Apple Watch sudden battery drain?

As a continuing saga ... I reported first on this a few days ago ... I have a v4 Apple Watch. I installed Watch OS 6.1within hours after it was released. The battery draining did not start until the day before my first post on this subject. Other than sign up for Apple Studies, I changed nothing in my v4 Watch between the time I installed 6.1 and the time the battery started draining rapidly.

I've done a variety of things, but, yesterday, with 50% of the battery gone by Noon, I had to put the watch back on the charger for a couple of hours so that in client meetings it did not die on me.

Right now, I've had it off the charger and running for about 2 1/2 hours and it's used 17% of the battery, without any music, no texts, and only occasionally notices.

The thing is, I support Apple and love its products. And, I am what some would say an 'informal tech opinion leader' in my area, and have influenced a great many people, just because of my word of mouth endorsement of its products, to buy Apple Watches, iPads, iPhones and even Macs. I was about to recommend the Apple Watch to a couple of friends who have health problems that they might be able to monitor more effectively with an Apple Watch ... but, with this malfunction (which is what it is ... calling it a "software" problem, just disguises the fact that whatever is causing this so widely is causing the watches to malfunction), I can't very well endorse the watch to anyone.

I hope Apple gets this fixed soon; I've wasted far too much time on trying to self-diagnose a defect in its Watch.

My watch is back to normal - getting almost two days use out of a single charge.

I have turned off auto-updates for both iOS and WatchOS - not going to let crap like this happen again. I'll wait a couple of weeks after the next update(s) to see what havoc they've created before updating.

I started a new post a week ago and got the brilliant advise to replace my battery. Needless to say, have i not heeded (yet), as this sudden power loss seems a bit thick to be blamed on old batteries. Then, 4 days ago, just as soon as it started, my watch was back to it's old self, lasting 2 days with activity and messages and all the jazz. I rejoiced.... only to be disappointed again after the next charge, where the battery life fell to 16 hours again. And then today, back to less then 12. Nothing changed, in fact, i have switched of any communications between watch and phone not used, and still no joy. I really hope Apple can solve this fast, faster then the already 2 months already past since the first upload, as all this bs started with iOS updates. My watch, which always have been a pleasure to use, has become an arm piece of inconvenience.

OK, did a wipe and re-nstall as New 3 days ago. All was good until yesterday, starting eating up battery. Now, after charging all night, here I am the next morning. iWatch has been running off the charger for 48 minutes and I've already lost 5%! I've done nothing on using the watch!

WTF

8 pages into this thread and still no fix or response from Apple for our battery problems. My ser 4 is now able to get through 1 day of minimal usage. I suppose I should be grateful…for this very VERY expensive device that does pretty much what a dime store Timex can do. I don’t know what caused the battery life to be cut from 2 days to 6 hours, then mysteriously improved to 1 day — but the math is simple enough. I am still down by half. My iPhone XR also drains about twice as fast as it did before all this started. AND, my iPad Pro is also draining about 10% and hour where once I could go days on one charge w/ minimal usage.

I think it might be time, friends, to admit to ourselves we are well and truly boned. I know this next bit won’t matter two beans to Apple, but I planned to buy my family an Apple TV for xmas. Big “nope” now.

My battery is now pretty consistent. From 100% charge to about 10% charge, I loose 1% every ~100 seconds of usage. The last 10% goes really fast with minimal usage. My "usage" is nothing but tapping the watch to get the time. Also what is interesting is that the watch it set to stay awake for 70 seconds on tap but stays "on" for about 4 seconds.

For a outdoor cycle the watch now dies <2 hours.

I have upgraded to 6.1.1 and it is maybe even worse. I tried restoring from a back up from a year ago - that was running 5.x and I thought I did it but 6.1.1 remains the OS.

I have done a test were the watch is charged before bedtime and I take it off and let it sit on the nightstand (not or charger). Before, the watch would not loose much power. Now, it goes dead.

The other thing I think is strange is that the green lights below the watch used to come on frequently even after I just took the watch off. Now, I never see them unless I go into exercise mode. I would think this would make it better but maybe not.

Ok, I also installed 13.3 on my Xs and 6.1.1 on my iWatch series 4. It is worse! Both draining quite a bit and projecting to get about 12 hours on the watch. I even un-paired and re-paired as new. Also did hard reset on phone and watch. This is really annoying!

That is pretty darn good. I left the watch sit overnight off the charger after a full charge and went from 100% to 65% in 7 hours and 45 minutes of just sitting there.

This morning, with 20 minutes of use (nothing but checking time) and 100 minutes of standby time, the watch has lost 10% of charge.

This is on an Apple Watch 3 without LTE. I have zero apps installed and most everything is turned off.

May give it a few days but most likely will dump this and buy a non apple device as I this started 100% after upgrading the OS and Apple refuses to acknowledge that fact.

Series 4 (WiFi) on WatchOS 6.1.1 and iOS 13.3. Starting at 100% charge, usage of 10 hours 18 min (100% standby) and I’m down to 38% charge. Full standby will drain to zero in less than 17 hours. Have unpaired/repaired/setup as new repeatedly on every version of WatchOS since 6.0 released. Are any watches running 6.x not seeing this kind of battery drain? Debating initiating a warranty exchange, but not sure I’m going to see better if the replacement isn’t running 5.x.

I did that and followed some of the other things from the video and during my workout, the distance and speed were not calculated. The funny thing is the route was mapped.

The strange thing is that I went for close to 4 hours and only lost 50% of battery life - which is honestly the best it has been in a long time.

Paul, may give that a shot. I still only get a 12 hour day of standby with my watch so I am looking for more help. I am moving on from the Apple Watch and getting something else but will still see if I can return the watch to its former self. That might just require a trip to the apple store and a reversion back to an older OS.

I’ve been having the same problem for the last month. Have tried a lot of the same things everyone else has tried (unpair, reset and set up as new, etc). My wife’s watch is having the same problem and it started the same day. Yesterday seemed to be a good day until I listened to music on a HomePod. Does anyone else here have a HomePod? It seems odd that we both developed the same issue unless there is a common thread, and I’m wondering if it has to do with the HomePod. Just a shot in the dark at what has been a terribly frustrating issue.

OK, tried EVERYTHING and today, in 10 hours, down to 41%. WTH is going on here? Also, phone drains fast as well. Running all the latest OS's and most things turned off. As a matter of fact, I never even did any activities on my series 4 today, which usually add to the battery drain.

Sure wish Apple could get this corrected.

Has anyone actually found a cure for this mess?

That is pretty much what I am getting. I am down to 36% with 11 hours of use but nothing except checking the time. I have everything else turned off and no apps running. I have also turned off SIRI. The actual usage time is 1 hour with 11 hours of standby. And with that I am down to 36%. Sorry, 35% in the time it has taken me to write this. Bought my wife a Fitbit this x-mas and it is nice. Will move to that soon as well.