watchOS 7 Battery Drain

I had the same issue on my Apple Watch Series 4 after updating to iOS7. I tried shutting down background app refresh, and ensured sleep app and hand washing apps were off.

This didn't fix issue so I read on some other forums about repairing to your iPhone. So I did a reset on my watch. I restored using the same backup I just reset and today the problem seems to be gone. After a 2hour walk I have only went down 13% which is normal level. When I was running out of battery my watch was showing a 35% drop after my walk.

if restoring from the backup didn't work I was going to try setting up as new watch but obviously I didn't have to go that far.

I had the same issue on my Apple Watch Series 4 after updating to iOS7. I tried shutting down background app refresh, and ensured sleep app and hand washing apps were off.

This didn't fix issue so I read on some other forums about repairing to your iPhone. So I did a reset on my watch. I restored using the same backup I just reset and today the problem seems to be gone. After a 2hour walk I have only went down 13% which is normal level. When I was running out of battery my watch was showing a 35% drop after my walk.

if restoring from the backup didn't work I was going to try setting up as new watch but obviously I didn't have to go that far.

It seems I was able to fix the issue and I’d like to share with everyone on how that happened.

initially I unpaired and then paired again using my last save but the problem persisted.

so last night I unpaired and then paired again but this time as a new watch. Today I wore my watch at 8 am, it is now 3:30 pm have done my workout, close 2/3 rings and it is still over 80% so it seems the issue is fixed.

it’s a hassle having to create every single watch face again, set every card in pay etc but at least I don’t have to charge it 3 times a day!

Hope this helps anyone who has the same trouble the last couple of days. :)

The unpair and restore from backup trick works! Here’s my experience.

I also had the same terrible battery drain issue. I have an Apple Watch series 5. I upgraded to watchOS 7 on Wednesday the 16th.

I noticed immediately the next day because my watch had drained its power to 10% after I had been wearing it for about eight hours. Typically I could wear my watch for 16 hours and still have over 30% battery life with normal usage.

My first suspicion was the handwashing timer. So I turned that off and also turned off the always on screen feature. I also power cycled the watch.

Neither one of those things helped. The battery drain was still intense. This morning the battery drained from 100% to 79% in an hour and a half with only 6 minutes of active usage.

So, I did what several people have recommended – I unpaired my Apple Watch from my phone - selecting “keep cellular number”. Then I paired it with my phone again and restored it up from the back back up. This process took about 30 minutes and drained another 10% battery.

I put the watch back on its charger and after it charged back to 100% put it back on my wrist and have been wearing it all day much more satisfied. Here are some screenshots of my usage and battery health from both the watch and the phone.

You may have already done this. Try switching off the iPhone, power off from Settings/General. Then power off the Watch. Leave both off for 5 minutes. Switch the iPhone on and wait until you have unlocked it and it is fully booted up. Then do the same with the Watch.

This worked for me with the Apple Watch 4 and also with an Apple Watch 6 delivered a few days ago, although with the latter I did not check to see what the battery drain was. Simply unpairing and then pairing did not work for me.

I have no issues now. I exercise for just over 30 minutes in the morning using the Watch, go swimming for 30 minutes with it and later a 3 mile walk. Last night when I went to bed the battery was on 40% which is about normal if not slightly better than it used to be,

Hey people.

I followed the unpairing thing and it helped. Someone suggested not to do a restore from a backup after unpairing. I unpaired it from my iPhone 11 and then I reseted Watch to factory. It mirrors my iPhone so most of the data were back on track after the factory reset. Battery is behaving as it did before the update., happy to say. One thing, for sure, having the audio/noise meter on drains the battery. I turned it off, again, and after the update. (I found that all background updates was ON and I know I had several of them turned OFF before the update.) This battery mayhem is an Apple thing. It is not the first time an update drains the battery on iPhone, Watch and even a MBP. I need some apps working - like walkie talkie - because of a family member. I will turn it off to see if it improves furthermore on the battery. This is crazy Apple. Fix this a.s.a.p. please. No, I will not buy a series 6. I'm not a millionaire.

So I have been doing a lot of experimenting with the Apple Watch about the battery drain issue. Like everyone else here I have been hit by it as well. I have found what might be a good fix for most people out there. Not a guarantee but it might help at least. Any Apple Watch model having battery drain issues try this. Go into your Setting. Go to Back ground app refresh. Turn off all back ground apps except maybe these one. Messages, Phone, Wallet. And if you like Now Playing. Turn All Others off or turn all off. I find that back ground apps will drain a lot of battery. Don’t worry about your health sensors. They will still sporadically check your vitals through the day still. Go to Complications. Remove any you don’t use or all of them. If you have a Apple Watch with noise detection. Turn that off. It drains the battery fast. Sleep tracker. Turn that off. I have found it drains the battery really badly. Once you have turned all your settings off that you want. Reboot your phone first. Once the Apple logo pops up on your phone then reboot your Apple Watch. This will reset the link between the two. After that give your watch 24 hours to get used to the new settings. Specially after your first charge with the new settings. Most people should fine like me there battery life will increase Dramatically. Mine has gone from lasting 6-10 hours a day to now lasting 20-42 hours before I get so low and have to charge or it dies. Now if you use the exercise tracker when working out it will still drain your battery. But no we’re near as much.

I have reported the issue to Apple and have provided them with all they need to look into this. So hopefully a full out fix will come soon.

Best of Luck to everyone out there. I hope this helps everyone

So I have been doing a lot of experimenting with the Apple Watch about the battery drain issue. Like everyone else here I have been hit by it as well. I have found what might be a good fix for most people out there. Not a guarantee but it might help at least. Any Apple Watch model having battery drain issues try this. Go into your Setting. Go to Back ground app refresh. Turn off all back ground apps except maybe these one. Messages, Phone, Wallet. And if you like Now Playing. Turn All Others off or turn all off. I find that back ground apps will drain a lot of battery. Don’t worry about your health sensors. They will still sporadically check your vitals through the day still. Go to Complications. Remove any you don’t use or all of them. If you have a Apple Watch with noise detection. Turn that off. It drains the battery fast. Sleep tracker. Turn that off. I have found it drains the battery really badly. Once you have turned all your settings off that you want. Reboot your phone first. Once the Apple logo pops up on your phone then reboot your Apple Watch. This will reset the link between the two. After that give your watch 24 hours to get used to the new settings. Specially after your first charge with the new settings. Most people should fine like me there battery life will increase Dramatically. Mine has gone from lasting 6-10 hours a day to now lasting 20-42 hours before I get so low and have to charge or it dies. Now if you use the exercise tracker when working out it will still drain your battery. But no we’re near as much.

I have reported the issue to Apple and have provided them with all they need to look into this. So hopefully a full out fix will come soon.

Best of Luck to everyone out there. I hope this helps everyone

I had the same problem and I tried the following:

• Watch and iPhone force restart and repairing
• Removing all apps and complications
• Switching watch faces (hoping that some of them less battery hungry)
• Disabling "Background App Refresh" - it's used to minimize battery drain for me
• Disabling "Raise Wrist to Wake Screen"

No matter what, my Watch was running out of battery after 8 hours standby and even faster under workout or similar.

The only thing that helped me is Watch > Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. After doing erase I reinstalled apps manually and restored previous face (Infograph Modular) and now my watch survives ~2 days as it used to.

The following screenshot is taken with battery level = 57%, so I expect it to run in standby mode 18 hours more.

Series 4 here and I had the same issue. Didn't need to reset or restore. 1 turned off hand washing timer and immediately the battery life was back to what it was prior to installing watchOS 7.

Recently released...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

SOLVED: I uninstalled all non-apple applications and they issue dissapeared, are now re-installing them one by one to see when thee battery drain reappear.

I have a Series 5 and updated to WatchOS 7 on Thursday. The battery drain has been terrible. My Watch died after 8 hours yesterday.

I called Apple to report the problem and worked with a support manager who was having the same problem. We both went through the unpair then repair process (restoring from latest backup). At 6:30pm last night I had 97% charge on a battery that shows a 91% capacity in Battery Health. I am posting at 12:30pm the next day and the battery is at 26%. This seems to be about the battery life I was getting before the OS 7 upgrade.

So I suggest going through the unpair - pair process to determine how it affects your Watch. And report the problem to Apple so they will patch it quickly.

Not sure if this will be noticed. The issue has been escalated to Apple and they are aware of the issues.

Immediately following an OS version update, there is a lot of system processes and caches which need updating. This can have an effect on battery life.

I would advise waiting 48 hours and restarting the watch. If this fails, escalate to support using the ‘chat’ or ‘call’ options.

Yesterday I had to charge my S4 watch two times when before the update battery would last about 30 hrs. I had previously reset the watch that did not fix the battery drain, neither did changing the battery optimized setting. Last night at about 10 pm I unpaired the watch from my phone and then pair it again to my phone. I used the latest backup on my phone. I slept with my watch on. This morning at 8 am the battery is at 82%.