hours ago, when ~20% of battery was reported depleted in a couple hours while in Theater Mode.
Perhaps it takes a few days for 10.1 to properly calibrate the charge/deplete cycle to know what battery percentage is remaining?
Any luck? My issues have not come back since I removed those playlists.
The nice thing is you should be able to tell how fast your watch battery is draining from the settings app on your watch and going to the battery settings. My graph was very steep before I removed those playlists, but drastically changed slope to be flatter afterwards
So I did set up the watch as new again after unpairing it. I did "reinstall" podcast episodes and shows to my Ultra. Using podcasts while I run is a pretty typical thing I do.
So far it seems ok, but I'm also not fully sure yet. I think I'll have a better feeling/sense about this tomorrow or by the day after tomorrow.
Yes, it has gone horrible. I ended up unpairing my Ultra, then setting it up as new. I did that day before yesterday and it seems to have worked, but I'm not fully sure yet. My top concern about all of this is reduction in battery health. I have seen it before, not on my Watch but my iPhone. Some time back (over a 1.5 years ago, I think) a general release version of iOS made it such that my iPhone 12 Pro rapidly depleted battery health from something like 95 to 88 in a matter of weeks. I didn't notice that until I randomly checked one day. It finally stopped after another iOS update but the battery health never returned to what it was like before.
In any case, regarding this current watchOS 10.1, what seems to have worked for some people:
- Remove MobyFox app (or is it MobyFace?). I don't have this app.
- Remove Music playlists. I did that but didn't seem to make a change.
- Set up Watch as new.
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Update:
So it seems that after setting up my Ultra as a new watch, battery usage is back to normal. Currently, my battery percentage is at 94% and it was last charged to 100% at 4.5 hour ago. I haven't used my Watch much though.
I wish there was an option, for when setting up Watch as new (again), that we could have it re-install all the same apps we had before AND have them be placed in the graphical order it was. This wouldn't exactly be a restore from backup (unless that's what it is). I find having to re-order the apps on my Watchface a huge PIA.
Further update:
It's about 7 hours since the battery was charged to 100%. Battery percentage is at 91%. This is a good sign. I think things are back to normal for me. Fingers crossed!
So it seems that after setting up my Ultra as a new watch, battery usage is back to normal. Currently, my battery percentage is at 94% and it was last charged to 100% at 4.5 hour ago. I haven't used my Watch much though.
I wish there was an option, for when setting up Watch as new (again), that we could have it re-install all the same apps we had before AND have them be placed in the graphical order it was. This wouldn't exactly be a restore from backup (unless that's what it is). I find having to re-order the apps on my Watchface a huge PIA.
Further update:
It's about 7 hours since the battery was charged to 100%. Battery percentage is at 91%. This is a good sign. I think things are back to normal for me. Fingers crossed!
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It’s not only the MobyFox app. That’s just one of the more popular ones that is affected. There was some kind of change to how they work in iOS and has nothing to do with the apps themselves.
You guys are doing way too much extra work. Remove your third party apps, and add them back one by one to see if they are affected. You don’t need to remove playlists or reset your watches.
It’s pretty well generally agreed that aside from this very annoying “quirk” that 10.1 improves battery health fairly noticeably.
Gosh, I wouldn't be so certain that the issue has only to do with how iOS is interacting with third-party apps. Some users (or at least one) said after removing music playlists, the battery issue went away.
I have too many apps to remove them one by one to test as a first method. I went ahead to reinstall as a new Watch and then added back in all the apps I have on the Watch. That, so far it seems, may have worked in my case. Of course, if the issue comes back up, I may then try removing all third-party apps and then test one by one to re-add. This process of re-adding one by one takes a lot of time to test, because after adding one app, you have to allow time to monitor the Watch before proceeding to the next app, unless after installing an app it suddenly drops very quickly. It's not as if after adding an app and 10 seconds later you don't see depletion you can add the next one. Testing that rapidly would be incomplete.
So after fighting this for over a month now, followed every suggestion on here including tapping my head and rubbing my belly while standing on one foot, optimistic 10.1 would solve it. But no. So I removed every third party app last evening, installed iOS 17.1 on my phone (because who knows?!), rebooted my S6 watch and charged it to 100%. Put it on, put it in sleep mode, and woke up this morning to…50% battery. 
This is a watch. It shouldn’t require multiple stints on the charger every day.
This is a watch. It shouldn’t require multiple stints on the charger every day.
So after fighting this for over a month now, followed every suggestion on here including tapping my head and rubbing my belly while standing on one foot, optimistic 10.1 would solve it. But no. So I removed every third party app last evening, installed iOS 17.1 on my phone (because who knows?!), rebooted my S6 watch and charged it to 100%. Put it on, put it in sleep mode, and woke up this morning to…50% battery.
This is a watch. It shouldn’t require multiple stints on the charger every day.
Brutal. Did you report it to Apple?
Did you try last resort of setting up watch as new (unpair, then pair without using existing backup)? That might work, hopefully.So after fighting this for over a month now, followed every suggestion on here including tapping my head and rubbing my belly while standing on one foot, optimistic 10.1 would solve it. But no. So I removed every third party app last evening, installed iOS 17.1 on my phone (because who knows?!), rebooted my S6 watch and charged it to 100%. Put it on, put it in sleep mode, and woke up this morning to…50% battery.
This is a watch. It shouldn’t require multiple stints on the charger every day.
After you pair, you have the decision of either uninstalling all third party software or letting the third party software be on the watch. By default, I think the installation installs all available third party software so if you don’t want that, you’ll need to uninstall them individually.
Did you try last resort of setting up watch as new (unpair, the pair without using existing backup)? That might work, hopefully.
Not prepared to take that step yet. Waiting to see if there’s consistent and lasting success with it before I do that.
I see.
In the grand scheme of things, setting up anew is not too painful except reorganizing apps on the watch face of you use the graphical layout and not the list view. At least that’s for me.
Setting an Apple Watch as new is way quicker than an iphone
And it’s way quicker than trying multiple useless tips.
As a first step you can restore a backup after unpairing.
I suggest to unpair, restart your iPhone (hard reset) and pair again.
The culprit is not 3rd party apps, or just watchOS 10, it’s something not working in the sync process between phone and watch
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What I do before i set up as new is to save my 'important' watch faces to files on the iPhone. Also, screenshot the apps on the grid view.
The only PIA to me is adding the cards back to the wallet, but to be fair this as come a long way as a year or so ago each card needed you to call the bank, whereas now a text or just authorise in the app will do.
The only PIA to me is adding the cards back to the wallet, but to be fair this as come a long way as a year or so ago each card needed you to call the bank, whereas now a text or just authorise in the app will do.
I don’t have ANY third party apps (never have) and have the draining problem as soon as I add an offline music playlist. I was able to reverse it by deleting all music from my Watch and THEN restarting both iPhone and Apple Watch.