iCloud Location updates & Apple Watch Battery

Hey guys,

So I’ve recently started using the iCloud component to track the whereabouts of my devices, so far so good - however since adding the iCloud component both my and my wifes’ Apple Watches don’t last the day (Also noticed a less significant drain on my wifes’ iPhone) which is understandable. I am wondering if it would be possible to not have the Apple Watches woken on location requests as to save their batteries.

I have already set the “track: false” flag in the known_devices.yaml file but the batteries still drain rapidly, also checked if I can turn off location services for the Apple Watches without any luck, any ideas?

Thanks!
Gerhard

Odd, my wife and I are not seeing this after adding the iOS app and location tracking. Do you have notifications turned on for location changes?

I know the tactive alerts on the watch kill battery pretty quickly.

I think you are talking about two different methods of tracking. @Gerhard_Veldman are referring to the iCloud component and @jwelter are using the new iOS tracking.

I have experienced that the new iOS tracking that came with the new iOS app a couple of weeks ago are more battery friendly then the iCloud component. Yes the iOS app still have some issues but hopefully that will get sorted soon.

My recommendation is therefore to use the iOS app for tracking

Yes you are right @Stimo, I find the iCloud tracking to be more responsive for triggering automations when getting home etc. than the iOS app, is this your experience or am I doing something wrong?

Would it be possible to disable tracking on a per-device basis in an iCloud account in a way that does not drain battery or does this lie with Apple?

That is my experience with the new iOS app that I the tracking do not work all the time. This is a known issue reported here on the community.

I do not have that much experience with the iCloud platform. I stopped using it after only two days because it was draining the battery that badly.

Just came across this thread as I’m seeing the same problem with my Apple watch battery. I installed the icloud component and it works great, but it’s killing my watch battery. Is there anyway to exclude that device from the tracking?

1 Like

Same issue here

I also stopped using iCloud for device tracking due to significant battery drain on tracked devices.

I’m posting this “me too” on this thread in the hopes that when the problem is fixed - someone will post a message to that effect to this thread and I’ll be notified.

@Tyler_Terzigni @Simon_Funnell @Stimo @Gerhard_Veldman Check out this issue report and see if the fix of removing the authenticate call every loop works for you.

Here’s a custom component that should fix the battery issues.