Battery Indicator stuck at 100% All day

Same on 6.2. I don't think Apple cares or is aware it this point. Its easy to get around it by shutting off the watch for 15-30 min once a week or so to recalibrate the battery. Other then that I get a solid 30+ hours on my AW5.

Follow up post - I remembered this morning that when I first started sleeping with my Watch on for sleep tracking, that in the morning, the battery dropped more than I expected, even though it was in airplane mode, theater mode, and do not disturb - I think it dropped 10 percent or something. I started this new use pattern on March 20th - according to what I'm seeing on Cardiogram. However, as the next two weeks progressed, it was "using" less and less battery, to the point where it barely dropped at all. To the point where 16 or 17 days later, it was just stuck at the 100% all day long. So in my case, it was a gradual thing, not something that happened all of a sudden. I really feel like this is a calibration issue and that it "corrects itself" either by being off for 15 minutes, or leaving it on a charger overnight, not being used. I'm wondering if this is why Apple is having a difficult time correcting this? I don't think it's a coincidence that this started at the exact same time I changed the way I used the Watch, and was not as sudden change with software update. I'm not sure Apple wants to tell it's customers you need to power it down for 15 minutes for it to correct itself. I was on a pretty lengthy call to Apple and I was told it was probably a software corruption on the iPhone side, but the fact that powering it off for 15 minutes fixes it, albeit temporarily, makes think that's not the case. Regardless, I am REALLY happy to have found this temporary solution to avoid having to set up my phone as new, which is what was suggested to me. Also - I really don't believe all these Watches are broken - which is also a relief.

Bonnie826,

Have you tried powering the watch off, and leaving it off for 15 minutes (no less, a little longer to be safe), and then powering it up again? That seems to be a foolproof way of getting the indicator recalibrated and showing the correct amount of charge.

I have found that charging it to 100%, shutting it off for 15 minutes, and then re-charging to 100% tends to fix the issue. If you have tried that and it is still not resetting, let us know since I have yet to hear of that approach not working.

It has been 2 days now and my battery seems to be registering correctly. Unpairing my watch from my phone, shutting both down and then pairing them seemed to do the trick. I sometimes wear my watch to bed but not always so I can’t say if that triggered the problem. I have to wonder if it’s a software issue but why with so many people experiencing these issues wouldn’t Apple fix it. ?? Very frustrating when these watches are so expensive.

It is, as it just seems to be related to not shutting off the watch for weeks at a time. Having already replaced my watch and having the same issue appear, it is most likely an issue with the phone and how hardware is synced (if you scroll up enough, you will find my posts discussing this issue).

In the meantime, just shut your watch off every week or two for fifteen minutes. It will reset the battery and it will moderate the issue. Unfortunately, technology is complicated, so it is possible that a line of code introduced somewhere is causing all of this, but that does not make the entire watch the issue.

I had the same issue with their tech support. The issue is with our phones pairing and sending bad data. I have since upgraded to their latest beta software for the phone and watch and the problem seems to be fixed. If you are comfortable upgrading, please do because I want to confirm that I am not the only one who no longer has this problem.

I feel your pain, I had same problems tried all suggested solutions.

I setup as new and did not allow it to “install “ any apps while being setup.

Hope this may help you, worth a shot.

Have you tried unpairing from your phone, shutting down, then repairing? That’s what fixed my watch which has worked fine since.

I took the watch off my wrist.

Powered it off and left it for about an hour, not on a charger.

Worked for 3-4 days then issue stared again.

So powered off again for about an hour.

Been working correctly now for 3 days.

Thanks @lxhunter. Update on mine:

After trying the hard reset, unpairing and deleting, then restoring from a saved profile, I still had the same problem. I then unpaired it and deleted everything and started it as a new watch with minimal apps. Still, had the same problem. I then switched it off for 30 minutes and turned it on again. The battery indicated was now showing 85%, which was encouraging, so I left it switched on and the battery indicator continued to drop down. At 65% I charged it up to 100% then turned it off for 15 minutes. I switched it on again and it showed 100%. After that it continued to work properly. I have allowed it to drop to 10% and the battery warning came on. I have charged it up to 100% several times without switching it off. So far so good after a week. I hope I am not tempting fate by writing this! Reading other posts on this issue, I cannot see any real pattern and it seems very hit and miss. I hope Apple can fix this once and for all. If the problem returns, I will update.

Nor will anyone hear of this, as I suspect that the few of us who have had issues are coming up with something that Apple employees are not being told about as a collective issue.

I had the same issue and it took months for me to fix the issue after being suggested a fix by someone who used to be a Senior Advisor. After about three weeks since the reset, I decided to shut down the watch after fifteen minutes after noticing the charging speed was not consistent. It went from 100-94%, and eventually charged to 100%.

Honestly, this might just be an issue with people never shutting their watches off, causing some sort of internal issue that builds up over time. It may have occurred in the past but not been as dramatic, but later software updates to make things more accurate only made things appear worse. That our watches have been so dramatically off is just an extension of this, built up over time. The issue is almost certainly in our phones, as those of us who have received new watches still have the new issue appearing.

My best advice is to periodically shut down the watch at least once every two weeks to reset things, and go from there. The last time I reset after a reset, I went about three weeks before I fixed things, so a reset two and a half weeks has now given me any issues as I close in on three weeks.

Richard, in this thread was the first person I could find that suggested the powered off for 15 minute temporary workaround! Kudos to that suggestion. It seems to be the best solution until Apple fixes this. It's not great that this has been going on for several months now. I will say this. I don't know when exactly this started with people really having this issue, but I do know that it DID coincide with how I wore my Watch differently. To monitor my heart rate while I would sleep, I would power it up right before sleep, wear it overnight, then charge it back to 100% in the morning, then put it on, again. It was about a week into this routine that this popped up. Before that (and for years, to be honest) I ALWAYS charged it overnight. I'm wondering if there is something is happening when it's not "Active" for that long that maybe resets how it reads the battery. Maybe charging overnight accomplishes the same thing as powering it off (WITH A CHARGE) for 15 minutes. I do want to mention that I tried leaving it powered off after the power was totally drained for over an hour, and that did NOT fix the issue at all. Hopefully, this helps someone!

I have had 3 support calls on this issue. After the first support call Apple had me take my watch in for a "battery reset" which they can only do at a store or service centre. This worked for a while and then it came back. The next two calls were next to useless with the first of those two being the worst apple support experience that I have ever had.

I finally came across this post and after reading all of the comments I tried the turn off for 15 minutes and low and behold that worked. Apple's recommendation is always unpair and repair which you should not have to do every couple of weeks and it does not even fix the issue.

I have to believe that it is a hardware issue as opposed to firmware but of course I do not really know but I do know that after spending a chunk of cash on a new apple watch 5 I am not going to accept that the watch needs a rest every few weeks.

Question, is everyone here using the original apple charger with their watch?

I posted about this earlier. I really believe the others that this is not a defect in the hardware at all - it’s how Apple has determined how to “read” the battery. I had my Apple Watch S4 for over a year, and the battery indicator issue only started after I wrote the Watch overnight. Turning it off for 15 minutes (making sure it has a charge) was the only way to get the reading to be accurate. Otherwise, I would have the same exact issue as you are having.