How's your battery life?

[StuartV]

Yeah, I have no clue what is going on.

Maybe I missed this but what phone do you have and what version of Android is it running?

If your phone doesn't have Bluetooth Low Energy support, could that maybe be what is causing the watch to run down quickly?

 

[StuartV]

Related to that: Just an observation. When my watch is connected to my phone, if I go on the phone into Bluetooth settings, my watch is listed there is a paired device, but it never shows on my phone as actually connected. In contrast, something like the BT Handsfree in my truck does show there as Connected (when it IS connected). This behavior (not showing as connected) was the same with the Huawei Watch.

I have been taking this as a sign that the BT connection from watch to phone is, probably, the BT LE type of connection.

Anyway, maybe check your phone's BT settings and see if it shows the watch as Connected. If it does, I bet that's what is running your watch battery down. Then the question would be why does it show as connected? Is it because your phone doesn't support the right kind of BT? Or is there some app that is keeping an open connection?

 

[me23brown]

I have the Note 5.

 

[StuartV]

I have the Note 5.

Oof. Well, there should be no concern about not supporting the latest and greatest there.... Still worth looking in your BT settings to see if it shows as Connected or just Paired.

 

[crxssi]

@ crxssi - thanks, I'll give it a shot. Unfortunately I don't have any watch specific apps downloaded so all the extra apps on my watch are the ones on my phone that happen to have AW support so I will be upset if I have to take something off of my phone for my watch to have better battery life even if I never use the AW part of it.

Well, you won't know until you try! If you have no other apps, the procedure should be simpler. Just follow it closely- don't just remove Android Wear.

By the way does anyone even need Amazon on their watch? I don't get it.

I don't get it either. I have attopedia for wikipedia and I do find that useful, but Amazon? I installed it, played with it, and removed it. It is nice to have options, though.

 

[brosko]

Is it even possible to remove the amazon app from the watch but not from your phone?

 

[StuartV]

I have the Note 5.

I have a question unrelated to your problem, if you don't mind.

Do you use the stock Samsung Email app on your Note 5? I mean, the app named Email, not the Gmail app. If you do use Email, can you tell me what happens if you get 2 or more emails in between times of checking your watch? When you look at your watch, does it show that you have email, with a "+2" (or however many) indicator and let you tap into them and view each email? Or does it only show you the last one you received?

OR, do you use the stock Messages app for text messaging? If so, the same question. Can you see multiple text messages on your watch? or only the last one you received?

 

[me23brown]

Is it even possible to remove the amazon app from the watch but not from your phone?

I don't think you can, at least I don't know how. As far as I know if it supports AW and is on your phone it automatically goes to your watch. I wish there was a way to manage what you actually want to have on your watch instead.

 

[me23brown]

I have a question unrelated to your problem, if you don't mind.

Do you use the stock Samsung Email app on your Note 5? I mean, the app named Email, not the Gmail app. If you do use Email, can you tell me what happens if you get 2 or more emails in between times of checking your watch? When you look at your watch, does it show that you have email, with a "+2" (or however many) indicator and let you tap into them and view each email? Or does it only show you the last one you received?

OR, do you use the stock Messages app for text messaging? If so, the same question. Can you see multiple text messages on your watch? or only the last one you received?

I gave the emails a shot and answered in your other thread. I think you'll have to use another email app.

 

[RichardJTesla]

My battery life is amazing. I think by the end of the day I am at 70% atleast. I am by no means a power user, but I had the first gen 360 and I got no where near the battery life I do now.

 

[motorcycle_monkey]

I am overjoyed with the battery life on this new one! Had the last one, without ambient on, I would need a charger by 9pm some days. Only really making it from 6am to 9pm. This new one, a 42mm, I leave ambient on and am getting to 10-10:30pm with 40-45% left! Amazing!

 

[lvmymoto]

I'm really surprised to hear that somebody can't make it through the day with the new Moto. I think the battery life is stellar, much better than other AW watches I've had, better than the Samsung Gear S2 and definitely better than my wifes Apple Watch. I have the 46mm version and I usually put it on about 7:30am, have ambient screen on, wrist gestures on, wifi on, and when I put it on the charger at about 11pm, I'll almost always have 40-50% left.

A short story when I was traveling: I went on a work trip last week, left for the airport at 4am with my watch on, and when I got to my hotel that night I realized I had forgotten to bring the watch charger or any other Qi charger with me! So I turned off ambient, wifi, turned the screen down and of course turned the watch off at night to see how long it would last. Thursday afternoon when I got home, I still had about 5% battery left! I successfully made it through 4 full days with one charge. Admittedly I was milking it a little, but still, that is pretty damn impressive.

 

[StuartV]

I use the Dials II watch face. I have had it set where the second hand moves once per second (the default). Wed evening, I changed it to a continuous sweep. When you do that, a dialog pops up telling you that animations can have a serious impact on battery and are you sure you want to do this. Yesterday was my first full day with the continuous sweep second hand. I got to bed time and only had 20% battery left. And that was with taking my watch off and leaving it sitting on my desk for several hours last night as I was doing some work around the house.

So, I'd say animations really do have a pretty serious effect on battery life. If anyone is having trouble with battery life, they should make sure they're using a watch face that doesn't use animations and see if that helps.

I'm leaving mine with continuous sweep for another day, just to get confirmation of how bad it is.

 

[crxssi]

I use the Dials II watch face. I have had it set where the second hand moves once per second (the default). Wed evening, I changed it to a continuous sweep. When you do that, a dialog pops up telling you that animations can have a serious impact on battery and are you sure you want to do this.

Yep. On the face I am using, they had the seconds hand still present in standby mode! I immediately used WatchMaker to remove the hand completely in standby. And they were using continuous sweep in full-on mode, and I changed it to a 1 second tick. Besides, I think it looks better.

[...]So, I'd say animations really do have a pretty serious effect on battery life. If anyone is having trouble with battery life, they should make sure they're using a watch face that doesn't use animations and see if that helps.

Absolutely, or just turn off tilt-to-wake and that will nip most of it right there. With ambient on and a well designed face, you almost don't need to wake the watch completely most of the day.

 

[brosko]

Yep. On the face I am using, they had the seconds hand still present in standby mode! I immediately used WatchMaker to remove the hand completely in standby. And they were using continuous sweep in full-on mode, and I changed it to a 1 second tick. Besides, I think it looks better.



Absolutely, or just turn off tilt-to-wake and that will nip most of it right there. With ambient on and a well designed face, you almost don't need to wake the watch completely most of the day.

Are you referring to wrist gestures when you say tilt to wake? I don't see that as an option in the settings.

 

[crxssi]

Are you referring to wrist gestures when you say tilt to wake?

No. Wrist gestures is just a way to scroll the screen up and down by flicking your wrist, when the watch is already awake.

I don't see that as an option in the settings.

For reasons that nobody can understand, the tilt-to-wake setting is only available on the phone in Android Wear app, not on the watch, itself. Once it is set to "off", moving your wrist doesn't wake the watch, you touch the screen or press the crown button to wake. This will prevent it from waking randomly all day with movement. Even not awake, if ambient mode is on, AND you have a nice watch face, you can still see the time and other information always (although it might be dim and a bit hard to read). What is neat is using WatchMaker, you can customize the sleeping face to show what you need (just make sure not to put anything on it that animates or ticks on the sleeping face).

 

[brosko]

No. Wrist gestures is just a way to scroll the screen up and down by flicking your wrist, when the watch is already awake.



For reasons that nobody can understand, the tilt-to-wake setting is only available on the phone in Android Wear app, not on the watch, itself. Once it is set to "off", moving your wrist doesn't wake the watch, you touch the screen or press the crown button to wake. This will prevent it from waking randomly all day with movement. Even not awake, if ambient mode is on, AND you have a nice watch face, you can still see the time and other information always (although it might be dim and a bit hard to read). What is neat is using WatchMaker, you can customize the sleeping face to show what you need (just make sure not to put anything on it that animates or ticks on the sleeping face).

Thanks. I didn't even have my watch long enough to notice that in the wear app settings. I Had to send it back due to yellowing of the screen. New one will be here Monday. I'm hoping for the best I would really like to keep the watch.

 

[crxssi]

Thanks. I didn't even have my watch long enough to notice that in the wear app settings.

I didn't know about it either until I read a posting somewhere on the 360.1 forum. I really just don't understand why they would hide such an important setting- and one that can GREATLY impact battery life.

 

[brosko]

I didn't know about it either until I read a posting somewhere on the 360.1 forum. I really just don't understand why they would hide such an important setting- and one that can GREATLY impact battery life.

Yeah real odd for sure. I attribute it to Android wear being young. If android wear sticks it will be a different animal in 5 years. We'll be looking back and laughing for sure.

 

[StuartV]

So, after 2 days with the continuous second hand (only on the "awake" face, not ambient mode), I got to bedtime both days with the watch battery around 20%. I went back to the "ticking" hand Friday night. I took it off the charger around 7am on Sat morning, forgot to charge it Sat night, and still had no trouble making it all the way through Sunday.

And that is with everything, including Tilt-to-wake, on.