Battery Indicator Incorrect on Series 5 Apple Watch

I finally got the fix for this problem. The person I got on the helpline asked me to unpair my watch, so that it would return to factory settings and then repair it with my phone using the latest backup so that I don’t lose my settings. I did that and it fixed the problem.

It's been a month now and I am recovered. The trick was to flatten both the watch and the phone and set them up as new. Having done that successfully, I can say that the issue is most likely due to software, and probably iOS. I was on the beta for my watch (Series 5) and my iPhone (11 Max Pro). I reset both and flushed data on both and I've been running clean ever since. I even got my Orbit "glasses finder" to work. The only issue I had was with the badges (email count) not showing up for Outlook, but after several updates there from the Microsoft Office Beta program via the Test Flight app I am good on those, too. So, right now I am 100% functional and I got rid of a bunch of apps I never used anyway. I am on Apple Music Match, so I had to manually push songs to my iPhone as the sync with that still doesn't work right, but at the end I have all my data back on the watch. Keep in mind that the majority of apps store your info on the cloud, so once you reconnect after your fresh installs you'll likely not be missing anything. A little pain now sure beats months of continuous pain.

I got to speak with Apple Watch Level 2 and a very knowledgeable engineer explained it's an issue with the actual battery level of charge is not in sync with the Battery complication level of charge. It's software and will be fixed but for now the following procedure will get things in sync. It worked for both of my watches so there is a good chance it will work for you.

Procedure:

1) Charge watch for a minimum of 3 hrs (fully charge battery)

2) Remove watch from charger

3) Turn off watch (hold the side button (not crown) until the shutdown option appears and choose shutdown)

4) Wait a MINUMUM of 30 minutes. Even longer if practical.

5) Turn watch back on (press and hold the side button (not crown) until Apple symbol appears)

That's it.

For me it fixed the staying at 100% for hours then crashing with approx 60% battery level displayed.

I had the same issues however I was reading some other threads there was a potential fix posted that so far has worked for me. My watch is now on the 3rd day of acting normally. I am getting about 26-30 hrs of battery life, the battery indicator goes down normally and at 10% lets me know it it low.

On my watch I tuned on airplane mode and then went into settings on my watch (not on my phone) and turned off bluetooth to disconnect it from my phone. I waited a few minutes and then switched off airplane mode and blue tooth automatically came back on and connected to my phone. I let the charge run all the way down on my watch until it turned off and then let it charge up to 100%. I think I ended up doing this 2 times before the battery indicator seemed to be working normally.

Hopefully this will work for you too.

On my 3rd battle with this same problem.

First time, a hard reset fixed it and it lasted about two months.

Second time tried a hard reset maybe 10 times to no avail. Unpaired then watch and repaired it and corrected the problem.

On my third time, this time the repairing did nothing. Tried the suggestion of putting it I. Airplane mode and turning off the Bluetooth, waiting a few minutes then turning off airplane mode. So far that seems to work because when I put it in charge it did not show 60% as soon as the watch had enough charge to turn on.

I have found a very simple solution (somewhere on the web, just repeating it:) turn off the watch before putting it on the charger. You turn it off by longpressing the side button (not the crown) untill you see three slide bars. Slide the bar thatswitches off the watch.

Let it charge until it is fully charged again. (Wiggle or touch the watch a little and the screen lights up so you can see how much charging there is to be done). I have had no problems with the battery indicator since I turn it off before I charge it.

Like the others in this thread, I have experienced this issue over the past two months on my series 5. I have tried everything, including unPairing and repairing to my phone.

My latest attempt seems to be working so far. I have been using a high amperage charger (2.1) with my watch. I switched back to the standard charger and although it takes a lot longer to charge, it seems to have solved the problem. I switched back to the standard charger and although it takes a lot longer to charge, it seems to have solved the problem. I can’t tell you exactly why, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that the watch charges quickly during the earlier stages of charging, and then slows down for the final X percent. Maybe it was thinking it was completely full when it really wasn’t? I don’t know. I'll post again if this doesn't continue to work.

Don’t know if I was just lucky but I had this problem. I first tried the simplest suggestion on this discussion list - try using the iPad charger plug instead of the supplied one.

About four days ago my watch had turned itself off with no warning even though the indicator had read about 70% a short time before. So I used the iPad charger on the “dead” watch. It worked.and it has been working ever since. It took the full hour and a half to get to 100% whereas previously it had been reading 99% within half an hour on the old charger. It had been “staying” on 99% for at least 12 hours before jumping down to 70% and thereafter turning itself off with no warning. Fingers crossed.

As mentioned above, the issue seems to be solved in watchOS 7. The public beta is now out, so you could always give that a try (usual precautions about beta software apply). For example: https://www.theverge.com/21361788/new-watchos-7-public-beta-software-apple-watch-series-3-4-5-install

I struggled with this same issue for two months while the watch progressively shut off at higher percentages. No amount of unpairing and resetting helped, not even pairing with a new phone. The beta watchOS 7 fixed the issue!

My 2 month old series 5 watch Started doing the 100% charge Thing until 5 pm or so. As long as I charge it every night it operates normally otherwise. Then on its own it started behaving right after a week or so. Then it started doing it again for a while until i read a suggestion from someone on this forum who had success with just turning off the watch completely for a half hour or so (i did it for an hour)when I turned it back on everything has been working fine since. Worth a try....

Apple Watch level 2 said it was software.

Perform the following procedure one time. To prevent reoccurrence until WatchOS7 is released Shutdown watch prior to charging from time to time. Simpler and less time consuming than returning the watch.

1) Charge watch for a minimum of 3 hrs (fully charge battery)

2) Remove watch from charger

3) Turn off watch (hold the side button (not crown) until the shutdown option appears and choose shutdown)

4) Wait a MINUMUM of 30 minutes. Even longer if practical.

5) Turn watch back on (press and hold the side button (not crown) until Apple symbol appears)

That's it.

I had the same problems with my 5 watch. I installed Beta iOS14 on my iPhone and 7.0 on my watch. Instantly fixed the issues. No more battery problems.

Just recently, regular iOS14 and non beta 7.0 installed on my watch. Still no more problems. Seems to fix the issue.

Turning it off and putting it on the charger turns it back on again immediately. The watch needs to be off for a decent length of time for things to recalibrate. I believe 30 minutes works but others have said shorter off times do too.

I tried turning it off for an hour and turning it back on. Didn't work. Letting it drain, recharging and forcing a sync with the phone did.