Battery Indicator stuck at 100% All day

I had the same issue and had tried all of the usual suggested solutions. I then found a tip that I had not seen before and it worked for me (for a week now at least). I'll share it in hopes that it works for others as well.

1. Turn the power off on the iPhone and leave off for at least 20 minutes.
2. Turn the power off on the Watch and leave off for at least 20 minutes. I left both off for 30 minutes.
3. Turn the iPhone on.
4. Turn the Watch on.

Lo and behold, it worked! The battery went to 65% and ticked down in normal increments without shutting off. I have fully recharged every day since and it the battery continues to work normally. I can't explain why that worked, but I hope it works for others having the same problem.

I’m having this exact issue. Apple Watch 4 with watchOS 6.1. My watch has been stuck at 100% for 9 hours. I have done the hard reset and also unpair/pair steps. The issue remains. I’ve purposely left it off the charger and have been taking pictures every hour or so showing the % is stuck.

I found this you tube link. Step 1 is what we are doing by shutting the watch off for 15 min or more. Restart sometimes works but doesn't stay off long enough to drop by much. I have not tried step 3 yet.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250840427?answerId=252180855022&replyId=252180855022

Matt, after having a situation similar to the people on this thread, and sending it in multiple times to no avail, it was someone who used to work for Apple who solved my problem, as the iPhone is what links to the watch when it comes to software communication, so any bugs would be passed along.

About three weeks ago, I performed a hard reset for my devices, wiping the phone and setting it up like new. Note that I did not restore the phone from iCloud, as that would download all of my settings, including the faulty Apple battery issue. Of course, this means you need to download every single app and set up everything, but with the exception of the first night when the watch dropped 60% (it should go between 15-20% when I am using the Pillow app), I had no issues up until earlier today, when it hit 20% and brought up the "Low Battery" indicator.

I have since performed a reset of everything again, and the battery issue remained until I ran it down to 20%, restarted the watch, watched as the battery percentage went backwards, and then watched it recharge as normal. I am going to be monitoring it for a few weeks as it is possible that it picked up an error from somewhere, but there is the possibility that this will work for others for much longer, so I want to share what I did.

For anyone who wants to replicate this:

1. Back up your phone to iCloud and your computer. If you do not have enough storage on iCloud, see if you can explain your situation to Apple and see what they can do to potentially accommodate this one-time situation. Keep in mind that WeChat, WhatsApp, and some other apps have their own backup systems, so be sure to follow their routines for storage.
2. Unpair your watch (you can do this after you reset the phone, but it will become more of a hassle because it will be looking for your old phone).
3. Reset your phone's settings.
4. Set up your phone as new. Do not restore any documents or data when you are first prompted, as iCloud will automatically sync this data to your phone once you set it up.
5. Pair your watch. Alternatively, if you did not unpair your watch earlier, refer to step two before returning here.
6. Download your apps, set up the phone with settings that you normally use, and make sure that everything is set up properly.
7. If you are missing information, from apps such as WeChat or WhatsApp and it is crucial that you have them, back up this phone setup, restore the old phone in order to sync them, and then reset the phone to the new backup. Your watch might be searching for a phone for a bit, but once you restore to the new phone, everything will work out.

I am including step seven because I have already wiped out recent chats from both apps, and had to restore the phone to an older version temporarily to retrieve them.

Either way, this is a tedious process that will cost you a few hours, but hopefully it will help solve your issue in the long run.

I discussed how to fix this problem in my previous post in this thread (how to reset the Apple Watch when the battery level display stops functioning and also the watch shutting down randomly as though the battery is dead when it still shows plenty of charge on the display). I don’t remember what date my previous post was. So to recap what I wrote then:

Something gets messed up if the Watch either gets charged beyond 100% or becomes too hot during charging. And whatever that is, it fails to get reset or reinitialized not only on a reboot but even when a hard reset is done or even a full reset and re-pairing with the phone.

The only way to reset the battery display so that it syncs with actual level and also fix the Intermittent crashing of the Watch, to make it reliable again, is to allow the battery to absolutely completely and fully discharge.

Sometimes if the battery level is already low enough that just a few hours or over night are sufficient. Sometimes you need to leave the watch off the charger for up to 3 days. Restarting it on the charger then taking it off the charger again right after it boots and letting it run down its battery charge more can help get the battery down to its lowest level faster. But it could take awhile.

When the Watch no longer shows any glimmer of light on its display when you try to restart it while not on a charger, it still has some residual charge left. So you need to leave the Watch several more hours to make sure all charge is gone. That seem to be the only way to fully reset the battery indicator so it becomes accurate again.

Then the next day you can fully recharge it and it should function as intended. But do not recharge it over 100% and don’t let the watch become hot while recharging. Recharging to about 95% a couple times each day should be enough for most users and will avoid messing up the battery indicator again after it’s been reset.

Mine always goes back to functioning normally battery-wise and stops randomly shutting down after I do that absolute complete battery run-down. — That is, until the next time I stupidly let it charge to or over 100% again or if I let it get too hot while recharging. Either can restart the erratic behavior.

I hope that helps everyone. This is an infuriating problem that I keep hoping Apple will fix.

• Laurie

So the next day (dec 4), the battery was at 86%. I didn’t believe it so I did an ecg to work the battery. It ran but right after the watch powered off. Dead battery. I put it on the charger and after a few minutes rebooted and showed 17% battery. Very disappointed with Apple at this point. Bought nov 11, 2018. Battery good for one year????

I have exactly the same issue too. I've been having this issue for weeks. For example my watch has been at 100% for the last 16 hours. I know that if I now set a workout it will switch off within minutes. Is this a software fault that will be rectified with an update or is it a watch issue?

It went from 17% to 99% in 30 minutes. This watch is broken. I called Apple support and they want to charge me $79+tax for battery service since the watch is 1 month out of the 1 year warranty. Great. I get to spend this on a watch I paid $429 for a year ago. Poor customer service and quality.

Update on my watch problem. So I performed the hard reset and setup from scratch again and left in on the charger for a few hours. It them seems to begin to work fine. I did go the Apple store in North Austin this past Saturday and they ran some diagnostics on the watch. It reported the battery was in good health and there were no OS crashes on the watch. Since it began working correctly again there have been no issues. Seems like it was a software bug that finally got cleared with all the resetting and unpair/pairing I did. So I will take back my comments about Apple and my watch being broken. Something was wrong but all seems fine now. BTW - the assistant who helped me a the Apple store was very professional and really listened to my problem description. Although the store was packed, he spent time with me and did not try to hurry me off.

Yes it seems like that did it for my watch. I was already on watchOS 6.1 so there was no update performed on the watch. I just did several resets/unpair/pair then left just it on the charger for awhile. Hopefully an isolated incident.

I'm having same problem with a Series 5. Did many hard resets and then erased the whole thing - started from scratch. I have Joint Venture, so great support. Two phone calls and three visits to local Genius Bar. Nothing has worked, I have to have it sent back. No promises, says Genius Bar guy. If they can't duplicate the problem, they just send it back. No watch for ten days. The first two times at the Genius Bar they said it had to be a software issue, since diagnostics ran clean. So many resets, so little time. I never had this problem with the Series 1-4. They hadn't heard of it at the local store. So frustrating. Watch always says 100% in the morning and in the evening, when I'd usually put it on the charger. I put it on it anyway. And then every few days, a couple hours after I take it off charger in a.m., it is totally dead.

My problems are back (and I did upgrade to 6.1.1) Sometimes it seems to work other times back to the stuck %. Here's a new twist. Yesterday I had it on the charger for awhile and it was reporting 98%. I put the watch on and went about my business. A few hours later I noticed it was reporting 100%. It went up 2% while I was wearing it??? So I'm back to having a messed up, barely one year old, $430 Apple Watch 4.

I'm not going to pay for service on the watch. This should be fixed by Apple free of charge. If they don't, I will be begin rethinking my Apple purchases. My family has three iPhone 7s and two iPads which I was planning to upgrade in 2020. I was also considering a MacBook Pro to replace my W10 laptop.... just saying, I bet Samsung would love to have that $$$. Back to very disappointed with Apple.

I feel for you. I had Applecare, so battery service was free. Then I get an email saying they were sending it back. A day after they got it. Said they couldn't work on batteries registering more than 80%. "Unable to duplicate problem." So I get it back the next day (overnight Fed Ex at least) and it seems like it's OK. They do a more indepth diagnostics than the Genius Bar can. But now it's back to the intermittent thing. I've also had the thing where it goes up, after you start wearing it. So some days it goes down at a normal rate and some days it's just parked up at 100%. I went back to the Genius Bar one more time and the guy said again that it was a software issue, that a new battery would do the same thing. Software is different for each watch, depending on carrier, etc. I might eventually try that thing where you unpair it, pair it to a friend's iphone,, then unpair it right away and pair it back to yours. Also, when I got it back I didn't start from scratch, I paired it to the last previous one. But there's a lot of other ones I could have used. If it gets bad, I think I'll repair it to an older version. Such a weird problem. $ Genius Bar visits and one phone support call and no one had heard of it.

I've joined the club. Had it a while in the previous OS and with different carriers. It stuck at 100, worked for a while, and then 100 started again. Now it's well and truly stuck. Watch shut down this morning because of battery, had to be put on charge,. As soon as I did the charge level went to 100 again. Good to know it's more likely software than hardware, but still not good.

Over and over, everyone at Apple said it was a software issue. It helps me a lot to know I'm not alone. Have you tried setting it up as a watch ready to be repaired to one of your old watch settings? (as opposed to starting it as a totally new watch). Mine is doing better, since it was returned from Apple repair where they said they couldn't do anything. But this time I paired it to a previously saved version. Before, I'd did a complete, I'm a new watch, set up - which totally never worked for a second. It's such a weird problem. It never happened with Series one through four. My carrier is AT&T. It's paired to an iphone XsMax.