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

DotCom2

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 22, 2009
6,403
5,957
My brand new AW series 3 SS 38mm LTE loses a lot of battery overnight if I leave it just sitting.
For instance, last night I just laid it on my bedside table and not charging. It was at 95%.
This morning it's at 37% with no use at all.
Is this normal?
 
My brand new AW series 3 SS 38mm LTE loses a lot of battery overnight if I leave it just sitting.
For instance, last night I just laid it on my bedside table and not charging. It was at 95%.
This morning it's at 37% with no use at all.
Is this normal?

That is not normal at all especially if its not being worn. Do you have passcode enabled? Did you have it paired with bluetooth headphones that happened to be left on? Was your iPhone on or off?
 
You missed one important question: did you leave any apps running like Music?

Dave

Well if there is no bluetooth headphones/speakers connected to it, music would not be playing as it doesn't play through the built in speaker at all, which was why I asked about Bluetooth
 
My brand new AW series 3 SS 38mm LTE loses a lot of battery overnight if I leave it just sitting.
For instance, last night I just laid it on my bedside table and not charging. It was at 95%.
This morning it's at 37% with no use at all.
Is this normal?

Was LTE turned on? If so and reception is not so good that would eat the battery for sure.
 
That is not normal at all especially if its not being worn. Do you have passcode enabled? Did you have it paired with bluetooth headphones that happened to be left on? Was your iPhone on or off?
Yes I have password enabled. No headphones left on. My phone was on all the time.
[doublepost=1509689070][/doublepost]
You missed one important question: did you leave any apps running like Music?

Dave
Nope
[doublepost=1509689207][/doublepost]
Was LTE turned on? If so and reception is not so good that would eat the battery for sure.
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘was lte left on’. Are you supposed to turn it off and on at will and if so how? In any event it was in a WiFi location the whole time.
[doublepost=1509689293][/doublepost]So is there something wrong with this Watch?
[doublepost=1509689772][/doublepost]I rebooted the watch and just let it sit unworn for 9 hours and it lost 27% in nine hours.
 
Try turning off LTE or better yet, put your watch on the charger while sleeping.
If I put the watch on the charger I won't be able to find out if there is a problem with the battery and/or a defective watch will I? I need to test it. I will wear it out and about today and see how it goes.
 
How much battery does it use when you're wearing it? If it loses 27% in 9 hours of non-use, you're never gonna make it through a whole day while you're wearing it.

Here's a data point for you. I have an S2, so it's not directly comparable. I put it on in the morning and take it off just before I fall asleep. I'll have it on for upwards of 18 hours a day. Typically, I'll have about 45-55% battery left. I can't imagine that the S3 would be that much worse than an S2. Apple typically increases performance while keeping the same battery performance with each iteration of a product.

I think you have something going on.
 
How much battery does it use when you're wearing it? If it loses 27% in 9 hours of non-use, you're never gonna make it through a whole day while you're wearing it.

Here's a data point for you. I have an S2, so it's not directly comparable. I put it on in the morning and take it off just before I fall asleep. I'll have it on for upwards of 18 hours a day. Typically, I'll have about 45-55% battery left. I can't imagine that the S3 would be that much worse than an S2. Apple typically increases performance while keeping the same battery performance with each iteration of a product.

I think you have something going on.
Thank you for your reply.
I have just been under wifi since I got it just recently. Today I will go out and about starting at 100% and see what happens. The other night it was at 95% when I went to bed and forgot to put it on the charger because, well, it was at 95% so I didn't really bother. I woke up 8 hours later only to see it was at 37%!!! I was shocked. So then I ran another test after I charged it back to 100% and rebooted and just let it sit unworn for 9 hours to see what it would do. It went from 100% to 73%. 27% down in 9 hours with no use other than looked at the battery every couple hours. I had rebooted it so nothing was running in the background and it was on Wifi the whole time. The indicator for LTE was also on but I'm sure it wasn't connected to lte since I was home on wifi.
So I may have to take this up with Apple I guess since this doesn't seem to be normal from what you guys are saying. So sad. I waited so long for it to be delivered and now this.:(
 
Interestingly, similar thing happened to me last night. Rarely go through more than 30% if battery on my S3 LTE during the day. Fell off the charging puck last night, and completely discharged. Recharged, and after 2.5 hours of use today, went down 1%. Odd.
 
Interestingly, similar thing happened to me last night. Rarely go through more than 30% if battery on my S3 LTE during the day. Fell off the charging puck last night, and completely discharged. Recharged, and after 2.5 hours of use today, went down 1%. Odd.
That IS odd!
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I rarely use Facebook and don’t have it installed on my watch, so that may not be it. I’m thinking it was the proximity to the charging puck that may have done it. About 1 inch away. With my S2, left it off the charger many nights, and would never lose much charge. I’ve never actually run down any of my Apple Watches this low before, under any use case. Weird. I may just leave it off the charger tonight, but away from it, to see what happens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DotCom2
I have a 42 LTe and overnight it will go from 100% to about 97%. Mine is always right next to the charging thingy on the table. What you're reporting really doesn't sound right
 
Well, last night, after fully charging it, I took it off the charger and it lost 4% overnight, so back to normal! Not sure what happened the other evening, but 4% or so is the amount of overnight drain I'd expect.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ftaok
Well, last night, after fully charging it, I took it off the charger and it lost 4% overnight, so back to normal! Not sure what happened the other evening, but 4% or so is the amount of overnight drain I'd expect.
When I have strange battery issues on my S2, I go and check the battery status from the Watch app on the iPhone. Next time you have issues, go to Usage and check to see the Usage vs. Standby times since last full charge. If they're equal or close to equal, then something is keeping the AW from going to standby. If you're seeing this overnight, the usage time should be a few minutes while the standby would be around 8 hours or so. If you started from an already used battery, just take note of the times before you go to sleep and check the times when you wake up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DotCom2
When I have strange battery issues on my S2, I go and check the battery status from the Watch app on the iPhone. Next time you have issues, go to Usage and check to see the Usage vs. Standby times since last full charge. If they're equal or close to equal, then something is keeping the AW from going to standby. If you're seeing this overnight, the usage time should be a few minutes while the standby would be around 8 hours or so. If you started from an already used battery, just take note of the times before you go to sleep and check the times when you wake up.

Thanks. Great tip. Never used to pay attention to usage generally, but on my iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 11.1, the WSJ app eats cellular data like crazy, so I’ve been monitoring it and trying different things to reduce data usage.
 
When I have strange battery issues on my S2, I go and check the battery status from the Watch app on the iPhone. Next time you have issues, go to Usage and check to see the Usage vs. Standby times since last full charge. If they're equal or close to equal, then something is keeping the AW from going to standby. If you're seeing this overnight, the usage time should be a few minutes while the standby would be around 8 hours or so. If you started from an already used battery, just take note of the times before you go to sleep and check the times when you wake up.
I'm definitely going to do this tonight.
[doublepost=1509899416][/doublepost]
Thank you for your reply.
I have just been under wifi since I got it just recently. Today I will go out and about starting at 100% and see what happens. The other night it was at 95% when I went to bed and forgot to put it on the charger because, well, it was at 95% so I didn't really bother. I woke up 8 hours later only to see it was at 37%!!! I was shocked. So then I ran another test after I charged it back to 100% and rebooted and just let it sit unworn for 9 hours to see what it would do. It went from 100% to 73%. 27% down in 9 hours with no use other than looked at the battery every couple hours. I had rebooted it so nothing was running in the background and it was on Wifi the whole time. The indicator for LTE was also on but I'm sure it wasn't connected to lte since I was home on wifi.
So I may have to take this up with Apple I guess since this doesn't seem to be normal from what you guys are saying. So sad. I waited so long for it to be delivered and now this.:(
Well I said I was going to test Friday, but I received my iPhone X and there was a lot going on and unpairing, re-pairing etc. etc. etc. so I put off any more testing until Saturday. Saturday I left with watch on and fully charged at about 11:30 a.m. Wore it all day until I took it off at 9:10 p.m. and it went from 100% to 72% with about 3 dozen texts, checking time etc. No phone calls slight app use. Just normal stuff, so I was OK with that. Took the watch off at 9:10 p.m., laid it next to the charger and left it overnight at 72%. This morning At 8:00 a.m. (11 hours later) , it was at 59%. It dropped 13% off the charger overnight. So there is still a problem. Tonight I am going to do the same only lay the watch down far away from the charger to see if that makes any difference. Someone suggested to me that it might be a problem with it just sitting off the charger. In that if it's on the charger, well that is an expected function and if it's on your wrist, that is also an expected function. BUT if it's just sitting it may be using battery trying to detect either wrist or charger??? Another thing is if it's sitting right next to the charger trying to detect that because it's so close??? Will try a test with it being far away from the charger tonight. Also, check the usage as suggested above.
 
I use mine just mainly for notifications everyday and end the day on about 80%. Does anybody reckon I could get a whole day/night/day out of it? (would love to track my sleep). Sorry if this is not the place to be asking this question!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.