Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Watch OS 4.2 battery drain?

S0 watch here. After 4.2 update my battery life is significantly worse. It's been a few weeks and hasn't gotten better. My normal routine was watch off the charger at around 7AM and back on the charger around 10:30PM with about 40% life remaining. Now, it's usually gone to power reserve by 8-9PM. I'm also working out less due to some sickness so it's doing less as well.

I'll try to un-pair it tonight to see if that helps.
 
kfordham281 said:
S0 watch here. After 4.2 update my battery life is significantly worse. It's been a few weeks and hasn't gotten better. My normal routine was watch off the charger at around 7AM and back on the charger around 10:30PM with about 40% life remaining. Now, it's usually gone to power reserve by 8-9PM. I'm also working out less due to some sickness so it's doing less as well.

I'll try to un-pair it tonight to see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Normal with os 4.0 update. Nothing you can do.
 
kfordham281 said:
S0 watch here. After 4.2 update my battery life is significantly worse. It's been a few weeks and hasn't gotten better. My normal routine was watch off the charger at around 7AM and back on the charger around 10:30PM with about 40% life remaining. Now, it's usually gone to power reserve by 8-9PM. I'm also working out less due to some sickness so it's doing less as well.

I'll try to un-pair it tonight to see if that helps.
Click to expand...

Maybe try to turn off detect fitness equipment under Workout in Apple WAtch App.
 
I've been off the charger for 17 hours, and with an hour of exercise during the day I hit 200% of my 560 calorie goal (in a day that's left me barely able to move by bedtime), and I'm at 44% on my series 3 LTE (on 4.2).

Usually I don't have such a crazy day and on Xmas day, after 15-16 hours, I was at 70%. This is the most battery drain I've had since I got the watch, and it's still not that bad.
 
sdz said:
Who cares about the performance of your new watch? Completely irrelevant.
Click to expand...

Why? I thought it would be helpful to have something to use for comparison to the drain numbers I posted from Dec 12th and 13th (when I went from 4.1 to 4.2) showing that somedays you might get more drain than usual, even after it's been lasting a lot longer for a while.
 
HeadphoneAddict said:
Why? I thought it would be helpful to have something to use for comparison to the drain numbers I posted from Dec 12th and 13th (when I went from 4.1 to 4.2) showing that somedays you might get more drain than usual, even after it's been lasting a lot longer for a while.
Click to expand...

I mean I can watch / read 10000 paid and unpaid reviews for the new apple stuff.

There are many users that have real problems with the apple watch (meaning: it does not last longer than 12h etc).
So I get a bit angry reading success stories of the newest apple s***.
 
sdz said:
Who cares about the performance of your new watch? Completely irrelevant.
Click to expand...

So after going back through this thread and reading the first three pages of people posting with new AW's, reporting on 4.2 battery drain or not, and you didn't tear into them for posting.

So why are your panties in such a wad?
 
sdz said:
I mean I can watch / read 10000 paid and unpaid reviews for the new apple stuff.

There are many users that have real problems with the apple watch (meaning: it does not last longer than 12h etc).
So I get a bit angry reading success stories of the newest apple s***.
Click to expand...

When you go on the forums and people only complain, then you think EVERYONE has the same problem. I like to be able to get a sense of how many people are having success.

I read all the failures and I'm terrified to update things, when in fact 95% of people might have no problem and I'm only seeing the 5%. I don't like being anxious and worried by not seeing the success stories, and I'm sure my posts help others like me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nell and farleysmaster
kfordham281 said:
S0 watch here. After 4.2 update my battery life is significantly worse. It's been a few weeks and hasn't gotten better. My normal routine was watch off the charger at around 7AM and back on the charger around 10:30PM with about 40% life remaining. Now, it's usually gone to power reserve by 8-9PM. I'm also working out less due to some sickness so it's doing less as well.

I'll try to un-pair it tonight to see if that helps.
Click to expand...

I've tried un-pairing, re-pairing, erasing and starting as new on my S0. Nothing is working.

I have almost the exact same schedule as you including a workout and my watch is on life support around 6 pm. I've even picked up a used fitbit charge 2 in the meantime to handle my fitness tracking until I can figure out what to do with my S0.

If this is a battery issue i'm more than willing to pay the $79 battery replacement fee. At this point the most attractive feature of the newer watches is battery life lol.
 
Brazzan said:
I'm getting the same problem on my S0; running out of power early evening. What's odd is that it's intermittent; it happens some days but not others. I'm guessing that it must be a bug that's affecting some apps and not others.

Time to start removing them and then adding them back one at a time. If it takes a day's testing for each app, that may take a while.
Click to expand...
After little testing, I'm starting to conclude that it's connected to the audio control on the watch. The watch has been completely fine on days when the audio controls didn't come up, but has fallen over rapidly when they did.
 
Brazzan said:
After little testing, I'm starting to conclude that it's connected to the audio control on the watch. The watch has been completely fine on days when the audio controls didn't come up, but has fallen over rapidly when they did.
Click to expand...

Really? That’s too bad.

So turn off auto launch of audio apps?
 
I mentioned previously that some apps in your watch dock will run all the time and suck up memory. And Find My Friends is another one.
 
Brazzan said:
That's my theory, based on what I've tested so far, but I reserve the right to change my mind as more evidence comes in!
Click to expand...
Hmmm... it's also happened when I left Carrot Weather running in the background. Pt looks like HeadphoneAddict's theory may be right - it's some background apps that cause it. Maybe ones that involved talking to the phone all the time?
 
I've noticed whenever there are battery issues on my watch or phone when I check the standby and usage numbers, the usage is usually way too high. For example 4 hours standby and 3 hours 15 minutes usage.

When I try a step to fix the battery problem, I make the change and make sure to fully charge the battery again. Then after leaving the watch idle for 10 minutes you can then check the usage versus standby again. If you see 8 minutes usage and 10 minutes standby, the problem still isn't corrected. If you see 2 minutes usage the problem is most likely fixed. You can quickly fix again by letting the watch go to 99% battery, make your next change like unpairing, make sure to charge back to 100% and wait 10 minutes to check the usage numbers.

This approach has been very helpful in fixing this type of problem as quickly as possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back