Apple CarPlay, iPhone,smart watch battery

Bought new Toyota with Apple car play display, navigation included. But: iPhone battery usage and watch battery usage severely impacted while driving. All using blue tooth and synched with Car Play. So watch battery and iphone battery go way down after trip even when driving locally. I wear watch 24/7 so don’t want to leave it home. Need to have iPhone with me also…. I think I would have to remove watch from Bluetooth and then put it on again? That would be a PITA. Any thoughts/suggestions? Yes, I do like and want to keep Car Play on the can

We bought a new '23 RAV4 Limited last year, but haven’t noticed any difference in my iPhones (15) battery life, or the watch 5, but it, the watch only ties to the iPhone, not the car, so that shouldn’t affect it… There is, in the RAV4, a magnetic charging are just in front of the shifter, it has a switch to turn it on, but I don’t know if other models have it. My watch is, so far an older, 5, but I don’t know if it could be charged in that same area or not, I charge it overnight at home. We’re about to replace our watches, but I don’t think CarPlay links to it, only the iPhone…

When I updated to iOS 18, I hd to redo the CarPlay connection, USB cable, and now after a year, the Toyota App is trying to force me into a subscription, but I don’t see the need, but it’s screen seems to block my CarPlay at times, Irritating… that Toyota App only allows one user, not both of us, so another irritation… No solution to that, for now…

Good luck!

weco

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Your apple watch has a tiny battery - it will not last 24 hours without charging just keeping time. So I suggest you turn off every possible connection between your watch and CarPlay - if the Toyota itself has a connection with the watch ditto. Look at notifications. I am not sure if you will find connections in the Watch app on your iPhone or via Settings in the Watch itself. So look both places.

I do not have to turn off Bluetooth to break the connection between my iPhone and my Apple Airpods or Beats Earphones. So I am pretty sure you can use settings to shut off Bluetooth communication between the Watch and other stuff. Apple’s default for Watch settings in to mirror your iPhone. It is one thing to have your iPhone listening for phone calls. It is something different to have your watch listening for phone calls.

Navigation uses a large amount of power since in addition to the actual navigation the system has to be in radio contact with at least 2 and usually 3 satellites. The solution to this problem is get a wired connection between your iPhone and the car. Today most cars have multiple USB-c ports. Another option is an adaptor into what 50 years ago was called the cigarette lighter. (my wife uses Waze - she prefers it to the Nav system in her car. Except for drives around town, she always uses a wire for power.)

Unless you use Google Maps and/or Apple’s Map app, I suggest you keep those off on the theory it might be using power also.

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Working on it now and tomorrow. Found some items on iPhone watch app that I think I can remove from watch. Will experiment to see if makes a difference. I can easily use cable in car to connect the phone . I wonder if connecting phone via cable will impact watch battery issues, probably not however will test tomorrow. As always, thx

If you are talking about the battery in the phone -for sure. You can charge your phone on a cable.

By default any app on your phone that has an associated watch app will cause have its watch app will be installed.

One good example of the iPhone app Weather. I like having weather on my wrist – I can see current temperature and the forecast for the next 7 days. Indeed you can remove the weather app in the iPhone’s watch app. You said then issue is the watch battery is being drained quickly when you are in the car using CarPlay. Weather is going to do nothing different in the car than in your house.

So consider if you use the app. If you don’t use the app on your phone, it is unlikely you will use the app on your watch. So delete the unused app everywhere. In the event you decide next year or next week you want to app, you can download the app in question at no cost.

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