Background Refresh Option

[George Ponder]

Yesterday I went to the Genius Bar about the terrible battery life on my Apple Watch 4. The tech discussed using the background refresh option to conserve power, but wasn't really clear on things. So I thought I'd ask the experts to see if I can get a better understanding of things.

Currently I only have these apps with the background refresh turned on. Activities, Alarms, Calendar, Heart Rate, Messages, Phone and Reminders. Everything else is turned off.

Here are the questions. If I turn off Activities will the watch continue to record my movements? If I turn off the Calendar, will appointment reminders pop up? If I turn off Messages will I get alerts on new messages? I imagine if I turn off the Heart Rate the watch will stop monitoring my HR but if I turn off the Phone will my watch ring when I get an incoming call?

Can I afford to turn these off and maintain functionality?

The tech wasn't really sure how to answer these questions and personally I don't know enough about the inner workings of the Apple Watch to know myself. Any guidance is appreciated.

 

[Tartarus]

I am not sure if disabling background refresh will make all those stuff stop.
The information in those apps just won’t be readily available if you open it. It will take some time to load the data into the app (10 to 20 seconds).

I have everything enabled in background app refresh. I take my Watch off charger around 11pm and put it back on charger around 8pm the next day, with 40-50% charge left on the watch.
I use my watch constantly and receive all my notifications on it. I even don’t have theatre mode enabled during the day, which would make me save even more charge.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Yesterday I went to the Genius Bar about the terrible battery life on my Apple Watch 4. The tech discussed using the background refresh option to conserve power, but wasn't really clear on things. So I thought I'd ask the experts to see if I can get a better understanding of things.

Currently I only have these apps with the background refresh turned on. Activities, Alarms, Calendar, Heart Rate, Messages, Phone and Reminders. Everything else is turned off.

Here are the questions. If I turn off Activities will the watch continue to record my movements? If I turn off the Calendar, will appointment reminders pop up? If I turn off Messages will I get alerts on new messages? I imagine if I turn off the Heart Rate the watch will stop monitoring my HR but if I turn off the Phone will my watch ring when I get an incoming call?

Can I afford to turn these off and maintain functionality?

The tech wasn't really sure how to answer these questions and personally I don't know enough about the inner workings of the Apple Watch to know myself. Any guidance is appreciated.

For starters, please define your terrible battery life. When you take the watch off the charger at 100%, how long afterwards do you have to put it back on the charger and what percent is displaying at the time?

The items you’ve mentioned above should not be causing terrible battery life. By the way, is your Watch a cellular model? If so, how often is it using a cellular signal and is that signal strong?

 

[George Ponder]

For starters, please define your terrible battery life. When you take the watch off the charger at 100%, how long afterwards do you have to put it back on the charger and what percent is displaying at the time?

The items you’ve mentioned above should not be causing terrible battery life. By the way, is your Watch a cellular model? If so, how often is it using a cellular signal and is that signal strong?

I put my watch on during the weekdays at 6:00am and by 8:00pm my battery is at 10%. Today, I took my watch off the charger at 9:00am and at 12:30pm my battery level is down to 70%.

On an average day, I get notifications from my Ring doorbell, messages and the Weather Channel app. I hit the treadmill for 45 minutes a day and use the workout app. I have dimmed the screen to the lowest setting, turned off sounds, turned off the flip to wake feature and try to keep the phone nearby to avoid using Wi-Fi.

The tech tested my watch battery and it passed with flying colors. The two apps that were used the most were mail and maps, neither of which I use from my watch. They said something could be running in the background causing this, so we reset and unpaired the watch.

The watch is not cellular and I never expected stellar battery life out of the Apple Watch, but did expect more than 14 hours. I don't mind putting the watch on the charger when I go to bed at 10:00pm but would like the watch to last until then.

I wish Apple had a consumer battery app to help identify what is draining the battery. I do hope that the new watchOS will help. Otherwise, I'm going to have to send the watch in for further testing, which means I'm without it for a week to 10 days (which isn't good).

 

[Just_Me_D]

I put my watch on during the weekdays at 6:00am and by 8:00pm my battery is at 10%. Today, I took my watch off the charger at 9:00am and at 12:30pm my battery level is down to 70%.

On an average day, I get notifications from my Ring doorbell, messages and the Weather Channel app. I hit the treadmill for 45 minutes a day and use the workout app. I have dimmed the screen to the lowest setting, turned off sounds, turned off the flip to wake feature and try to keep the phone nearby to avoid using Wi-Fi.

The tech tested my watch battery and it passed with flying colors. The two apps that were used the most were mail and maps, neither of which I use from my watch. They said something could be running in the background causing this, so we reset and unpaired the watch.

The watch is not cellular and I never expected stellar battery life out of the Apple Watch, but did expect more than 14 hours. I don't mind putting the watch on the charger when I go to bed at 10:00pm but would like the watch to last until then.

I wish Apple had a consumer battery app to help identify what is draining the battery. I do hope that the new watchOS will help. Otherwise, I'm going to have to send the watch in for further testing, which means I'm without it for a week to 10 days (which isn't good).

Understood. I’m in agreement with the tech in that something running in the background is draining the battery.

If the Weather Channel app is installed on your Watch, try removing it. You should still get the weather notifications for it if notifications are set to mirror the iPhone.

 

[George Ponder]

Understood. I’m in agreement with the tech in that something running in the background is draining the battery.

If the Weather Channel app is installed on your Watch, try removing it. You should still get the weather notifications for it if notifications are set to mirror the iPhone.

After the reset, that's what I did.
If the native weather app offered severe weather alerts, I'd be fine with that.
Until that happens, I need to use the Weather Channel and hopefully mirroring the iPhone will help with the battery.