New update / HORRIBLE battery life

[mrkalel]

Hey guys...I updated my TMO S3 Gear software yesterday.. and battery life is horrible... Almost exactly like what the S2 was.

I would turn on about 7-8AM and still have about 35-50% about 12AM... I was down to 5% at 2pm after the update.

Tracking the drain today seems going that way again.

No changes in settings.

 

[Golfdriver97]

The new kernel you got is probably part of the drain. I would give it another day or two to see if it will settle down.

 

[mrkalel]

The new kernel you got is probably part of the drain. I would give it another day or two to see if it will settle down.

Yeah? It's a huge drain... I would be surprised if it doesn't take another update to fix this....but hopefully you're right.

 

[mrkalel]

I might give another day or two then might do a full reset...

 

[Golfdriver97]

It probably would be best to wait. I'm pretty sure when you do a reset, the kernel will have to resettle anyway.

 

[Kirk Maluo]

I might give another day or two then might do a full reset...

A full reset helped my battery drain with the older firmware. Also, do a clean install, don't restore apps/settings from a backup.

 

[lyingfromyou]

Might be something to do with the T-Mobile version. I bought mine from Best Buy (non carrier specific) last month & got the March update the same day. I get 4 - 5 days battery life...

I will never buy another watch that has to be connected to a Mobile Network. I believe the radio is killing your battery....

 

[daves221]

My battery life took a nosedive the past two days.. Non-LTE version. Watch face is taking most.. At first I thought it was the facer face however the next day I used stock and it was similar.

Previously I could end the day at 30-40%, however past two days it has died in the afternoon. Odd thing is that the percentages on battery usage by app no longer total the complete consumption. 30% of my consumption is missing (and remaining estimate is off, although by 7%, the watch was in power saver.. But, estimates have been off too before power saver). No firmware updates in the past several weeks.

 

[WalkingHorse]

Daves221, this exact same scenario happened to me. Probably a stupid suggestion as you have most certainly already done this but have you tried powering down your watch, waiting a minute or so, then restarting? It fixed mine. I did that yesterday morning when I saw the battery indicator dropping rapidly for the second day in a row. (watch faces was the #1 consumer of power). After I started it back up again the battery indicator actually gained a couple of percentage point in the first five minutes. So strange. Anyway, it's back to normal now. Ended the day at the typical 75ish% instead of the +-20% of the previous two days.

 

[daves221]

Daves221, this exact same scenario happened to me. Probably a stupid suggestion as you have most certainly already done this but have you tried powering down your watch, waiting a minute or so, then restarting? It fixed mine. I did that yesterday morning when I saw the battery indicator dropping rapidly for the second day in a row. (watch faces was the #1 consumer of power). After I started it back up again the battery indicator actually gained a couple of percentage point in the first five minutes. So strange. Anyway, it's back to normal now. Ended the day at the typical 75ish% instead of the +-20% of the previous two days.

Thanks. I did full power down/up last night and then left it to charge overnight. Today, consumption is better (@80% mid way through work day), however:
1. s-health is shown as the biggest consumer of battery..I haven't changed how I use the app or my profile of daily movement.. Either a continued fluke in s-health or the battery report is wrong
2. The consumption by app is wrong.. It doesn't total battery consumed or 100% .. it totals 70% with 20% of my battery consumed.

So good news is that the battery is lasting longer, I think. Bad news is that something's wrong in the app, I think.

 

[michail71]

I only ran the original firmware for a day or two as I haven't had my watch very long. Typically I get about 1% battery drain per hour in periods with minimal usage (such as sleeping). Non LTE version, No AOD, WiFi off when BT connected, phone usually nearby, about 7,000-9,000 steps per day.

I did experience one sudden and massive battery drop but I rebooted the watch when that happened.

 

[11B1P]

1. s-health is shown as the biggest consumer of battery..I haven't changed how I use the app or my profile of daily movement.. Either a continued fluke in s-health or the battery report is wrong

I went in today and turned off SH notifications. If I want to see how I'm doing, I can look at my phone. No need to get 50 notifications on my watch of my sleep record, goals met and so on. I'm hoping this helps with battery usage as well.

 

[daves221]

I went in today and turned off SH notifications. If I want to see how I'm doing, I can look at my phone. No need to get 50 notifications on my watch of my sleep record, goals met and so on. I'm hoping this helps with battery usage as well.

Yeah although s-health didn't used to take that much battery and I didn't change anything. So either Samsung changed s-health or the reporting is wrong... Not sure yet...

 

[jazzdoctor]

After the update I too had a rapid drain...from 2+ days down to a little over a half a day. I was frustrated called ATT who turned me over to samsung who were clueless. I set up to return it then went into settings and saw that Mobile data was on by default. Turned it off and problem solved. I don't know if it was on by default previously but I have little need for mobile data. I care that my calls get forwarded when I am remote (which occurs without mobile data)...everything else can wait until Bluetooth connect. Any good reason for mobile data on by default? My battery life is now back to 2+ days

 

[Ca_lvn]

I had this issue too after a update, restarted watch and issue resolved

 

[lv2bsilly]

Did your S3 automatically download the update? I haven't received anything on mine yet.