Something is rapidly draining the battery of my Gear S3 Frontier

[RedWolf]

Dear All, 

When I first got my Gear S3 Frontier, I was very happy with the watch.  A charge of the battery used to last me at least three days, and that was fine by me.  Then suddenly, the battery started being completely drained within about 10 hours.  

I thought that probably I have a power-hungry app installed, did a reset, install only trusted apps I have been using for a long time, and everything seemed fine again, battery lasts three days.  I thought at the time that the issue had been resolved. 

However, a few days later, the same thing happens again... and again... and again...  ever more frequently...  it seems to happen particularly after episodes of the watch having lost BlueTooth Connection to the phone, e.g. because of having been in airplane mode -- I travel a lot.  On a side note, I also have the BlueTooth reconnection issue that is being dealt with in a different thread, and may or may not be related. 

I have had the S3 Frontier now for about 7 months, and it has now become virtually impossible to use it for a full day.  Even resets no longer resolve the issue.  I have done a reset and not installed *any* apps, and yet the battery lasted only 10 hours(ish), so it's not just one dodgy app... 

Anyone any ideas...?

[LorneInKelowna]

I called Samsung and they said since past warranty period they would advise of the repair depot for me to take my S3 Gear to but cost is mine!  I had complained about battery charge since early on and was told updates coming to resolve and also I eliminated almost anything on watch and reduced many of the ‘great’ features just to be able to have a ‘watch’ for a full day.  Yet, now that I am out of warranty, no consideration of past issues and I have to pay for what is obviously a known and common issue among many (if not all) S3’s.  I no longer use WiFi (other than for downloads when updates come) and I have tried shutting down app on phone it that does not seem to make a difference.  When I look at the battery report it usually shows S-Health or Watchfaces as the highest user. Sometimes when I am using a specific app (ie. music or weather) it will top off the usage list but not very often.  I thought I was onto something with doing a full power off of watch and shutting down the app maybe once per week.  This seemed to work or at least give me a bit more longevity, but I haven’t been getting similar results lately.  Open to any peer reviewed solutions... it seems many one offs with success but we need something that is repeatable across different countries and something that actually is not about us having to shut every function that is the selling feature of the S3 just to squeeze a day out of this thing.

[Shazam0527]

The Easiest solution I've found is to never buy a Samsung product ever again.  No TV's, no Phones, no Watches - nothing.  When a company won't stand behind it's products, they care nothing for them or for their customers.  There are far too many other brands out there.  And if they ***** up like Samsung, well they'll lose customers as well.

Goodbye Samsung, I wish you didn't suck.

[Albiona]

i dont have mentioned above device, but have gear fit 2. Same problem for a very long time. After sending it for a repair twice, problem is stil there, no report back of what was or wasnt found and done to it. No info on any futher updates to fix this problem.

[JJ84]

I just go and buy a new one

[JJ84]

Just buy a new one

[Shazam0527]

No thanks, rather bite the bullet and buy an Apple watch that is a better quality than waste money on garbage that doesn't work, and the company won't back it's products.

[remhiker]

I have had my G3 for three years. The best watch ever made. Only since the last update in December / January 2018 /2019 has my gone to 10 or less hour's. I have turned of lactation, WIFI, and still same battery use. Help!

[LorneInKelowna]

It would be great if Samsung could actually respond on this thread that they know of the issue and are working on it and will push out a fix with an upcoming update.  I have noticed my Samsung Health is what is showing as being the very significant drain on battery.  I have done hard reboot, I have unlinked and reminded phone to watch and I have even shut down pretty well all settings for the health aspect of the watch, which I shouldn’t have to do since those are all the reasons to own the watch!!

i also put it on to power save mode for a day and that did seem to result in a bit more time before battery was in desperate mode.  Again, should not need to do these measures just to get a full day out of watch that was supposed to be getting at least three days easily during all the promos on watch when released... I am holding out hope Samsung has this under control and will be pushing something out to us ‘gearheads’...

[LorneInKelowna]

Very odd... I charged to 100% before bed.  In morning down to 64% which is better than it has been in recent weeks... I have made no changes to settings but did a hard reboot again as it ran out of juice mid day.  So not sure if a full discharge has helped it or one further reboot.  I am not sure the level of discharge overnight is great still, given no real activity or watch face discharge but it is better than it has been lately.  When I look at battery stats, the highest drain is from watch face, not health, so that is a switch... and odd since I made no recent changes to settings.  Samsung is working on an overall fix so each day is not a ‘discovery’ I hope...

[LorneInKelowna]

So, just checked on Gear and noticed there is a software update. Downloaded and doing update now. I guess I will need to wait a day of use now and will report back with any better battery life.