New Series 5 - Battery drain issue

[DrizzyDrake]

Hi guys,

I recently got a new Watch Series 5 for my birthday, a nice upgrade from my previous Series 2.
However, the only thing I have been having major issues with is the battery life.

The first few days it was alright/good, and I could probably get 1,5 days in before needing to charge.
Then came the last few days and it's been horrible ever since: getting up at 9 AM (100%), wearing it at my desk while listening to music on my iPhone and getting maybe 1h of workout in, and the battery being almost dead by 5 PM.

At the moment I've tried the following:

• Turned Noise off
• Background app refresh off
• GymKit off
• Hard reset watch
• Unpair & re-pair watch

At the moment, the last step seemed to help a bit. Today is the first day since the re-pairing and at the moment the watch has been on for 6h30 and I'm at 50% (still not great to be honest if Apple promises up to 18h with all functionalities on while most of them are turned off for mine). This battery drain again came from me just wearing the watch while at my desk and listening to music on my iPhone.

One strange thing I've noticed is that my Usage time = Standby time (so 6h30 mins at the moment).
So this makes me think something is running in the background but I have no idea what it could be.

Is there anyone who can help me out?
Many thanks!

 

[waw74]

from my experience, it seems the first few days after an upgrade or reinstall seem to use more battery.

not sure why, if

• the watch is doing stuff in the background getting itself organized, and using more battery
• just a reporting "error" while the watch is trying to figure out the battery's calibration and is being conservative in it's estimate until it get it sorted out.
• really no difference compared to a few days later, it's just my personal perception.

if it seems a little better after the re-pair, give it a couple days to sort itself out before passing final judgement.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

from my experience, it seems the first few days after an upgrade or reinstall seem to use more battery.

not sure why, if

• the watch is doing stuff in the background getting itself organized, and using more battery
• just a reporting "error" while the watch is trying to figure out the battery's calibration and is being conservative in it's estimate until it get it sorted out.
• really no difference compared to a few days later, it's just my personal perception.

if it seems a little better after the re-pair, give it a couple days to sort itself out before passing final judgement.

thanks for responding!
Guess I will give it a few more days to see if it recalibrated on its own. The weird thing is that it was quite decent/good the first few days and then suddenly it just totally started draining out of nowhere.

if there is anything you think of that might be running in the background that I might have missed, let me know! Or if anyone else has any suggestions ;-)

 

[Channelsurfer63]

Don't overlook the fact that even with background app refresh turned off, any app on your watch face will still get refreshed.
Always scan for app updates and sometimes a restart of your iphone can help too.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Mine actually exceeds my S3's battery life. Never had any issue with battery on the Series 5. Neither my 3 or 5 get more than a day or two at best, but even with 6 hours of wifi usage with the 'radio' app I still have plenty well into the evening.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

Yeah so I let the battery drain fully yesterday, and same for my iPhone to be sure and so far it seems to have only gotten worse. At the moment I’ve been wearing the watch for about 15’ and already a few % have been lost.

the current watch face I’m using is the one attached (photo is from one of the first days, when the battery was still good haha), but I don’t think that could be what’s causing all the trouble? Also the usage and standby time are still equal...

EDIT: an hour in now and I’ve lost 8% just watching TV and barely touching the watch

 

[mk313]

probably makes sense to start eliminating third party apps to see if one of those is causing a drain. I had a similar issue with the Audible app at one point. Turning it off caused my battery life to go back to normal.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

Thanks for all the tips guys! Just deleted 3rd party apps since I never use them.

After the horrid first hour it’s actually stabilized a bit. 3 hours in now and at 86% still and got a 15 min workout in (only 6% decrease in 2 hours so that’s good)! Usage and standby time are now also not the same anymore and it seems to be only registering actual usage time now, so here’s to hoping it will stay that way!

 

[nickdalzell1]

It took a few weeks before my S3 and S5 stabilized battery life. Now it's like a 1.5% per hour drain on the S3 and .5% per hour on the S5 (assuming AOD off on the 5, and doing nothing else)

Syncing with your iCloud data perhaps?

 

[DrizzyDrake]

Hey guys! quick update and thanks again for all your ideas. It’s been absolutely amazing today, and I think I figured out yesterday what has been the issue until then.

At the moment, after almost 6h of standby time and 1,5h of usage I still around 87% left.

yesterday the battery was great too when I wasn’t at home, but when I came back and started watching YouTube on my Mac, suddenly it started draining again. Then I remembered reading somewhere that in some cases the Mac is “talking” to the watch and once I turned my Mac off the battery stopped draining. I haven’t touched my Mac since, as I still have to figure out how to get everything working properly again but the battery is amazing right with my Mac being shut off 😂 but hope I will soon! If someone has an easy way of resolving the Mac - watch issue, please let me know! hope this helps other people who might notice the same issues.

 

[ukbootlegs]

probably makes sense to start eliminating third party apps to see if one of those is causing a drain. I had a similar issue with the Audible app at one point. Turning it off caused my battery life to go back to normal.

I started having battery issue, draining 40% overnight. I’d installed audible and some podcasts. After seeing this, I uninstalled and battery is back to normal

thx

 

[WillRRRR]

I got my Apple Watch Series 5 for my Birthday 2020. I think my watch is the normal battery life like my parents' Apple Watches which are Series 4, not Series 5. I guess DrizzyDrake's Apple Watch Series 5 is the normal battery life compared to my Apple Watch Series 5.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

I started having battery issue, draining 40% overnight. I’d installed audible and some podcasts. After seeing this, I uninstalled and battery is back to normal

thx

Podcasts was an issue for me too, so I deleted it as well (never used it anyway). At this point, my stats have been way better. Battery is at 53% now after almost 5h of usage (2h workout included) and almost 13h since I started wearing it. Much better!

The downside however is that the second I turn my Mac on, the battery starts draining heavily so I haven’t turned my Mac on for the past 24h. I tried doing the TrustedPeerHelper reset as found here (https://appletoolbox.com/this-iclou...tery-on-all-your-devices-heres-how-to-fix-it/) but it didn’t help. If anyone knows how to solve the Mac - Watch issue, would be much appreciated as well (in addition to all of your help during the past few days of course)!

 

[The Game 161]

I went to bed with 25% left and that’s the best it’s been for weeks. My battery life has been very up and down since i got it.

 

[antbob]

One of the major battery drain factors is repeated radio retransmits when there is interference or spotty connectivity. For example in my case staying in the garage downstairs with Apple Watch on my wrist while iPhone stays upstairs can drain watch battery from full to almost empty in couple of hours with no apps running on the watch so all that drain goes into maintaining connectivity it seems. Hopefully Apple can optimise around that going forward.

Dunno how your Mac plays into that but this connectivity/interference case is definitely worth checking out. I'd try disabling all radios on the watch one by one and seeing if that makes any difference and if you can narrow it down. Note that switching airplane mode on the watch does not switch bluetooth off but you can switch it off in Settings. From there you can try switching off bluetooth and airport wifi radios on your Mac as well as placing all involved devices closer or further apart. Good luck!

 

[PaladinGuy]

I just got a series 5 because I found an amazing deal. Coming from a series 4 (I’ve had every series), I am fairly disappointed in the battery life of the series 5. It might make it through the day, but it ends too close to empty for my sanity. I’ll admit, I get serious battery anxiety, and I hate seeing any device get under 30%.

Honestly, I’m not sure yet if I’m glad I bought it or if I wish I’d just stayed with my 4 until the 6 comes out.

 

[waw74]

One of the major battery drain factors is repeated radio retransmits when there is interference or spotty connectivity. For example in my case staying in the garage downstairs with Apple Watch on my wrist while iPhone stays upstairs can drain watch battery from full to almost empty in couple of hours with no apps running on the watch so all that drain goes into maintaining connectivity it seems. Hopefully Apple can optimise around that going forward.

Dunno how your Mac plays into that but this connectivity/interference case is definitely worth checking out. I'd try disabling all radios on the watch one by one and seeing if that makes any difference and if you can narrow it down. Note that switching airplane mode on the watch does not switch bluetooth off but you can switch it off in Settings. From there you can try switching off bluetooth and airport wifi radios on your Mac as well as placing all involved devices closer or further apart. Good luck!

The watch only powers on the radios it needs in order of power usage.

normally only bluetooth is powered on.
if it can't find the phone on bluetooth, then it turns on wifi.
if it can't find wifi, it will turn on cellular

Weak signals will drain the battery faster.
This was pre-smart phone, but I used to work in a TV studio deep in a building, that had spotty cell coverage, everyone no matter the carrier had one bar in parts of the room, none in others. The phone would see a signal and try to talk back, but wouldn't get a response, and would keep raising it's transmit power. This was in the good old dumb phone days, where 2-3 days of battery life was normal. That room would drain a full phone in 5 hours.
The moral of that story is no signal is better than weak signal.



How's the wifi in your garage?
Try moving your phone further away, Even though it is upstairs, you might be getting just a little bit of signal if it's in the room right over the garage.

 

[DrizzyDrake]

One of the major battery drain factors is repeated radio retransmits when there is interference or spotty connectivity. For example in my case staying in the garage downstairs with Apple Watch on my wrist while iPhone stays upstairs can drain watch battery from full to almost empty in couple of hours with no apps running on the watch so all that drain goes into maintaining connectivity it seems. Hopefully Apple can optimise around that going forward.

Dunno how your Mac plays into that but this connectivity/interference case is definitely worth checking out. I'd try disabling all radios on the watch one by one and seeing if that makes any difference and if you can narrow it down. Note that switching airplane mode on the watch does not switch bluetooth off but you can switch it off in Settings. From there you can try switching off bluetooth and airport wifi radios on your Mac as well as placing all involved devices closer or further apart. Good luck!

Thanks! I will try this for sure to see if that resolves the connectivity between Mac and Watch. I haven't turned my Mac on in 2 days, but the watch has been great. Still 14% left and I wore it yesterday from 8:30 AM - 11 PM and have been wearing it today since 8:15 AM and it's now 4 PM here. So almost 2 fulls days, yay (granted, with raise to wake off, background refresh off, noise off, gymkit off). Will also try and see which ones I can toggle back on to see if and what drains the battery most . Another night of testing coming up, but happy to see that all tips here are paying off! Thanks guys!

I got my Apple Watch Series 5 for my Birthday 2020. I think my watch is the normal battery life like my parents' Apple Watches which are Series 4, not Series 5. I guess DrizzyDrake's Apple Watch Series 5 is the normal battery life compared to my Apple Watch Series 5.

You might get comparable battery life if you try to toggle off the features I did, which I list in this post a little above? But also, I don't have the cellular model so that might also make a difference. Anyway, happy belated birthday!

 

[nickdalzell1]

CDMA phones (even current Verizon 4G LTE devices like my Galaxy S5, or the S8 or even S9 and S10) still do the 'use as much power as possible to maintain a signal even if it makes phone red hot and kills battery' algorithm from back in the StarTAC days...

My iPhone is GSM T-Mobile and whether it's 'no service' or full bars the battery life is excellent. Contrast that to my Verizon-based Galaxy S5, if it so much as drops to 3G or 1x (yes both still exist in rural country) the phone is too hot to comfortably keep in a pocket and the battery life goes from 2-3 days standby to 2-4 HOURS standby.

 

[G.McGilli]

I just got a series 5 because I found an amazing deal. Coming from a series 4 (I’ve had every series), I am fairly disappointed in the battery life of the series 5. It might make it through the day, but it ends too close to empty for my sanity. I’ll admit, I get serious battery anxiety, and I hate seeing any device get under 30%.

Honestly, I’m not sure yet if I’m glad I bought it or if I wish I’d just stayed with my 4 until the 6 comes out.

What do you end the day with on the S4?

 

[DrizzyDrake]

So an update from my side. Turned on my Mac today and so far it doesn't seem to be "communicating" with the Watch anymore. I don't have a good explanation for it. Either the TrustedPeerHelper reset I did worked (only by doing it 2 times and then shutting my Mac off for 2 days), or it just sorted itself out. Hoping it stays that way!

 

[antbob]

not great but ok. cellular also available and the watch has that too. bluetooth to iphone upstairs is still present in spots so it definitely is trying to use that probably without much success most of the time. seems like Apple could really improve how the watch is managing service order dynamically. they fully control the hardware so they should be able to measure those things in real time. they could probably use ML to make predictions based on past measurement too.

How's the wifi in your garage?
Try moving your phone further away, Even though it is upstairs, you might be getting just a little bit of signal if it's in the room right over the garage.

 

[PaladinGuy]

What do you end the day with on the S4?

I typically end with about 40% left. With the 5, I’m more around 20%.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Today just ended the day with 47% (still wearing it) listening to music via the 'Radio' app from 10 this morning to 5:10 this evening. Only break was when I recharged my AirPods in the case for a half hour. All over wifi. Includes messaging via iMessage.

Whatever happens when you buy a new watch it performs horribly/glitches and battery life sucks. My Series 5 had me thinking it was defective for a couple months. It's like it was super slow catching up with data in my iCloud or something. My Apple ID is like 10 years old.

It stabilized more recently. Now I get a couple days if I just leave it in AOD mode doing nothing else, or a day with the usage above.