Massive battery drain from media controls

[anon(871934)]

I am experiencing massive battery drain whenever I use an app that puts multimedia controls on the watch. The watch is a Moto360 with the latest firmware. My Android Wear app is up to date. This problem has occurred on both a Nexus 5 (5.01 and 5.0.2) as well as a new HTC One M9 (5.0.2).


I get fantastic battery life on my Moto360. Routinely I get 18 - 24 hours and never have to worry about the battery during the day. When I travel, if I listen to Google Play Music or PocketCasts my battery life plunges. Yesterday I have a 5 hour drive and I listened to podcasts for the entire trip. I didn't not touch the watch (did not use the multimedia controls). My watch was dead within 6 hours. This is 100% repeatable every time I use Google Play Music or PocketsCasts.


I tried adding both apps to the notification exclusion list in the Android Wear app and it made no difference. The watch has recently been reset and paired with a new phone as well.

 

[Penguwin]

I'm not really sure what is going on here to be honest, but here are a couple things I would try...

- Keep a close eye on the watch battery stats on the android wear app during and directly after media playback. Maybe even load up a third party Wear battery app, like Wear Battery Stats.

- Try putting the watch into airplane mode and/or disconnecting the watch directly before media playback to see if that proves a "heavy data transfer" that may be occurring between the watch and phone during media playback.

I know it's not much, but hopefully it will help.

 

[anon(871934)]

I have looked regularly at the watch battery stats when I experienced this heavy drain when using media apps. In every single case the number one culprit for battery usage is Bluetooth. That is never the case when I am not using a media app.

Yes, I do put the watch in airplane mode when I travel and use a media app. That solves the problem but of course defeats the use of the watch while driving.

 

[Andy Geoghegan]

+1 for this.

I've had my 360 for ages but over the last few days I've noticed the battery draining to zero, I usually go to bed with it on +40%

The drain does seem to happen at home when it automatically brings up the Sonos controls (I can't be sure this is related, but when I'm out and arguably using the device more it doesn't drain as fast).