The watchOS 10 battery life thread [MERGED]

[xDKP]

I can’t believe this thread is still going. There’s obviously a battery drain issue that seems to be ignored by Apple. I posted several times in here about my issues and attempts to get battery life back to OS9 level. Nothing ever worked. I finally gave up and, out of frustration, bought a 51mm Gen 2 Garmin Epix Pro. Ten day battery life with everything turned on. 20+ days if I kill OAD. Ridiculous battery life. OS is not as polished as Apple’s but the metrics and insights it gives are leaps better that Apple’s.

Anyway, not hating. Different strokes. I still have the Ultra … in its native habitat on the charger.

Hopefully Apple fixes the battery issues though.

Yeah this really feels like an ignored problem - and "not widespread at all" I think the forums here counter that. I also think the majority of people doesn't complain on an online forum if the battery gets worse with 20-30% - but that doesn't make it acceptable at all.

Even if it's just 5% of the userbase getting major battery depletion by WatchOS 10, it's still an issue affecting millions of users of various models - and for my Ultra for example it's about 30% worse than WatchOS 9 - It's not a two day watch any more with an hour run per day.

Honestly first time I have been looking at Garmins - just not quite ready 😁

It's because these battery issues are not widespread at all ...
It's some very specific situations that cause the problem.
For the immense majority of people, there are no battery issues with watchOS10.

 

[rbart]

Everyone notice a 30% battery regression.
You are right, it’s not acceptable …
But most people don’t have such problem.

 

[BillGates1969]

I have a U2 & a S7.

I had issues with the beta on my S7 (I had an U1 also at the time but no issues). When watchOS 10 came out I just set up the s7 as new and I was back to 'normal' - about 4%/hr on 'standby' a touch more with a workout. Probably about 19-20 hours on a S7.

Yesterday I put on my S7 and it went from 100% -> 10% in 3 hours. I did a hard reset and then soft reset it, and still it was eating battery. I hadn't installed ANY new apps etc.

This morning I unpaired and repaired from backup and now back to normal. It is amazing how a re-pair can fix stuck syncing etc. Only PIA was Apple Pay cards.

 

[ResolutionNZ]

I was forced to upgrade my warranty replacement watch to watchOS 10.2 because it wouldn't sync music or navigate music on my new (refurbished) iPhone 13 mini (still under manufacturer warranty). No problems with this update so I guess it was a one-off. Glad it happened while my old watch was under warranty.

 

[PeytonT123]

I have a Series 8 I got a little over a year ago. I just ran a marathon the other day, did not even take my watch off the charger until I was about to walk out the door, did it in under 3 hours (while listening to music)....as soon as I finished, got a low battery alert that there was less than 8% remaining. Absurd.

Are Series 9 watches having this issue, or is it just all the older ones?

 

[Howard2k]

I have a Series 8 I got a little over a year ago. I just ran a marathon the other day, did not even take my watch off the charger until I was about to walk out the door, did it in under 3 hours (while listening to music)....as soon as I finished, got a low battery alert that there was less than 8% remaining. Absurd.

Are Series 9 watches having this issue, or is it just all the older ones?

Streaming music over cell? Over BT? Or listening to downloaded content? Those factors have a significant impact on battery life.

 

[PeytonT123]

Streaming music over cell? Over BT? Or listening to downloaded content? Those factors have a significant impact on battery life.

Bluetooth, all pre-downloaded to my watch (my watch doesn't have cellular).

I also ran a marathon a year ago, about a month after getting my watch, and the battery life was nowhere close to being that low when I finished.

 

[AaronParan]

Turn off the useless walkie talkie feature. took my battery life from 6 hours to 12. it uses multicast, which drains the battery.

 

[spartan1967]

Yeah this really feels like an ignored problem - and "not widespread at all" I think the forums here counter that. I also think the majority of people doesn't complain on an online forum if the battery gets worse with 20-30% - but that doesn't make it acceptable at all.

Even if it's just 5% of the userbase getting major battery depletion by WatchOS 10, it's still an issue affecting millions of users of various models - and for my Ultra for example it's about 30% worse than WatchOS 9 - It's not a two day watch any more with an hour run per day.

Honestly first time I have been looking at Garmins - just not quite ready 😁

Well said. And Apple has the gall to send me buzzing reminders sometimes 2-3 times a day on my S7 to update to WatchOS 10. Hell no!

 

[moldy lunchbox]

Turning off the weather complications seemed to do the trick for me. My new warranty replacement S7 w/ a 100% batt capacity was only lasting 6 hours from a full charge to dead.

Now it’s been 12 hours and I’m at 51% battery left. On pace to break the ”upto 18 hours” that Apple claims.

 

[rvalemann]

Did anyone solved his problems by installing 10.3? Or do you have the same problems?
TIA

 

[NME42]

I have the feeling watchOS 10.3 improved battery life of my Ultra 2 a little bit. It was excellent before, now even better. Charged to 100% yesterday at 3pm. Now at 6am I have 90% left.

 

[rbart]

No visible change for mine.
Excellent battery life on my awu2 like with previous releases
Same for my wife and my son (s7 and ultra 1)

 

[Fred de France]

Good morning !
I remind you of what I said here in October: deactivate "Daylight exposure time" in Privacy (Watch application) and if the option was active, you will notice an improvement in autonomy !
After deactivating this option, I found almost the same autonomy offered by watchOS 9.

 

[rvalemann]

I remind you of what I said here in October: deactivate "Daylight exposure time"

AW5 here.

 

[trumptman]

Apple Watch Series 6 and so far battery life seems improved from 10.2 and much, much improved from 10.0 and 10.1.

I got 24 hrs with no GPS exercise yesterday on my watch with 84% battery health. Feels similar today.

 

[inkhorn]

No idea what could be causing this, but it only begun after I updated to 10.3.
Fully charged this morning, and dead 7 hours later. Battery health is at 93% currently.

 

[rvalemann]

For me the situation is like with 10.2. My AW5 looses an acceptable amount of energy, but more than with watchOS 9. But look at this dramatic loss when using a timer (with no complication on the watch face)!

 

[usmaak]

No idea what could be causing this, but it only begun after I updated to 10.3.
Fully charged this morning, and dead 7 hours later. Battery health is at 93% currently.
View attachment 2341053

Unrelated to 10.3 (I'm still on 10.0.2). A couple of weeks ago my battery started tanking like this and I rebooted the watch and phone and it went back to normal. Might work for you if you haven't already tried it.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Are you using a third party charger/cable? I think there were some issues with Belkin device recently, and perhaps others.

You have to enable charging reminders, in the sleep section of the Apple Watch app.

It’s very useful.

 

[makdeniss]

For me the situation is like with 10.2. My AW5 looses an acceptable amount of energy, but more than with watchOS 9. But look at this dramatic loss when using a timer (with no complication on the watch face)!

View attachment 2341106

I am heavily using timers throughout the day and I must admit that after upgrading to v10 I need to charge in the middle of the day. Otherwise there is not enough charge to do some sports in the evening. The battery just dies closer to 8-9 pm :/

 

[iHorseHead]

I've noticed the same on my Apple Watch SE. Battery runs out like crazy.

 

[accidentaltexan]

Series 4. With 10.3, at 66% 2.5 hours after a full charge. Didn’t have such drain previously; usage habits unchanged.

 

[inkhorn]

Opened Feedback Assistant on my Mac and logged FB13562012 along with a Watch sysdiagnose file.

 

[Howard2k]

Opened Feedback Assistant on my Mac and logged FB13562012 along with a Watch sysdiagnose file.

Excellent. Apple wont be super inclined to fix these issues if poeple don’t report theM.