Galaxy watch 4 and WearOS fast battery drain causes and solutions

[abc_34]

Update 27/12/21:

Using watch for more than 2 months. Swicthed to classic bt model after 3 weeks of using 44mm bt model. Must say that battery little bit improves on latest update and after using watch for a few days when battery calibration thing has finished. With ligth usage it gives 2-2.5 days of battery life. imo, Its still far from good. The watch at least should offer a software based lite mode (instead of watch only mode) that users can get basic notifications, exercise step counting etc like a regular fitness band with about 7 days of battery life. 

First Post on 10/21:

As noted by many users Galaxy watch 4 series have some battery life issues. I'm trying to figure out root cause (with limited tools, not much help from Wearapp's battery menu). I did some tests on GW4 44mm BT model. 2-4% per hour battery drain when watch is idle is too much for a smart watch really. Even when airplane and power saving modes enabled at the same time (no BT, no Wifi, no AOD, no SPO2, screen brigtness on 15%, only 10 mins heart rate on (runs once or twice an hour), sleep tracking and workout detection is on) while watch is idle in this state without any screen activity it drains battery around 1.2-1.5% per hour during day and around 1.5-2% over night during sleep. All this suggests something in the background drain battery fast. Battery menu on wear app doesnt give much clue since list of apps there (samsung health services, screen activity, ui etc.) all combined shows only about 1/3 of total battery drain. So what does drain battery the most, about remaining 2/3 of total battery drain, when watch is idle? Is it WearOS itself? Is there a tool application that shows more battery info than Samsung's Wear app, like Gsam battery on phones? 

I think most likely root cause of battery drains are software based, Wearos and/or Samsung side, and they can be improved by devs. For instance; maybe some process/services (wifi, BT, notifications, gps, google services, health services etc. ) are running  too frequently in the background which use cpu/memory power even if sensors/features are disabled and watch is inactive. There might be bugs and/or just bad implementations. No matter what, they should be found and solved by WearOS/Samsung devs. Maybe solution is as simple as changing the frequency of one service/process call that cause the most battery drain. Letting users change/tweak those settings that affect battery life would be better idea in fact.

Much cheaper watches or fitness bands last couple weeks even a month with like 2/3 battery capacity of GW4. They provide similar workout and health stuff, basic notifications, remote media control etc. With all features on they give much better battery life than GW4 with all smart features off (no notifications, no wifi, no BT, power saving on etc.) even much better than when Galaxy watch 4 is waiting idle doing nothing. Definitely WearOS is not battery optimised and buggy. Samsung apps might be making it worse as well.

[Forbor]

I agree with you as well, 40 even 50 hrs is poultry compared to my fitbit. Now I know it doesnt have as many features but I go for a month or more between changes.  So if you can't use those features then you're back to a watch similar to a fit bit hence not sure if this watch is worth the $$$. I expected more from Samsung to be honest.

[GalaxyWatchUser]

I didn't have any problems (apart from the relative shore battery life of 30-40 hours) with the watch until I went for my first run using Strava on January 1st.

After the run the battery was still at 80% but 2 hours later it was suddenly empty.

I completely recharged my watch, made sure the software was up-to-date (Software version R870XXU1DUK1) and closed all open apps.

I put on my watch again around 10 pm last night and turned on the bedmode before going to bed. On waking up this morning the watch had completely drained again.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem? This is unacceptable for me.

[blitter]

Same here,

When I bought it, battery lasted 1,5 to 2 days.

Since about two weeks, without any change on my side I hardly get 0,5 day.

This is totally unacceptable .....

I uninstalled (3) applications and all is back to normal.

Don't know which one is using battery so much.

Note to Samsung : make a "power manager"  that allows user to detect and control badly written applications.

This is even more important than on a phone 🙂

[Members_481CWd8]

Same issue here. Within 4 hours more than 50% of decharge.

It was more than 2 days a couple of weeks ago. 

Seems that this is happened after the last update. This is also not acceptable for me.

My old gear 3 watch is much better than this one.

[Luccardesch]

I too, purchased the Watch 4 two days back and was so happy with how it was functioning at first. Then I noticed the EXTREMELY short battery life. I'd say my usage is very average and the battery lasts me only about 20h. Thinking of returning the product, because this is an insanely short span for a watch, indeed. This needs to be solved, Samsung!

[GalaxyWatchUser]

The problem may be alleviated by regularly closing all open Apps since WearOS leaves them running in the background and some, especially those that use GPS or Bluetooth, will increase battery drain.

So, regularly swipe up on your watch, press the button that looks like two circles superimposed (should be topmost icon), swipe left to right and close all open Apps.

Hope that helps some of you. I do so after each exercise and battery life is back to 1 1/2 days.

[robbiev80]

Thanks! That did it. I turned off the NFC which I guess I had been permanently on since I installed Google Pay and now it's sitting at 95% after 7 hours of use. Before it would have been at 70% or so.

[Peszawa]

We have exactly the same issue... got one for my wife.. i wanted her to change from fitbit... and altho she loves it... she cant stand it because of the battery. She is a trainer at the gym... super active... and she says that because of the battery this $hïţ is useless. Samsung need to do something about it. Right now i feel like my money was stollen for me since why pay so much if it doesn't work like it supposed to work?

[Peszawa]

So what's the point of having it without all the helath features? Useless

[VinceZ]

I am having the same issue. I purchased my watch 4 thinking the upgrade from watch 3 would solve the battery issues etc. Also, I want to use Google Pay on the Samsung watch. Within a day of installing Google Pay, the battery started draining and it will not hold a charge for 24 hours). 

I don't want a Smart Watch where I have to turn off all the features - what's the point in having a SmartWatch if you have to do that just to have some decent battery life.

I spoke with the (ever so rude and useless Samsung customer service) who told me that I could turn off many of the features. Instead of Google Voice, use Bixby; instead of GooglePay, use Samsung Pay.   Samsung, I will never use Bixby, a load of shite that you have been trying to push on users for over ten years now. I also don't want to use Samsung Pay. 

Now I'm left with the elephant in the room; Samsung Watch4. I have to remove Google Voice and Google Pay and switch off NFC. It looks like by comments here I may also have to remove the integration of health apps.  

I mean, seriously, are we paying premium prices for this junk? I was hoping that once Google had acquired FitBit, it would produce a new watch with similar style and looks to Samsung. But this hasn't happened; instead, they have the existing watches they upgraded with Google pay etc and they are not as stylish as the Samsung watch. 

I'm left with a stylish and large watch that does nothing except tell me the time and weather. This feels like a case of the Emperor's new clothes!