Apple Watch series 5 battery life

If you have a MacBook or other Mac computer then check activity monitor for TrustedPeers Helper if it is greater than 2 or 3 % then this will start to impact your battery life on Apple Watch , iPhone and iPad.

I had shocking watch battery life less than 12 hours with TrustedPeersHelper (TPH) running at near 100%.

There are a couple of fixes listed on this and other threads and they work but the root cause I believe is your Apple ID Profile.

I have used the fixes and got TPH down to 0% and wow what a difference to my iPad, iPhone and massive improvement on my watch from12 - 40 hours (bear in mind my watch has everything turned off as a result of trying every other fix I could find)

but gradually over several days the TPH started using more percentage and mine is now up to 12% and it is starting to show again on my watch battery life. After yesterdays workout which was 90 minutes I had 55% left but after todays 60 minute work out it is down to 44% - that's still good and I will still get more than 24 hours out of my watch but as TPH demands more and more cpu time the battery life will continue to drop.

TPH - is a process that actually runs on all apple devices perhaps under different names on phones and watches - its purpose is to ensure that all devices using the same Apple ID are to be trusted. The more CPU it is using the harder it is working and the same happens on the watch and phone - on the watch usage time gets larger in relation to standby time which decreases until eventually they are nearly the same and then you have 10-12 hours battery life on your watch.

You can search for TrustedPeersHelper fixes and there are a couple.

On your Mac in terminal type

tpctl validate | head

this may not return which is a good indicator something is wrong - so kill the process if it has not returned after 10 seconds.

then type

rm -f ~/Library/Keychains/*/com.apple.security.keychain-defaultContext.TrustedPeersHelper.{db,db-shm,db-wal}

This clears part of the keychain database - this cured it for me but it obviously is building it back and it is now getting worse again. TPH will restart and the % should be very low.and very quickly become 0%

if you follow up with

tpctl validate | head

You should get after a couple of seconds something like this

{

  "health" : 1,

  "results" : {

    "results" : [

      {

        "accountHealth" : 1,

        "name" : "ReceiverlessPeerValidator",

        "success" : true,

        "tlkShare" : {

          "allPeersCount" : "25",

Logout of all devices from iCloud and then reload in and check battery life - it should show an improvement (better the improvement the greater TPH was running at)

I still believe there is something that is causing my TPH process to increase CPU demand over several days and I believe this is something to do with my Apple ID - I bet I end up needing to scrape my id and create a new one which has all sorts of ramifications fo me.

good luck

Mine is a series 4 and I am also experiencing the same issue as the Rdbgolf.

Mine use to last for 2 whole days with ~25% to spare but now it just finished 24 hours with 35% left huge difference from my watchOS 5. Thats after un-pairing and pairing, resetting and deleting all apps, turning off notifications, background refresh and everything that makes a smart watch smart. basically now I am having a regular watch on.

My bet is that something is wrong with watchOS 6 or iOS 13 which causing all these issues.

This I think is my issue - and my watch is on my arm, not doing anything. AOD is on, but I am not looking at the watch more than 2-3 times an hour. I did have a 40 min call, but that usage should be less than standby.

I have also something similar, my watch S4 is reporting better life it took 32 hours to reach 15%. Nothing changed i did the same things i do everyday.

yesterday i went to sleep with the watch at 65% and left it next to me and did not charge it. Today it lasted me till 2PM.

below is the charge and usage when I wore it this morning at 7am

This may sound strange, but here's what I noticed. Yesterday morning I started with a full charge. Just a few hours later I was down to 70%. I charged it again, and tightened the strap a little. The battery life is greatly improved. Today I've had it on for 7 hours and I'm at 85%. Maybe intermittent contact with the sensor drains it?

I am very disappointed in the S5 battery life compared to S4. I have been playing with different faces. It has been around 50% of what I normally get. Tomorrow, I am going to try to disable the always on feature and see if that is what the different is. Betting it is. If it is, then the only difference is a compass in the new hardware.

I always buy the latest hardware from Apple (sort of an addiction). To be honest, this is probably going to be the first apple product that I am going to send back and just stick with my Apple Watch Series 4.

I had the same with a fairly new series 4 where I’d be lucky to get 10 hours. It was my first so I didn’t have any expectations. Friends were getting 24 - 30 out of theirs on occasion so I contacted customer support, and told them it did not meet the expected behavior. They ran a set of tests remotely, then I asked for it to be sent in for repair.

They have replaced the watch. I bought a 5 in the meantime, and I get easily 24 - 30 hours with always on switched on, raise to wake, all background apps refreshing.

i recommend you open a support ticket and ask for a repair. You’ll probably get a replacement.

or if it’s within 30 days take it back to the retailer that sold it to you for a refund/ exchange

Here's where I'm at with mine (went from S3 to S5, both LTE)

I originally setup the watch with a restore

Was seeing about 1% drain every 4-6 minutes (not noise meter or compass enabled, but using an infograph face

reset the watch and setup as new with no apps

only installed the apps I wanted

Battery was still draining rather fast

Lost 20% during a 1 hour outdoor run (no music)

Turned off the AOD, and now it looks like it's going to last as long or longer than my S3

So basically, I have an S4.

Here's where I'm at

At 6:32pm watch was at 75%. I turned on the AOD. in 46 min it dropped to 70%. So more than 5% per hour. By Apple's estimate the watch should lose 5.5% per hour and that is assuming 1 hour of workout with LTE and GPS, 90 views of the watch, and like 45 min of apps. I literally did nothing for 46 min and lost 5%.

At 7:18 I turned AOD off. Lost 7% in 1 hour 43 min, and I took a call for about 3 min. That seems to be a battery drain way more in line with what is expected. 3-4% per hour when not really doing much.

Also important to keep in mind that I am on wifi this whole time connected to my phone. So I am not on cell service at all.

I'm going with AOD is not all it's cracked up to be.

I don’t use my watch that much. With series 4, I would go to bed with 55-60% left in the battery. Since series 5 I have 5-9% left.

tomorrow I am going to try turning off automatic on display and see what happens

nwxt after they is returning it and going back ton series 4, I can’t justify all this money for a compass.

Another update:

2 hours with AOD off, 8% (no real activity, but I did take a call)

46 min with AOD on, 7% lost (no activity)

I have about another hour of work. Have AOD back on.

I could care less about Noise meter or the compass. What I really cared about was AOD. So far it's a complete bust. If this doesn't live up to the hype, there's no reason for me to even switch from the series 3.

I guess I am not the only one w/ this question. I just read an article that says about 18 hours but that is with a lot of use. I get exactly 18 hours. Others with older versions said from 24 - 36 hours.

My Titanium Series 5 has the same problem. I’ve got a Series 2 that has better battery life! I’m contacting Apple support tomorrow and if they can’t resolve this I’m returning it as I’m not paying this much to be there R&D.