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...?

[BandOfBrothers]

To me it sounds like it's time to get a diagnostic run on it via a Samsung Experience Store or Samsung Service Location @RedWolf

[Thomas-Jones]

Hi,

I had the same problem for months after the update but I can report that my problem is solved.
Here in the Netherlands, Samsung has a Facebook messenger option. I submitted my issue and they promptly answered. After asking the standard questions (reset, factory reset, pairing with other phone, etc) they gave me the option to have it picked up for service. The very next day a courier swung by and picked it up in a sealed container. 3 days later, I received notice that it had been repaired and be delivered by the same courier, free of charge.
Upon receiving my Gear, I really wasn't thinking it would be repaired by was proven very wrong. The motherboard and battery were replaced and also given a software update. 

The watch is working perfectly ever since. Long battery life (3 days easy!). Can now sleep with it on to monitor my sleep and also during my workouts. 
It came off the charger this morning at 8:30am and still has 99% battery left.

My guess is that there could be a faulty component on the board that only presented itself through the software update everyone is talking about. That would also explain my bluetooth connection issue I was having with my phone and Harmon Kardon bluetooth speaker. It was having dropouts while also connected with the Gear. That problem is also solved with this repair. 

Hope this all helps!!!

[GPSviews]

not sure if you have a damaged battery but it is good to know that the gear manual and the the charger manual, both fail to inform properly the users on how to charge this device (as well as phones). These devices do not have a auto-disconnect feature from the charging current. The original charger is not a smart charger type and the only way it tells the watch is charged is by changing the LED color (which is not accurate neither). So unless you are watching the charging process and be ready to remove the watch from the charger as soon as it gets 100%, you are likely over charging your battery. Voltage will not notice a change in short term but you capacity will decrease overtime until you will find your device charged super fast and drained super fast as well...
To prevent this, we should use a smart charger. Ooops there is none for the Gear. But you can change the usb cable by one of the auto-disconnecting cables from MCDODO or similar device to disconnect automatically the charger when the gear's battery is fully charger. Same for the phones, but at least for my S7 I found a wireless charger that has auto-disconnect feature. So much nicer than having to stay ready to unplug the cable. Try to keep your charge on the upper half and avoid deep cycling charges. This way the battery will last longer.

[morseman2003]

My Gear S3 is three days old and has been draining the battery from day 1 so not sure your solution is correct. 

[Sunnie4]

I wore mine for an hour after it was fully charged. I also have had mine for 2 weeks!

[morseman2003]

Update:

I took my watch back to basics and shut everything down.

The problem was still occuring. My next move was to shut down the gear app on my iphone and the health app. 

This has changed everything. Previously it must have been constantly looking to connect and sync and as a result the battery was draining in a matter of hours. When I open these apps now, they immediately sync so they are always up to date but there is no dramatic drain on the battery.

If i use the 'always on' option then I am getting just over a day before I need to recharge. If I turn the 'always on' option off, then I am getting 2-3 days before needing to recharge.

Still not brilliant but much better than before.

[morseman2003]

So I spoke too soon yesterday saying the problem appeared to be fixed. 

Charged the phone overnight, it started at about 37% when I put it on charge. When I woke up this morning it was only on 78% so despite charging all night it hadn’t charged properly. 

I took it it off the charger and put it back on charge for about 90 minutes. By this time it had reached 99%. This was at 07.00 in the morning. 

At about 13.15 the phone came up saying low battery and to put into low power mode which I did. By 14.00 the phone was totally dead. 

This is a farcical situation. What a piece of c**p. Not sure what I’m going to do yet but I need a solution urgently. 

[morseman2003]

Another issue that has come to light relates to charging. 

I've noticed a couple of times that despite being on charge overnight when I wake up in the morning, the watch is still not fully charged.

The only common factor has been that the phone has died before the end of the day despite me putting it into low power mode.  So when the watch is put on the charger, although it is dead, it remains in low power mode.  

I'm going to try charging for a few minutes if this happens again and then switch it to normal power before leaving it overnight to charge.

[Ramm4u]

My started to suffer the same about 3 days ago, I did factory reset twice to see if that would help, but it did not. I tried with 2 different charges just in case, didn't help. There's gotta be something software ralated

[AntS]

Hi guys.

Very similar issue is happening for the Gear Sport at the moment too. There's a thread on that pinned to the Smartphones, Tablets & Wearables board here that it's worth checking out the latest in. My latest posts in it are  here; here; and here BTW.

[Wenjae]

Same thing happened to us, did a forced update, battery is gone after 2 hours. Only had watch about a year and a half, never been in water, only wear to work. Samsung refuses to fix saying the watch has water damage. Really Samsung?...on a watch that is waterproof, and has NEVER BEEN WET!!

[Wenjae]

Same thing happened to us, did a forced update, battery is gone after 2 hours. Only had watch about a year and a half, never been in water, only wear to work. Samsung refuses to fix saying the watch has water damage. Really Samsung?...on a watch that is waterproof, and has NEVER BEEN WET!!

[Cam1204]

@ morseman2003, i am in the same picture. very disappointment

[Wenjae]

Its such bull*****,  I am finding more and more people that are saying the same thing. 

[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.

[KiVi]

I absolutely agree with this. Stay away from Samsung products!

[hstad]

My experience is that the Samsung Health App is draining the battery. I had a loss of 31 % during 12 hours. when I checked, this app spent 30% of it...

[JJ84]

Just buy a new one