Battery Indicator stuck at 100% All day

It's May 2020 and I'm having this exact problem with my Series 5 Apple Watch, bought three months ago. The watch stays stuck at a high number (99% or 100%) for hours. Then a few hours later, it suddenly goes dead with no warning. Called Apple Support, they ran a diagnostic remotely (since most of the stores are still closed because of COVID-19) and they saw no issues.

They must not be reading these forums, as most of these posts were written five months ago and the problem has not been resolved. The Watch worked fine until a week or two ago.

Since my earlier post I have chatted again with Apple Support. Right now the watch battery indicator is working again. What I did was unpair the watch and set up as a new watch (not a restore). I then turned the watch off for a full hour and haven’t added any extra apps to the watch. Initially the watch was stuck on 99% but then started correcting itself and eventually displayed 15% which was the actual battery life. Hope it stays behaving itself! Good luck if you try this

I’m not sure what else I can do. Apple Support seems to be stuck on asking me to restore both my iPhone and Apple Watch like new to see if this corrects the issue. Sounds ridiculous to me that I have to reset a $1200 phone and $700 watch so the battery indicator works. I’m not doing it.

In the meantime, While the Apple Watch sits at 100 percent, I use it like normal. Once it hits 99 or 98, I then place it on the charger for an hour. That seems to keep it going for another 20 hours, so there we go. We’re in a pandemic and this is a ridiculous to be upset about.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have found that as per some earlier post that if you charge your watch to full and then power it off for at least 15 minutes every few weeks then you are good. That is far less of a nuisance than all the unpairing and repairing which does not work.

I too am frustrated that this seems to be a widespread issue and Apple is ignoring it.

Although I personally don't have this problem I do sympathise with everybody on this thread I found this page at ifixit.com,makes for very interesting reading;

https://help.ifixit.com/article/265-battery-calibration

This issue is only getting worst for me. In the past week, I can leave the watch on the charger all night, wake up, and the battery will get down to around 75% and will just shut off. No warning, no indication to connect it to power, just a paperweight on my wrist.

I contacted AppleCare today and was told that the diagnostic results didn’t show anything wrong with the watch and the only other option is to to ship it off to Depot for “repair”.

I know for a fact that Depot will also show that nothing is wrong with it and will then just return it to me.

It’s unbelievable that Apple hasn’t addressed this issue.

Thanks for everyone who's responding with their experiences.

I shut down the watch for about 30 minutes today, and it seems to be un-stuck from a constant reading of "100%". Now let's see if that shutdown also addresses the sharp drop in battery life (and instant shutdown when it gets low), which was also part of this overall issue.

It's impossible to set up an in-person repair right now because all the stores and repair shops are closed, and like others have said, if you send it to the Apple Repair Depot, the watch will pass their diagnostics test and you'll just get it sent back again. I'm more reliant on the watch right now because I have Zoom appointments 7 days per week during this pandemic, and the watch notifications/reminders really help.

I get the impression that this has to do with the watch never being shut off over the long term, which is why the resets are helpful for the watch.

Apple does know about this as I have sent an advisor that I have been in contact with this thread, and he acknowledged receiving it. I suspect it has since been passed on to other teams, but this takes time to fix because it occurred during the last iOS overhaul, and it is potentially related to some line of code that is not related to battery resets.

That said, do not send in your watch and do not call this a waste of money, as we have figured out a way to solve the problem in the interim, and are awaiting for Apple to fix it eventually. Our watches are incredible pieces of software when you think about it, so I am not surprised that something like this is happening, as technology is complicated and unintended things happen.

A status update. Nothing has changed. Things remain stuck at 100 percent. However, I have turned off the Always On setting which seems to improve battery life considerable. I wear the watch for about 18 hours each day, place it on the charger for a hour, rinse and repeat. Keep in mind it's always at 100 percent. Not sure why the problem is, but the watch works every where else.

Yes, countless times. I've tried everything listed in this threat and contacted Apple twice. As soon as they hear I'm using the latest beta, they blame that even though non-beta users are also having the problem.

As much as I like Apple the support for this issue is non existent. They have no clue how to support this. I was talking to a senior support person and she had no clue what I was trying to explain to her. I tried uploading pics and she said - ohh I cant get to them, even though she sent me the link. And before I was ready to hang up, I asked can I please speak to anyone higher up. Her reply: "You asked for a senior rep and you have me. If you think someone else can help you, your more than welcome to call in again". Shocked. Your best bet is probably to wait till the stores are open and try then.

But let me tell you - getting a new watch DOES NOT FIX IT! Its a software issue... I've gotten 2 replaced and issue always comes back.

Well it's unfortunate and definitely not like Apple to be acting like this. It's either a problem they don't think is important to fix or they haven't figured out what caused it. With regards to obtuse support people, they are simply following orders not to suggest they know anything about it. All they have to do a search and they many complaints are right there.

SO after about a month of this, my battery counter is working again. What I did makes zero sense on "fixing" it.

First, I turned the watch off for 20 minutes, then I charged it overnight. It's now showing 62 percent, which is about right after 12 hours. Not a scientist here, but perhaps like others have said this issue has something to do with needing to shut the watch off sometimes. No idea.

I too have this issue on my Apple watch 5. i have tried all the options mentioned (hard reset of both phone and watch, unpairing and repairing), which seem to work for a short period of time and then the issue arises again. Currently trying keeping the watch turned off for a while and then powering back up.

Really hoping Apple investigates and pushed a fix.

There’s one fix that has worked for me repeatedly, though the problem comes back eventually. 

Let the watch’s battery drain absolutely completely. When it shut itself down press both side buttons to restart it repeatedly until nothing lights up on the watch face. Make sure the battery is as low as you can get it intentionally.

Then leave then the watch until the battery is absolutely flat. The first time I tried this I left it for 3 days but if the battery is already low enough just waiting overnight, 10 or 12 hours can work. 

Then put it on the charger and restart, being careful not to go over 100% of battery charge level.

This resets some flag or other data that is missed during all other kinds of rebooting or resets. There is something that isn't being reinitialized that only can be by letting the Watch discharge completely.

When you reboot the watch never let it charge over 100%. Always stop charging the watch just before or at 100%. If it goes over 100% this problem comes back and you’ll have to do this procedure all over again. 

This method has restored the usability of my Watch (series 4) several times now.