Something is rapidly draining the battery of my Gear S3 Frontier - Page 6

RedWolf · ‎19-08-2017

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 · ‎03-02-2019

I am just over 20hrs on my Gear S3 Frontier. That is longest in a while. I am at 7% now so only showing I will get 2 more hrs on this charge. My activity has not been high and I am not fully using all of the features. I did my workout yesterday before charging so thinking I would not have enough charge for that as well. Looks like I will still need to charge morning and evening, but at least it looks like I can now make it through a day. I think Samsung has done something with the latest update but definitely still not as long of use as in its earlier days before various updates that I think reduced its life for each charge. If anyone has any proven adjustments that could help it last more than a day on a charge, please share.

samuelr · ‎10-02-2019

I have noticed that If battery goes totally empty, then the watch thinks that it has about 75-85% battery left. And then it will charge only 25-15%. The watch is showing that it has 100% battery left. But actually there is about 20% left. So If you put the watch in the charger when it showing 10% battery left, you get better battery life.

LorneInKelowna · ‎12-02-2019

Very odd. I think this happened to me. I had about 90% left last night but thought I would charge before bed to ensure 100% and not as much to charge in morning (the workarounds we build into our lives for this hunk of junk!). Anyhow, I get up this morning, put my watch on and go for walk. Get home and realize watch is off. I reboot it and it comes up as 21%. It must have gone into shutdown mode overnight. Strange thing is the night before I woke up to 71% charge so I know in general I do not lose 80% overnight. Might be something to this theory about what charge level should be at before putting it on dock. This adds another element of complexity to ensuring I always have a watch ready with enough charge to last at least 12 hours... Samsung, please look into this and send out a fix... I think we are getting to the potential root of the problem...

Xenogobic · ‎26-03-2019

Been using gear S2 for like 3 years and it work really great. i just bought my S3 last month, and been struggling with this battery issue. I put my S3 off last night after i charged it to 100percent, this morning i turn on the s3 and the battery is fall to 68percent. Wtf Samsung!!

Corn73 · ‎26-03-2019

@JJ84 wrote:
Just buy a new one

I just bought a new one. My first Samsung watch. I’ve had it two days and have had to charge it now three times. Seems to drain over night. Has anyone found a fix for this? It says I have the latest software.

Blackforge · ‎26-03-2019

I had the battery and main borad replaced in november as the samung support store stated it was an issue with them..

However i charged my watch yesterday as it was completely discharged and the battery ran down in 16 hours....

Corn73 · ‎27-03-2019

My problem seems to only happen at night when I’m asleep. I tried turning on good night mood last night, but it didn’t help. Went to bed at 10 with 100% battery. Woke up at 4 to 10%. I got the phone on Sunday (3 nights ago), bought it new. Every night it has done this. During the day it seems to drain at a rate of about 10% every three hours, which I think is good. It is only at night when it drains fast. I was thinking maybe it can’t reach my phone at night? I checked and my phone goes into a do not disturb mood during this time. Tonight I’m going to try to shut it off and see if I have anymore luck. I also tried shutting off sleep tracking on the watch. I also reset the watch.

remhiker · ‎27-03-2019

@Corn73 wrote:
My problem seems to only happen at night when I’m asleep. I tried turning on good night mood last night, but it didn’t help. Went to bed at 10 with 100% battery. Woke up at 4 to 10%. I got the phone on Sunday (3 nights ago), bought it new. Every night it has done this. During the day it seems to drain at a rate of about 10% every three hours, which I think is good. It is only at night when it drains fast. I was thinking maybe it can’t reach my phone at night? I checked and my phone goes into a do not disturb mood during this time. Tonight I’m going to try to shut it off and see if I have anymore luck. I also tried shutting off sleep tracking on the watch. I also reset the watch.

remhiker · ‎27-03-2019

Since I originally posted my problem with battery life, it has been restored. It lasts for two and one half days on average. Last I went to sleep, sleep for 6.5 hours with the batter at 25% at sleep an 2% and it is know being charged. The only other I am having is my altimater will no link.

GPSviews · ‎27-03-2019

Mi Frontier S3 is two years old and it still gives me almost three full days of normal use with one charge. Earlier on this post I described in detail all what I do to keep it on good shape. But the way it is charged is key (never leave it on the charger after reaching 100%) and I try to never let it go below 40% of charge. Usually I charge it at the office in the morning for some minutes every day (coffee time). Recently it was draining faster than usual and I found out it was due to frequent whatsapp notifications from a new group. So, enable only the notification from the really important apps. The screen I set in 4 and I use the JMOPrismColor watch face. I almost never use the "always on" screen mode. I use no disturb at night (on the phone and watch) and my phone is online all night (in an auto disconnect/shut off wireless charger).
Since it is at night that you have the main draining period, I recommend you to open the Wear app on your phone at that time, go to "Home" / "About watch" and then "Battery". On the lower section you will see the %power that each app is using. This way you will find what is using your juice the most and from there you can do changes on your settings.
Periodically, while charging the watch, on the same section of Wear app, I perform some maintaining: under RAM you can "Clean" the memory to increase performance and save energy by stopping background apps; under STORAGE use "Clean Now" as well. Sadly WEAR app does not have a setting to program these tasks automatically.