Battery Indicator Incorrect on Series 5 Apple Watch

I bought a series 5 Apple Watch in September last year (so still in guarantee) and this problems has just started over the last few days. It’s very depressing to hear about your experience in trying to sort it out! I’ve searched other websites and it has happened before but I couldn’t find any solutions. There was a software update very recently and I wonder if it is related to that. It is one of the suggestions mentioned in this iMore article - but there were no clear solutions. I’ve rebooted both watch and iPhone and it’s made no difference.

https://www.imore.com/does-apple-watch-series-5-have-battery-issue

I power cycled the watch and it seemed to work mostly fine for about a week. The battery drained normally, but the power save function would not kick on at 10%. It just drained until it died. This morning it's back to being stuck at 100% for 10 hours and then dying at 40%. Guess I'll just keep charging it when it drops below 50% for the near term.

Mine was stuck at 100% and got to the point where it would die before the indicator got to 90%. One night I left it on the charger for almost 2 hours before going to bed and it died 4 hours later. I got up, put it on the charger, and it did the snake icon to show it was dead then said 100%. I left it on the charger for a couple of hours, got up & put it on. The back was really really warm. I dozed off & woke up 20 minutes later because it felt so warm under my watch - and it was dead. Next day I had a replacement on its way. A couple of weeks with the new one have been great. I leave it a little looser on my wrist to ensure air flow. Here’s hoping we’re good for a while.

I have this issues too.

My series 5 (bought last November) started doing this a few weeks ago I think after the recent IOS update.. My watch would shut down when the battery indicator still had 40-60% left. When put on charger it would turn back on with the 40-60% battery, however if I removed it from the charger would immediately turn back off. I had to leave it on the charger for a while to be able to use it. My battery would very rarely be at 100% when fully charged, but would remain at 99%.

I called apple support and they did diagnostics and I think they said the battery looked fine but that the graph was odd as it was a linear line.

They had me unpair the watch and set it up as new (not from a back up). I did this but it has not resolved my issue. Apple support was supposed to call me back on Friday but no one did. This is so frustrating as I cannot trust the indicator level and am never sure when it needs charging or will turn off. I do not use my watch for much except a workout every other day.

This is my first apple watch and I am extremely disappointed.

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.

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.

Same issue here. Watch is 5 weeks old. Battery stays at 100% all day, then dies. Attach to charger, battery indicator is suddenly at 45% or so, then it goes down to 40% while on the charger before it decides to go upward.

Super annoying. I've had no issues with any Watch model before this.

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.

Wow some thread.

i too have a 5 paired to an XS.

it works fine for around 4 days then on the next day, with 100% charge leaving home, it’s on 8% five hours later in the office.

it happened again today, and what I did notice this morning was the watch was warm to touch on the back when I lifted it off the charger in the morning. Even though it’s normally stone cold to lift off, on the days its died early it’s been hot...like there is something drawing extra current.

was fine for 3 months when I got it, but now this is almost a weekly issue.

So, what do we do with this fairly widespread battery indicator problem with Apple watches? I have spent way too much time on the phone with no real help, and time researching solutions on the web with no fix. My watch is six months old it was close to $500 and I have a battery indicator and a battery that is not operating properly. Even more frustrating is when I call Apple care and they tell me they’ve not heard of this problem before and they want me to ship my watch away to them for two weeks but can’t guarantee anything. Sort of takes away the confidence that I have always had in apple and their products and their service. Any ideas?

So good to hear we are not alone. I was able to return my 1st Apple 5 Watch because it was stuck at 100% or dead and became very warm when charging. The replacement was fine for 3 weeks - now it will charge to 77% and stop. And that takes FOR. EV. ER.........

As an added note, the new watchOS 7 release includes a Battery setting that shows details similar to the iPhone, including last charge time and percent, a graph of use, and a health percentage showing charging capacity. My recent charges show charging to 99% and a seemingly correct use that drops steadily over the last 24 hours.

I spent a day charging and hard resetting - finally my replacement watch has a battery indicator that seems accurate. I also get out of all apps and turn the watch off before putting it on the charger, wipe off the watch back and charger so they are clean, and I charge my watch face down to ensure a clean seal with the charger. I also don’t wear the watch tight on my wrist - now 1 notch out from where I was wearing it. We’ll see how this goes.

I have the same issue with my Apple Watch Series 5, battery would stuck at 100% all day and switch off suddenly. When I charge it it would start from 40%, this is ridiculous as my watch is about 6 months old. As some one mentioned in the above comments, hopefully this will be resolved by a software update.

Same issue here. I bought a Series 5 shortly after release last September and the battery never has seemed to behave correctly (won't charge beyond 99%, stays stuck there for hours and dies randomly, etc.) I tried un-pairing it and factory resetting it both from a backup and as new. I finally sent it to Apple in November, only to have them send it back saying they "couldn't replicate the issue"...as many others here have experienced. I wasn't finding many people reporting the same issue back then...now it looks like it's become pretty prevalent. It's disheartening hearing some are still seeing the issue even on their replacements. I've resorted to just charging it regularly and letting it only get up to about 95% so it doesn't get stuck at 99%. It does seem like a software issue, because the techs were baffled when the battery diagnostics came back looking good. Fingers crossed with watchOS 7 I guess...but none of the minor OS 6 updates have done anything to help.