Really like the Apple Watch. Really hate the battery.

[George Ponder]

I've got a love/hate relationship with my Apple Watch.

I like the activity tracking features, the workouts and having notifications on my wrist. I like being able to respond to messages while on the run and getting Ring camera alerts.

I hate having barely 16 hours of battery life. I start my day at 6am and by 8pm I am getting the battery alert notification (power under 10%).

I've tried just about everything from dimming the screen brightness, turning off the "wrist flip on" feature, turned off the animated screen transitions, turned off all the notifications but the essentials, kept my phone close by as much as possible, picked a light color theme and a few other tips that I don't come to mind right now.

But I cannot seem to get better battery life. I don't think it's associated with an update, although battery life may have gotten worse since a few updates ago.

If the next gen watch actually gets two days of battery life, I'll be quick to jump on board, but if this watch would make it to bedtime before dying I'd be happy with the 4th Gen watch.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I've got a love/hate relationship with my Apple Watch.

I like the activity tracking features, the workouts and having notifications on my wrist. I like being able to respond to messages while on the run and getting Ring camera alerts.

I hate having barely 16 hours of battery life. I start my day at 6am and by 8pm I am getting the battery alert notification (power under 10%).

I've tried just about everything from dimming the screen brightness, turning off the "wrist flip on" feature, turned off the animated screen transitions, turned off all the notifications but the essentials, kept my phone close by as much as possible, picked a light color theme and a few other tips that I don't come to mind right now.

But I cannot seem to get better battery life. I don't think it's associated with an update, although battery life may have gotten worse since a few updates ago.

If the next gen watch actually gets two days of battery life, I'll be quick to jump on board, but if this watch would make it to bedtime before dying I'd be happy with the 4th Gen watch.

What do you have running on your watch? My Series 3 has been off the charger for about 15 hours now and I have 59% battery left. Do you have things actively running GPS? Are you using cellular? Do you spend much time away from your iPhone? There are a number of things that can negatively impact battery life, including some versions of watchOS itself.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Took mine off the charger at 7am and almost 16 hours later still have 52% battery:

Apple Watch series 3, LTE, running 5.3.1.

 

[kazp3r17]

Series 4 os 6 beta been off charger since 7:30 am it's now 11:30 pm. Still have all background app refreshes enabled and etc. With a few phone calls today about a min each and texts replies. Haven't had any trouble with making it through the day here.

 

[Beards]

Certain Apps on the watch eat battery life much quicker; the Workout App being one.
I can lose around 15% battery doing a 30 minute workout and if I go for a hike leaving the Workout App running I can easily drain the battery.... all on a series 4 watch.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Certain Apps on the watch eat battery life much quicker; the Workout App being one.
I can lose around 15% battery doing a 30 minute workout and if I go for a hike leaving the Workout App running I can easily drain the battery.... all on a series 4 watch.

Beta or official Watch OS? You shouldn't be losing that much battery on a 30 minute workout.

 

[Beards]

Beta or official Watch OS? You shouldn't be losing that much battery on a 30 minute workout.

Official 5.3
If I don’t do a workout it will last a minimum 16 hours but the second that Workout App starts running the battery runs away too.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Official 5.3
If I don’t do a workout it will last a minimum 16 hours but the second that Workout App starts running the battery runs away too.

Definitely something else going on. I do 30-45 minute workouts every day at work (walks) and still have plenty of battery left. I have the series 3 with LTE but can't believe the hardware is that different between 3 and 4.

 

[Annie_M]

I agree something must me running on it! I’ve been getting 24-36 hours between charges on my Series 3.

 

[Beards]

Definitely something else going on. I do 30-45 minute workouts every day at work (walks) and still have plenty of battery left. I have the series 3 with LTE but can't believe the hardware is that different between 3 and 4.

What the watch needs is a battery monitor, just like the one on the iPhone. At least you can then find out which App is doing what at certain times of the day.

 

[Spencerdl]

I usually get about 24/36 hours on my AW4 on a good (less active) day and about 18/20 hours on a bad (more active) day.
There is just so many different variables that go into battery drainage per individual per device. We all use our devices differently. If you feel that your Apple Watch drainage is below normal have it checked by Apple.

 

[nikkisharif]

I usually get about 24/36 hours on my AW4 on a good (less active) day and about 18/20 hours on a bad (more active) day.
There is just so many different variables that go into battery drainage per individual per device. We all use our devices differently. If you feel that your Apple Watch drainage is below normal have it checked by Apple.

I have this same experience with my S4 LTE. And my less active days are about 40min or less exercise & about 12k steps.

 

[George Ponder]

Okay. Turned off all notifications except for messaging, the Weather Channel and the Ring doorbell alerts. Turned off animations, went to grayscale, turned off the lift to wake feature, dial down the brightness and still cannot get decent battery life. I've had the watch off the charger now for 7.5 hours and the battery is at 38%.

Can the Apple Store tell me if something is wrong with the battery? If I didn't know better, battery life has slowly deteriorated with each update.

 

[George Ponder]

Took a chance and swung by the local Apple Store.

Battery tested fine but diagnostics showed Maps and Mail being the most used apps. But the thing is I don't use Maps or Mail on the Watch.

Two options were to send the watch in and let them do more testing or reset/unpair the watch and hope that does the trick. Not keen on sending the watch in and be without it for 7-10 days so I went with the reset option.

The kid at the Genius Bar was nice and really tried to solve the problem but I wish they had the ability to replace the battery at the store or exchange the watch to avoid sending it off.

 

[metllicamilitia]

Took a chance and swung by the local Apple Store.

Battery tested fine but diagnostics showed Maps and Mail being the most used apps. But the thing is I don't use Maps or Mail on the Watch.

Two options were to send the watch in and let them do more testing or reset/unpair the watch and hope that does the trick. Not keen on sending the watch in and be without it for 7-10 days so I went with the reset option.

The kid at the Genius Bar was nice and really tried to solve the problem but I wish they had the ability to replace the battery at the store or exchange the watch to avoid sending it off.

I would just wait for watchOS 6, it should be released quite soon.

 

[George Ponder]

I would just wait for watchOS 6, it should be released quite soon.

That was also in the back of my mind.
WatchOS 6 may carry over some of the power management features of the Series 5 Watch to the Series 4. Or at least I hope it does.
Sounds petty but I really don't want to send the watch in because it will end my Activity streaks.

 

[msm0511]

Have you tried disabling The Weather Channel just to see if it helps?

 

[Annie_M]

That was also in the back of my mind.
WatchOS 6 may carry over some of the power management features of the Series 5 Watch to the Series 4. Or at least I hope it does.
Sounds petty but I really don't want to send the watch in because it will end my Activity streaks.

I completely get that. I would also wait for watchOS 6 if you can stand it.

 

[George Ponder]

Have you tried disabling The Weather Channel just to see if it helps?

Uninstalled the Weather App from the watch and relying on notifications from the phone. Hoping that makes a difference.

 

[doogald]

I have a S2, but lately I've been having occasional periods of time when the battery drains really, really fast, but most of the time, it's fine. Restarting the watch always gets the battery back to normal. Just last night I took the watch off the charger at 98% and woke up to 49% - it usually loses about 5% maximum while I sleep.

This has been going on for a few months, and it happens maybe once every ten days to two weeks.

Today I'm finally going to un-pair and re-pair the watch to see if that fixes it for good. (Just looking at my Health app and this will be the 12th time I pair the watch again, though some of those times it was because I changed phones or because I rebuilt my phone from scratch, which I usually do at some point after every iOS major release.)