Persistent: Apple Watch battery drain with Fitness App & Airpod Pro (100% - <10% within 20-30min)

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Persistent: Apple Watch battery drain with Fitness App & Airpod Pro (100% - <10% within 20-30min)

Dear Community,

As this question has been asked a few times, but in different scenarios or not with full clarity (hence with no apparent remedy): My Apple Watch will completely drain and shut down within 20-30 minutes of running while listening to a playlist on the Watch. As my running sessions are usually 60-90min, it's very frustrating.

Persistent problem since AirPods Pro. Current setup: Apple Watch 5, AirPods Pro. Running/training session without iPhone. All Watch OS and firmware up-to-date (7.4.1 and 3E751, as well as all iPhone & MBP with latest releases).

This has been the case with previous Apple Watch 4, previous Watch OS, firmware versions, etc. ever since use of my AirPods Pros beginning 2020. Reset Watch and AirPods. Upgraded iPhone. This was NOT the case with previous BT Powerbeats headphones. Otherwise, AirPods work (very) well. Love them. I just can't use Apple Watch for running anymore if I want to listen to music.

Any ideas?

Thx :)

Apple Watch Sport

Posted on May 16, 2021 8:33 AM

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Answer 1

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Pascal808 Author

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May 23, 2021 8:08 AM in response to Pascal808

UPDATE:

After experimenting for a week and reviewing my product journey step-by-step, I've come to this fix: DEACTIVATE Siri on the Watch completely.

Looks like SIRI is the culprit, draining my Apple Watch battery within minutes after first initiation (say, while running to ask SIRI to bump up the volume or turn it down - or even to play the next track, when you're wearing gloves and don't want to bother taking them off and start fumbling with your Apple AirPods Pro...)

Battery use today was absolutely ok: after 50min of running Apple Watch at 69%, starting at 95% (AirPods Pro 79%, starting at 100%). Manual labor is required though now for volume, track, or playlist changes. So, it's only a work-around, bug remains unresolved. ;)

I hope this helps.

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Answer 2

May 17, 2021 4:23 AM in response to Pascal808

Other people have reported the same problem, for instance here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251922156

I recommend contacting Apple Support, or if not feasible, logging it as product feedback here:

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

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Answer 3

Pascal808 Author

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May 23, 2021 7:57 AM in response to better_half

Dear better-half,

Thank you. Unfortunately, that isn't helpful - and wasn't the goal of this exercise, with kind respect. :)

As I was already referring to the same posting of another community member - and quite a few before -, there seems to be a deeper issue that hasn't been addressed by Apple yet.

Since product/bug feedback is unresponsive (already logged a ticket) and support chat is overloaded or lost beyond the regular update & restart recommendations, this was my last resort.

But alas, after a week of experimenting I'll be sharing my solution above. Looks like I've cracked the case in my setting today - and hope this helps others here in the community.

LLAP :)

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Answer 4

May 23, 2021 9:16 PM in response to Pascal808

That's an interesting finding, thanks for sharing! I believe by default Siri is using all your apps as input for suggestions, so it is quite complicated setup to debug properly. In theory one could try turning all apps off and then re-enable them selectively, but it would require a lot of time, patience and testing.

So I recommend reporting this issue and experience as feedback here :

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

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Persistent: Apple Watch battery drain with Fitness App & Airpod Pro (100% - <10% within 20-30min)

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