Watch causes iPhone battery drain

I have found since adding the watch, that my 6 Plus is not going to sleep on its own after the 1 minute time out, which really kills the battery if I stick it in my pocket without noticing. I did a hard reset and that fixed it for a while, then back to staying on unless I actually power down. I deleted all the 3rd party apps and reset again, and so far is powering down properly so not sure if a 3rd party app isn't playing nice yet? Also notice lots of minor bugs in terms of advertised functionality and what it will consistently really do!,

The first couple days I had my watch, I noticed both the Watch and iPhone were draining faster than I expected. I usually take a 1-2 hour hike every day and always have used the “Runmeter” app on the iPhone to map my path and gather workout stats. When I got the Watch. I installed the companion Watch app for Runmeter and ran that app on the Watch, along with the Apple “Workout” app. A 90 minute hike would drain the Watch by ~50% and the iPhone by 30-40%. It is constantly using GPS, heartbeat, plus Bluetooth, so not too surprising. I couldn’t go through the day without recharging both devices.

I found that the Runmeter Watch app added little value (I was typically looking only at the Workout app during the hike). I uninstalled the Runmeter Watch app, but continued to use the Runmeter app on the iPhone and the Workout app on the Watch. Since then, my battery life on both devices have improved dramatically. The 90 minute hikes now use about 25% of the battery on both devices and the past few days I have not had to recharge either device during the day. I typically have a 30-40% charge left on the iPhone and a 10-30% charge left on the Watch at the end of the day. I have the 38mm model which (according to Apple) has a shorter battery life than the 42mm model.

In the past (before the Watch), I have occasionally (rarely) experienced an unusual and inexplicable battery drain on my phone. A simple iPhone reset would sometimes cure this problem, but at times I have completed a “restore,” which would also often solve the issue. To be honest, I was never completely sure of the reasons for the battery drain, but they have never lasted more than a few days if I try the solutions I mentioned above.

One thing I have concluded that the Apple Watch (and iPhone) does generally does live up to my expectations for battery life. I expect that some of the people suffering from poor battery life on the iPhone may have experienced the problem even if they had not started using the Watch (i.e. just a coincidence). I would have blamed the watch if my iPhone battery problems started when I got the watch. However, more people are probably experiencing battery issues due to usage issues (like using battery intensive apps as I did). Finally, some people probably have truly defective hardware, or software bugs (in the OS or apps) that drain battery rapidly for people that have a specific setup. According to MacRumors, many people actually enjoy an increase in iPhone battery life, probably because they are checking their phone less frequently.

In general, I am very pleased with the battery performance of the Watch/iPhone combination and it doesn’t appear there is a fundamental design flaw that will cause most people to have battery issues. Software updates will probably eventually reduce some problems that many people are experiencing. Some percentage of people will alway have problems because of software issues and/or usage.

Dave

I'm just going to put this here:

https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

Same issue with my iPhone 6... it's unbelievable how quickly Runtastic kills the battery.

Another complete buzz kill was when I found out (as I started my run) that the App is completely useless without the iPhone.

It also has some serious issues with my Bluetooth headset, even though the Watches native Music app works perfectly.

It's pretty depressing, Runtastic is one of my favorite purchased apps too. Ugh

I have had the watch for a couple of weeks now. I have been using the watch a fair amount, but I don't think I have ever had it get down below maybe 40% by the end of the day. The watch battery does seem to be draining a bit faster, but not much.

Sounds like a good summary of the above discussion is to check out the apps that you might be using from your watch that use the GPS on the phone -- those things EAT the battery on the phone, and the watch apps don't seem to shut down the phone use of the GPS well, or not at all.

I sure hope all the watch apps get some major improvements soon. Lots of them are pretty lame functionality-wise AND phone interaction-wise.

I found that just like some others I had an app running in the background that was causing my huge battery drain. The app for me was MapMyRun. As soon as I closed that my phone went back to normal battery usage.

Yesterday I unplugged my phone at 08:00 in the morning and by 16:00 is was completely drained. Turned out it was run tastic that used 72%!! Funny thing is though it wasn't on. It was in the watch glances though where I glanced at it. I wonder if it could be that the watch had been using runttactic from then on by perhaps using the phones gps all the time?

there is no way to see which apps are active on the watch, so I ended up removing runtastic from the watch altogether. Let's see how that goes, I had no problem whatsoever with battery drain on the days before.

Very Simple Fix: Turn Off your Bluetooth when around WiFi.

I found that battery life went to **** after i got my watch.

I tried to change my usage habits with no effect.

Then I realized that my bluetooth was always in use now, and the watch sends fitness data almost every minute.

If you turn off the bluetooth...and let the watch communicate with the iPhone by WiFi, the battery life returned, again lasting through the day.

Turn off your bluetooth when you're in an area w/ WiFi.

Apple, can you please fix the watch, so that it uses WiFi when available. Also, can y'all make it update less often then q minute? That's absurd when it can hold data...its just wasteful.

yep seeing similar on my iPhone 6, but seems to be random. Haven't figured out if it's a specific app or setting, but all was fine before the watch, so that's all that's changed in the environment.

VVery good points mate!

That's exactly what's happening. A simple glance at runtastic will enable the GPS location services which will remain on until you manually kill the app, restart your devices, etc. I simply removed the app from watch and only use the iPhone app by itself now (until a real fix is released). Doing so has eliminated all of my battery issues (without disabling Bluetooth - which actually drains the watch battery faster) and now the Watch and iPhone both consume their battery charge at nearly the exact same rate, leaving me with at least 30% battery on each device at the end of the day with normal use. I recommend removing these rogue GPS abusing apps from your Watch until a real fix is released. I believe this is the easiest temporary fix for now, especially since you still need your iPhone with you during your run for the app to actually work anyway.

You may want to look at these tips:

http://www.macworld.com/article/2926230/how-to-make-apple-watch-battery-last-lon ger.html

Also, the last tip states:

Apple actually states that in order to maximize battery life on the Watch you should keep Bluetooth enabled on the iPhone as it enables “more efficient communications”. Bluetooth is required for your Apple Watch and iPhone to communicate, and without Bluetooth the Watch will not offer much in the way of functionality. For example, you won’t be able to load up your latest emails without switching on Bluetooth on the iPhone and you won’t receive any text or call alerts.

David...You're wrong.

They can use WiFi to communicate. Please finish reading my post before you respond to it.

As an aside, that article is about extending the battery life of the watch. That is not what this thread is about.