I am having serious battery envy. I'm reading all about these people that are getting through entire days with 40-50% left after heavy usage. I am using it moderately, nothing heavy compared to what I have read, and I get home and it's just about drained. I did an experiment last night and fully charged it before I went to bed with do not disturb on. When I woke up I checked the usage and it said that I had 1 hr 22 minutes usage and 5 hrs 36 minutes stand by. What is active and draining my battery?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Watch battery Barely making it through the day
- Thread starter Cjhooper
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well, if you have your watch on your wrist while you are at sleep, even though it is on do not disturb mode, I think it still does check your heart rate so the sensors are still reading. Of course it does that without disturbing you.
Myslef been really happy with battery life. 40% battery left 10pm last evening, after moderate use throught the day and 60min workout. I would check it if I was you, or even send it back to Apple.
Myslef been really happy with battery life. 40% battery left 10pm last evening, after moderate use throught the day and 60min workout. I would check it if I was you, or even send it back to Apple.
Try disconnecting from your phone next time you sleep to see if it's the watch or phone that's draining it?
Are you not keeping it on the charger overnight? What percentage are you starting with in the morning? How many workouts are you doing a day?
Start the day 100% 7:00 am. Each day I only did one work out (outdoor walk) 20 minutes. Maybe 10 texts, 10 email notifications I do use the music remote a bit to start and stop music on my iPhone across the room. A quick phone call to show someone how it worked, A few alarms each day. I don't know maybe that is a lot but I've heard a lot more use. At six o'clock it went into reserve mode.
Sounds like you have a rouge app killing the battery. Does WatchOS have the "battery shame" feature you get with iOS 8? Might help narrow it down.
Try doing a hard reset as well. If that doesn't work maybe try re-pairing the watch with your phone? In 5 hours sitting doing nothing the usage time should be minimal.
For example, in about 9 hours with my phone by my bedside it says usage time is 30 mins from doing background app checks, mail checks, etc. So your watch should be similar. Nearly 1.5 hours use in about 5.5 hours standby when its sitting doing nothing is too high.
Yeah that way less then I have been using it. What are your stats? Go to watch app/general/ usage.
I am at 4 hours nine minutes usage, 17 hours 57 minutes standby, 33% remaining, but I didn't workout today.
This does seem very odd. Every morning when I take my watch off the charger its at 100% battery and there is zero time since last full charge.
If your watch is on the charger it should just top up constantly even if something is using the battery.
If your charging it up before bed then removing it from the charger and not using it, why not just leave it on charge all night.
If your watch is on the charger it should just top up constantly even if something is using the battery.
If your charging it up before bed then removing it from the charger and not using it, why not just leave it on charge all night.
I usually do keep it on the charger and yes it would say zero usage since last charge. I was testing the usage when I knew there would be no usage so I charged it before bed and let it go off the charger at night. During those tests I topped it off in the morning to make it 100% before I went on with my day.
Last edited:
Last night I charged the watch before bed and turned off my phone so it wasn't connected. Woke up 22 minutes usage 6 hrs of stand by 92% battery. Seems pretty normal I would guess the usage would be the watch trying to find a connection. I'm going to top it off right now and hope it's better after doing resets.
Last edited:
Not quite what you're asking, but do you have the brightness maxed?
I took mine down a few notches and it's still perfectly readable and my battery drains WAY slower.
Have you tried doing a hard reset by pressing and holding both the digital crown and the side button until the Apple logo appears?
Mine was having issues draining really fast on the first day, so fast that putting it on the charger had the battery still dropping. Doing a hard rest fixed that. It happened one other time where I took the watch off the charger at 100% and half an hour later it was 94%. Did the hard reset again and it took another hour before it even dropped to 93%. There could be some software issue or rogue app running wild in the background draining it for you. Try the hard reset and see if it improves. I usually end the day with between 40-50%.
Mine was having issues draining really fast on the first day, so fast that putting it on the charger had the battery still dropping. Doing a hard rest fixed that. It happened one other time where I took the watch off the charger at 100% and half an hour later it was 94%. Did the hard reset again and it took another hour before it even dropped to 93%. There could be some software issue or rogue app running wild in the background draining it for you. Try the hard reset and see if it improves. I usually end the day with between 40-50%.
Same as OP. I was wondering if any of you have experience lower battery life on your watch when youre listening to music or podcasts on your iphone (connected to your watch)?
I have the 42mm SG watch and my GF has the 38mm and she gets way more battery life than i do. I ve turn down brightness to the lowest and she has it at mid level. We use the watches very similarly (only getting texts from each other) and so on. The only differences is that I've listening to podcasts on my phone which the apple watch then connects in glances. Im wondering if thats causing lower battery for me. It just very very weird since the 42 is suppose to get better battery but im getting at least 20-30% less battery performance.
I have the 42mm SG watch and my GF has the 38mm and she gets way more battery life than i do. I ve turn down brightness to the lowest and she has it at mid level. We use the watches very similarly (only getting texts from each other) and so on. The only differences is that I've listening to podcasts on my phone which the apple watch then connects in glances. Im wondering if thats causing lower battery for me. It just very very weird since the 42 is suppose to get better battery but im getting at least 20-30% less battery performance.
Last edited:
Hmm....very heavy usage with Calendars, Messages, and Hangout notifications. Couple of phone calls here and there....and excessively watching Mickey tap his foot and showing it off. I had it on all night until 4:00AM this morning. Was at 43%. I threw it on the charger for an hour and it charged up to 93%. I'm blown away by the battery life tbh. Much, much better than expected 
Try the reboot trick. It did wonders after a few times. Lot of background stuff happening. My phone was dying quick too but it worked itself out. I'm on 8.4 b2 now and its great.
Try the reboot trick. It did wonders after a few times. Lot of background stuff happening. My phone was dying quick too but it worked itself out. I'm on 8.4 b2 now and its great.
I try a hard reset. Also check the brightness. I leave mine right at 50%. I also limit notifications to mail and a handful of apps. Also, unless you are specifically tracking exercise, consider not using Activities as that tends to drain the battery faster. I've consistently gotten 12-15 hours use per day on half the battery.
Let your battery drain to zero and shut off then charge back up to 100. I was having terrible battery life did that yesterday today I took it off the charger at 730am now it's almost 11am and it's only at 91 percent. Much better.
I put mine on at 8 this morning. It's now 11 and I'm at 98%. I have yet to drop below 60% except when I completely drained it intentionally and I've been averaging around 70% at the end of each day.
If you haven't figured it out by then, you may want to turn off half of the things it does for a day and see if it improves dramatically. If it does, it is in the group you turned off, then you can whittle it down from there.
My guess is it has to do with the iPhone Watch app, so I'd start with that first, then do what I said above.
My guess is it has to do with the iPhone Watch app, so I'd start with that first, then do what I said above.
wifi
I think if you disconnect from the phone, it will switch to WIFI (Assuming you're in a wifi bubble) and that would use even more power.
I think if you disconnect from the phone, it will switch to WIFI (Assuming you're in a wifi bubble) and that would use even more power.
I ended yesterday with about 68%. It sounds like some 3rd party app may be constantly draining your battery. They need to add a feature in the Watch App on the iPhone that shows the usage percentage from each watch app like they do with the phone so you can see which apps are the culprit.