Declining Battery Life

[mklabove]

I sent an email to Samsung support about this today, but thought I'd share here. I received my Gear 2 on April 9th, (pre-order from AT&T) and since then have been very pleased with the battery life, always over 50% at the end of the day, and I would just charge it every night. Until 3 days ago - suddenly, my batter life has plummeted, and seems to have gotten somewhat erratic. This morning, after 4 hours (minimal alerts and use), and it was down to 50%. It seems to sit there for a while (an hour or two???) and then I get the alert that the battery is critically low (@ 15%). I'm not running non-stock apps, except for a downloaded watch face, I keep the screen brightness at the default of 4, though I do use the gesture to wake up the watch. But I'm getting 6-8 hours tops before the warning to re-charge. Of course, that's not usable.

I've tried uninstalling Gear Manager from my phone (Verizon GS 3, with Android 4.3), and resetting the Gear 2 to factory defaults (twice)., and then re-installing, with no improvements. I usually run the Weather clock face, but I've switched to the Diamond Analog that I downloaded. I don't have email configured, and have the weather set to update every hour. Not sure what could cause this, except a software glitch of some sort, or a defective battery??? As I said, I've emailed Samsung, and if don't hear something soon, I'll try calling.

Keith

 

[Compusmurf]

Well. Only change was watch face, change it back?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[Compusmurf]

Also, maybe reset your watch. Its really easy to reset up

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[mklabove]

Thanks for the suggestions, but the problem occurs with either watch face. Wish that were the issue. And as I mentioned, I've already reset the Gear to factory defaults, twice. Didn't help.

Keith

 

[prubin]

Same problem. I turned off gesture, set brightness at 2, set background to black, reset everything, still get much less than a day now. Originally much better. Please post if you hear from Samsung.

 

[johnmltb33]

I must be doing something wrong - - but in a GOOD way. I am on the initial charge and after two days wearing it at work, light usage, and much setting-up of preferences, notifications, etc. I still have 81% battery. Now, the question is, will mine also succumb to the dreaded reduced battery life after more charging cycles (I only intend to charge it when it reaches about 15%). Thanks for heads-up on what to look for.

 

[haus]

Thanks for the suggestions, but the problem occurs with either watch face. Wish that were the issue. And as I mentioned, I've already reset the Gear to factory defaults, twice. Didn't help.

Just curious, did you reset the gear to factory defaults, not restore a backup, and re-pair it from scratch as if it were a new watch, then try it without installing any additional watch faces or software for a day or two? I had an issue with my Gear 1 recently where the battery died within about 6-7 hours (I had installed software that was probably causing a constant BT connection to the phone). I did a factory reset, but restored the Gear thinking I'd get to keep my settings, but the problem remained even though I had done a reset. It wasn't until this weekend when I did a reset on the Gear and didn't restore from backup that it is now working fine. Gear has been on my wrist since about 6:30am today and still at 100%.

 

[mklabove]

The first time, I did restore data after a factory reset. The second time, I did a factory reset, and did not restore data. The problem remains.

Regarding my attempt to contact Samsung via their email form on the support website, I did get a reply, but they said they needed the model number of the phone. And the reply comes from an email address that isn't monitored. So my reply with the extra info bounced back. It's like they're saying, Hey, you didn't provide us with the info we need - go back to the beginning and start all over. So I tried again.

Keith

 

[mklabove]

Just a follow-up: I did receive an email reply from Samsung support, which said that since I had tried the factory reset, all they could offer was to send it in, and told me to call the telephone support people. (So if you have a problem, skip email and just call.) I got a guy on the phone who agreed to have me send in the watch (5-7 day turnaround, plus 2 day shipping each way), after he told me at one point that the Gear battery was only supposed to last 7-8 hours anyway. (I just said, No, it's not.) I also mentioned my inability to initiate phone calls from the Gear (goes immediately to 'Call Ended', and call never starts), so hopefully that will be resolved as well. Resigned to spend a week and a half at least without my watch. Thinking maybe I got a lemon.

Hope this little saga can help someone else.

Keith

 

[JacksonEdwardHarrison]

The first time, I did restore data after a factory reset. The second time, I did a factory reset, and did not restore data. The problem remains.

Regarding my attempt to contact Samsung via their email form on the support website, I did get a reply, but they said they needed the model number of the phone. And the reply comes from an email address that isn't monitored. So my reply with the extra info bounced back. It's like they're saying, Hey, you didn't provide us with the info we need - go back to the beginning and start all over. So I tried again.

Keith

If you use Twitter, I would recommend you also tweet Samung Support USA @SamsungSupport. I have found the techs respond rapidly. He /she will include their first name in the response. Be sure to include that name in your reply.

I would also add that your problem seems to me to be a failing device as opposed to a software issue. I wouldn't think you would get any grief if you wanted to exchange it with the company from which you purchased it. Good luck to you Keith.

 

[prubin]

I did a factory reset and reinstalled and restored and it is now working fine.

 

[mklabove]

Glad that worked for you. Mine is boxed up and going back to Samsung today - we'll see what they say. The fact that it worked fine for 10 days, and then changed so drastically makes me think it's a hardware issue. Also from the beginning, I couldn't initiate phone calls from the watch, so there was something else that wasn't quite right. Thanks to all for their input.

 

[dorrien12]

Keep us updated

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[nklv_aleksa]

Something strange happened to my G2N. It disconnected and reconnected to BT 3 times in 10 min. When I checked battery level and it was 19% Before that it was more than 30%. In next 15 min it continued to drop to less than 10%. I did hard reset of Gear 2 and uninstalled and installed Gear manager and it seems it's ok for now. Interesting, when I manually disconnected BT baterry level raised, and when The BT was on battery went rapidlly down