High battery drain when connected to Galaxy Watch Active

[dominic221]

Plan

Premium

Device

Google Pixel/Samsung Galaxy Watch Active

Operating System

Android P

My Question or Issue

I'm experiencing high battery usage from the Spotify app when connected to my Galaxy watch Active in remote playback mode, even when no music is playing from the phone. Android battery usage stats show 35% battery consumed by the Spotify app. In comparison, the Samsung health app is also running in the background at all times and connected to the watch but uses only 1-2% battery.

I understand that the watch always being connected to my phone via Bluetooth will have some effect on battery life, but the Spotify app appears to be misbehaving as it's consuming close to half of my phone's battery without me even playing music.

Please let me know if others have experienced this behaviour and if a fix exists.

[SlayNayNay]

Also having a similar issue since the 2.2.2 update on my Galaxy Watch, very high battery usage even when Spotify is not in use, only fix is to restart the watch but as soon as you open Spotify on the watch is drains battery very quickly.

[dominic221]

Any input from Spotify devs? I'm still experiencing the issue and the only workaround is to force-close spotify when I'm finished listening to music, then open the spotify app again when I'd like to control playback from my watch. Major PITA.

[RasmusR]

I think I solved this issue by changing the playback from standalone to remote in settings.

This means that in remote mode you are using watch as a remote controller only and if you are in standalaone mode it's basically individual playback device.

All in all I think this is a bug and need to be fixed as fast as possible, because this goes to "quality of life"-category, and this impacts heavily on smart watch usage. Sadly this is the "fix" for now.

[Neonym]

I am experiencing hight battery drain even when using spotify in remote mode. Spotify app for Galaxy watch is full of bugs all the time of its existence. (for example, random order in album list, alphabetical order of songs instead of album original, etc.)

[Segrey]

Having the same issue. After the night it says Spotify was in active use for 10 hours out of the last 10, the battery went from 100% to 83%, even though nothing else should've made it drop so much. 

[SpotMasa]

Same issue, the standalone to remote is not possible when using LTE mode in Galaxy Watch.
Spotify is consuming lots of energy although play is stopped. I can't find any way to stop Spotify app. This is serious flaw, which should be corrected As Soon As Possible.

[WarBorg]

same problem here on my pixel 3 running Android 10

Problem is Spotify is draining battery like crazy on both phone and watch, even after I uninstalled the watch app, the phone app was still consuming battery, I had to reinstall the app on the phone to bring it back to normal 

[gwilliams1205]

I just picked up a Galaxy Watch 42mm and primarily for the ability to use spotify without my phone. But after my first workout with it this morning. I noticed spotify used upwards of 30% battery in under an hour. I was using it to stream music, but that seems a little excessive. I hope there is a fix coming soon.. any spotify reps want to chime in? Seems like this has been going on for a little while.

[shellprompt]

This is also happening on other Galaxy watches.  It seems to be caused by the spotify connect service running in the background constantly after the app is first started.  You can see this to be the case, as in other spotify apps (desktop for example) you can see that the watch device is available for playback.  If you close all apps, the service still runs.  As the other user mentioned, the only way to resolve the service running in the background is to reboot the watch after use which is obviously less than optimal.

[Flxms]

I also have this issue on a Active Watch 2, but I might have found a fix for this issue. 

In the Spotify app, under settings, untick the option Automatic 'carmode' when BlueTooth is detected (or something like that) 

Now when you close the Spotify app on the phone, it no longer keeps the connection alive with Active Fit watch (after a few seconds). 

If you want to use the remote function on the watch, you need to open the spotify app first and the connection will come alive again.  

[IanStuart]

SAME PROBLEM!!!

I have force stopped the app on my phone and done a reboot on my watch (without opening or using Spotify) -- I still get constant notifications on my watch that Spotify is draining my battery and indeed, my battery does seem to be depleting too quickly given that I am not currently using GPS or anything like that.  WHY AREN'T ANY SPOTIFY ENGINEERS MONITORING THIS FORUM AND PROVIDING A FIX????

[Ivan]

Hey there @IanStuart, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this. 
 

We're currently aware of an issue causing Android mobile devices to experience this app behavior. This issue is being investigated by our best tech-folks. 

If you experience the same, go to this Ongoing Issue and click on the +VOTE to support our investigation.

It'll also be useful to subscribe via the three-dots menu in the top right corner next to the title. That'll make sure you stay up to date with any relevant updates about this.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any more questions. 

[forsaken_entity]

Hello, I also wanted to input my issue here as well.

As everyone is saying, Spotify is buggy.

1) insane batter drainage (minimum 35%+)

2) offline mode shows nothing. Even though I have downloaded my playlist and it should work. And it does, when I go back to online, look through my entire playlist. Then go offline again. And it then shows. This is nuts to do every time.

3) I purchased the watch exactly for this reason. To listen to music on my watch. So when I workout, play sports or just casually listen. I know I could use my phone and all that, but I really like what you did with Spotify being standalone. It just seems very buggy and I hope you take a look at it, Spotify.

Thank you and keep up all the good work!

Hope this gets a fix soon!!!

P.S. Yesterday I went to the beach at 10am.. my watch died by 12 pm.. lol that's 2 hours. From full charge (100%). Because I listened to Spotify, offline, in stand alone, max volume, with 3 brightness and nothing else active. That's a huge problem!!!

More info:

I also let my watch fully discharge, recharge, discharge again and recharge again. Didn't fix.

I also backed up my data. Erased to factory reset settings and backed it up. Didn't fix either. 

Nothing seems to fix this. This must be an internal issue within your data base, Spotify.

[emiily]

Having the same issue 😞

Haven't even used Spotify except to link it with my phone.

71% seems way too high.

[noctrin]

I'm having the same issue. Shame because it's one of the reasons for buying this watch. 

[Elena]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your posts. We're sorry for the late reply.

As we mentioned in the previous ongoing issue - the relevant team looked into it and was not able to confirm that this is an issue which is caused by Spotify.

Here you have some steps which will help optimize battery usage on your respective devices:

• Constantly check for any Android updates as well as Spotify updates
• Turn off high-drain features such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and hotspots when not needed
• Limit activities which require an internet connection such as having multiple apps running (even in the background), using GPS for long periods, or playing/pausing videos on streaming while using Spotify
• Keep an eye on your screen brightness levels to make sure they’re not unnecessarily high
• Take good care of your battery by - among other things - using the power adapter which came with your phone, preventing the device from overheating, and charging it only for as long as it takes for it to reach full battery capacity

For further official info regarding the best ways to manage your Android device's battery consumption, you can refer to the following Google support articles:

• Get the most life from your battery on Android
• Fix battery drain problems on Android

If you have any questions we're always one reply away.

Cheers!

[RF00]

Again we get a classic and completely unhelpful "its not our fault, check cable is plugged-in" type of answer from Moderator. So, i have the same problem as well, 40% drained in 25mins usage. I have multiple other apps, some that use GPS/Bluetooth and they don't drain this much so something must be wrong with Spotify. If i had to guess, it would be Spotify's syncing but who knows... Also, i don't bring my phone with me and WIFI/LTE (internet) is off. Just the Bluetooth connected to my earbuds, playing a Downloaded (offline) play list while going for a quick run.

Hopefully as more people complain they will "actually" look into it.

[SpotMasa]

Sorry Elena, we can't accept your answer, because you haven't read or understand our and YOUR problem in question.
Android power savings solutions does not work with the Samsung Galaxy Watch, which works with Tizen user interface.

To clarify the special product in question:
It is a tiny wristwatch containing 4G phone connection to make it possible to use it without Android phone, thus making it possible to listen on-line Spotify music.

Why on-line, because the tiny device has too tiny memory to save music off-line among others.

The only sole manufacturer to this Spotify special watch application can't be manufactured or planned by anyone else than Spotify itself. Responsibility can't be transferred to the user or anyone else.

There will be a very simple solution for anyone from Spotify to understand this. It is simple to detect that annoying flaw, just to use the Samsung Galaxy Watch and you can immediately notice the huge current consumption, even when Spotify app is in stand by mode. All other Galaxy Watch apps are working flawless.

My only solution so far was to remove the Spotify app from my watch - so I don't rely no more to Spotify. I'm also very disappointed the the fact that my new Volvo is using such piece of s..t app like Spotify.

Elena, please be kind to forward this information to the Spotify development team and fix my Volvo Spotify as well.

[TimothyBlades]

I have followed every piece of advice provided on several threads trying to fix this issue. Spotify, based on response above, is punting and blaming. It's Spotify, and Spotify alone causing this issue. I removed the app from my phone, and it STILL DRAINS THE BATTERY. I use my Galaxy Watch to monitor important health metrics related to various health problems. There were several weeks prior to discovering the source of the drain where my health and healthcare was impacted by this issue. Shame on Spotify. I have uninstalled Spotify from all devices and cancelled my subscription because of it. Which won't change a thing for anyone but me. For anyone else experiencing this issue, it's the only solution.