Battery Life

[xendula]

I'm probably preaching to the choir but have you tried uninstall the Gear app then install again? That's weird that the Gear 1 didn't work with it because I thought they had unified it to work from Gear 1 through S. A couple of Gear app updates ago I had 2 Gear apps on my phone after I updated it until I rebooted my phone then the old one disappeared. Same icon, same look when opened. I had a shortcut (not true shortcut but I don't know what you call it when you drop an app icon on your home screen) for the old one that also disappeared and I had to a new one back on. There were a ton of complaints about it and my last update was a few days after that. Mine has been fine since the last update .

Things are very different in my case. Maybe because I did it all backwards, and first had the Gear S, THEN added the Gear 1? I can tell you that the app prompted me to update so the Gear 1 would work with it, and once "updated" is now all brown (you mentioned that yours never looked different). I think that's the doing of the Gear 1 software. I never had 2 Gear Mgr apps on the phine at the same time, the original one just changed completely. I can (from the now brown Gear manager app) switch back and forth between Gear S and Gear 1, but it messes with my Gear S battery.

I have not tried to uninstall and reinstall the app, because I think that would wipe my Gear S and 1, is that correct? If that is not the case, I may try to do that.

What I do now is basically connect my Gear S to my Note every few days to sync my running stats.

Not having the Gear S connected to my Note in any way shape of form gives me a much much better battery life than before. Gear Manager sucks the life out of the Gear S battery.

 

[mrsmoore78]

I just would like to make it til bed time.

That's where I'm at at this point. I did the firmware update and my battery life is even worse than before. I took it off the charger this morning around 7:30 and by 9:30 I was already down to 75%. That seems absurd to me. I looked up some stats and I noticed my Gear S was set to have the network on all the time, so I changed that setting to "auto switch".... I would say I'm within bluetooth range of my phone about 80% of the time so I would hope this would drastically cut down on the battery drain. However, in a stand alone setting, it would suck to have to charge this thing mid-day all the time. I now know why the charger we got with this thing also has a removable charger for on-the-go. I appreciate it, but I wish I didn't need it. I didn't plan to have to charge my watch in the middle of the day. Hopefully changing some settings will help.

 

[InfamousUnknown]

What watch face are you using?

The colorful ones drain the battery a lot faster than the simple black and white ones.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Things are very different in my case. Maybe because I did it all backwards, and first had the Gear S, THEN added the Gear 1? I can tell you that the app prompted me to update so the Gear 1 would work with it, and once "updated" is now all brown (you mentioned that yours never looked different). I think that's the doing of the Gear 1 software. I never had 2 Gear Mgr apps on the phine at the same time, the original one just changed completely. I can (from the now brown Gear manager app) switch back and forth between Gear S and Gear 1, but it messes with my Gear S battery.

I have not tried to uninstall and reinstall the app, because I think that would wipe my Gear S and 1, is that correct? If that is not the case, I may try to do that.

What I do now is basically connect my Gear S to my Note every few days to sync my running stats.

Not having the Gear S connected to my Note in any way shape of form gives me a much much better battery life than before. Gear Manager sucks the life out of the Gear S battery.

With my Fit I've had to uninstall it's app a few times and it didn't affect the watch at all other than fix the lack of connecting ability.
You'd have to set your settings back up for notifications and what not but any apps on the phone or watch won't be affected, it won't unpair the watch from the phone or watch Bluetooth settings or factory reset the watch.
I've only uninstalled the Gear app for the S once and but it wasn't painful or lengthy to get them connected again.

 

[mountainbikermark]

That's where I'm at at this point. I did the firmware update and my battery life is even worse than before. I took it off the charger this morning around 7:30 and by 9:30 I was already down to 75%. That seems absurd to me. I looked up some stats and I noticed my Gear S was set to have the network on all the time, so I changed that setting to "auto switch".... I would say I'm within bluetooth range of my phone about 80% of the time so I would hope this would drastically cut down on the battery drain. However, in a stand alone setting, it would suck to have to charge this thing mid-day all the time. I now know why the charger we got with this thing also has a removable charger for on-the-go. I appreciate it, but I wish I didn't need it. I didn't plan to have to charge my watch in the middle of the day. Hopefully changing some settings will help.

Do you have location on? If so try turn it off and see if that helps. You might have an app polling frequently for your location. Things like exercise sessions in s health use a lot of location polling and eat up the battery. I also keep reading certain watch faces are battery hogs so I suggest you look at reviews if you've got an aftermarket going and see if reviewers complain of battery drain.
Hope that helps.

 

[xendula]

With my Fit I've had to uninstall it's app a few times and it didn't affect the watch at all other than fix the lack of connecting ability.
You'd have to set your settings back up for notifications and what not but any apps on the phone or watch won't be affected, it won't unpair the watch from the phone or watch Bluetooth settings or factory reset the watch.
I've only uninstalled the Gear app for the S once and but it wasn't painful or lengthy to get them connected again.

Thanks, Mark, I'll give it a try!

 

[mrsmoore78]

I turned my settings to auto-switch and my battery life has greatly improved. I didn't realize the default setting is to have the network on all the time. I would expect it to drain if I'm streaming music or doing an exercise session, but not just on a regular day like yesterday. I also turned location off. Major, major difference.

 

[bryanchow]

I don't mind having to charge the watch daily but they really should provide a decent charging cradle, one that is quick and easy.

Most of the watches (I'm a developer so I have LG G, Moto 360, Gear, Gear 2 Neo, Gear S) have a stupid cradle thingie that you have to clip on and then you have this ugly thing on your desk with a stiff wire hanging around.

Only the Moto 360 has a nice solution, with a wireless charging dock that is easy to put your watch in and doesn't look messy.

 

[xendula]

I don't mind having to charge the watch daily but they really should provide a decent charging cradle, one that is quick and easy.

Agreed. And one that doesn't break because of its flawed design, as so many are experiencing.

It's so nice to have the back-up battery, though!

First world problems...