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iPhone Excessive Battery Drain Apple Watch since iOS 13 Beta 5

boxermansr

boxermansr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 11, 2011
906
681
El Paso, TX
Since updating to Beta 5 (iOS), my Series 4 (on Watch OS 5.3) has been draining battery 1% every 8-10 minutes. I did not have this issue with Beta 4 (iOS). If I check the watch app on my phone and look at general -> usage -- its showing that the watch is pretty much never going to sleep (it shows the two minute amounts at almost the same exact number, or off by a few minutes -- likely because there are periods where I put it into Theater Mode).

I've unpaired and re-paired and no change.

(I posted this in the Beta 5 release thread but figured I'd post here as well for those who may not look at that thread).
 
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I hadn’t given it that much though but now that you mention it, my watch battery drain has been much more pronounced. I did even notice that the watch screen didn’t go to sleep after initially removing it from the charger post updating to B5. I left it sitting on the counter so it was more of a “hmm, that’s odd” but then I just covered it to turn it off manually.

Hopefully Apple will start doing some weekly updates- 2 weeks is a long time to go with this issue, oh well#beta.
 
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Yeah - something is definitely wrong with bluetooth... seems like the iPhone is hitting BT devices or something... lots of heat...

I can't believe the about of big bugs that still remain with this beta... a lot of the same things that just aren't fixed.

iCloud and iMessage are a mess...
 
I don’t think my battery drain is as bad as yours, but I’m definitely noticing decreased life on my watch with this iOS beta build. OTOH, the app fixes alone are work it.
 
boxermansr said:
Since updating to Beta 5 (iOS), my Series 4 (on Watch OS 5.3) has been draining battery 1% every 8-10 minutes. I did not have this issue with Beta 4 (iOS). If I check the watch app on my phone and look at general -> usage -- its showing that the watch is pretty much never going to sleep (it shows the two minute amounts at almost the same exact number, or off by a few minutes -- likely because there are periods where I put it into Theater Mode).

I've unpaired and re-paired and no change.

(I posted this in the Beta 5 release thread but figured I'd post here as well for those who may not look at that thread).
Click to expand...

Yep this is wrecking my battery. Just went from 100% to 5% in about 14-15 hours which is incredibly crappy.
 
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No unusual battery drain (so far) on my S4 since getting ios PB4 (on XR) last night.
OP - may be this is specific to a iphone model?
 
Same here, check my post here.

Basically the watch is always in use if you check the battery usage.
img_8299-jpg.850775


I tried to unpair and re-pair the watch from a backup one hour ago, so it is a bit early to say if things are better, I will post an update later today.
 
No issues on my S4 running watchOS 6 beta 5 and my XS Max running iOS 13 beta 5.

My usage on my watch is 22 mins, with standby of 2h 30mins

Currently sat at 94%

Edit: Just noticed you aren't running the watchOS beta, so my response is pointless really :rolleyes:
 
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MrGimper said:
No issues on my S4 running watchOS 6 beta 5 and my XS Max running iOS 13 beta 5.

My usage on my watch is 22 mins, with standby of 2h 30mins

Currently sat at 94%

Edit: Just noticed you aren't running the watchOS beta, so my response is pointless really :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Actually no, it's interesting to know that the issue isn't here with a different version of watchOS.

Might be something wrong between watchOS 5.3 and the latest iOS beta.
 
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I notice that iOS 13 really wants user to use watchOS beta as their Apple Watch OS when I see lots of mismatch compilations and settings that does not make any sense in watchOS 5.3. To the battery drain issue, I also don’t notice any significant battery drain on my watch. I am also running watchOS 6 beta 5.
 
I ended up going back to iOS 13 Beta 4, and so far so good. Co-worker kept his (also an Xs Max) on Beta 5 (and watch on 5.3) and his watch down to 10% within 5 1/2 hours with nothing more than checking a few texts and looking at the time. Usage and standby both showed within 2 minutes of each other (so it "slept" at some point for 2 minutes). Something in Beta 5 is keeping the watch from sleeping.

I'm not going to try the WatchOS beta again, as there's no way for me to downgrade myself in the event things get worse with the next WatchOS beta, and the last WatchOS beta I tried gave me nothing but problems, so had to send my watch off to be downgraded.
 
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The app fixes alone (mlb at bat, delta airlines) are enough for me to stay on this beta. I figure I can live with the crappy battery life for a couple of weeks. Anyone know a way to disable bluetooth on the watch and force my watch to use cellular/wifi?
 
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IslesFan said:
Anyone know a way to disable bluetooth on the watch and force my watch to use cellular/wifi?
Click to expand...

Wow just checked and there isnt an option to do that. May be you could unpair the watch and use it? Might be the same as disabling BT?
 
I’ve posted about this. I erase my watch and reload from backup. This solves it until the next beta. I’ve doesn’t this every time I update to a new iOS beta.
 
I'm noticing the same thing here. I have 9.5 hours of usage and 10.5 hours of standby. My phone came off the charger about 10.5 hours ago.

At this point I'm not sure if I should hold off for the next beta, or just try out the watch beta. Maybe just getting my watch updated to the beta will solved the issue.
 
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I've been messing with one of my coworkers phone/watch who is still running iOS Beta 5 and Watch OS 5.3 trying to see if I can figure anything out. I thought maybe it was the Walkie Talkie feature (always maybe listening or something) and toggled that off, still having battery drain. The only thing that I've managed to find to *help a little* is to toggle "raise to wake" off in the Watch app on the iPhone, as it seems the watch lights up/wakes up every time you move your arm (since he types quite a bit, the thing seems to be staying on, or lighting up every few seconds that way). I tested with mine (running iOS 13 Beta 4) and if I type for awhile, the watch never lights up like his has been with Beta 5 and 5.3 so I'm thinking something, no idea what, in Beta 5 is preventing the watch from sleeping and/or making it wake/light up with any and every single movement. Turning off raise to wake on his is getting us considerably better battery time, but the usage/standby times are still pretty much the same (1-2 minutes off) so while its not "turning on" or lighting up, it's still not fully "sleeping" if that makes any sense.
 
I went ahead and installed the beta. That seems to have fixed the battery drain. Of course now I have WatchOS bugs (complications are really hosed), but I can live with those.
 
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