Apple Watch Series 3 Battery Discharges Randomly

Question

Level 1

29 points

Apple Watch Series 3 Battery Discharges Randomly

Hello all,

I've got an Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + CELL) 42MM and the past ten days the watch is just dead without any warning. I'll look at it around mid day and it'll be 70-80% then I'll check again and it'll totally dead and I can barely get the watch face to display the plug in indicator. And when I plug it in, it reboots and the battery indicator shows more than half of the battery is available. I'll have it fully charged before going to bed and wake up to it being dead. And I signed up for Fitness+ and the watch died 16 minutes through a 20 minute workout even though I had fully charged the watch before I started the workout. It makes it almost impossible to rely on, especially for alarms.

To make this stranger, I had this watch replaced in January of this year with a warranty after it had experienced very similar behavior. And I had owned the watch for about a year before, too. Is this normal for a watch that is 11 to 12 months old?

Thanks!

Posted on Dec 17, 2020 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

nfazekas Author

Level 1

29 points

Jan 22, 2021 10:12 AM in response to nfazekas

So an update: after a week or two of this issue continuing (random discharging), I was in a place where I didn't have my Apple Watch charger so tried a battery back which wasn't charged fully so I plugged it into the wall. This seemed to fully discharge the watch somehow and I thought I was fully cooked. However, when I did plug it into the proper charger it fully charged! And now it works totally fine again (the battery indicator goes down as expected, no random situationssomeho where it I find it off). No clue what happened but somehow draining the battery totally seemed to do it.

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Answer 2

karina184

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2020 8:10 AM in response to nfazekas

Hello nfazekas,

We're glad to hear we can rule out being outdated, along with having a beta version installed, as you have both iOS 14.3 and watchOS 7.2 installed.

We can also rule out any app updates from being outdated on both devices, so let's continue from there with narrowing down some other possible causes:

Having the newest watchOS update, you should be able to navigate to Settings > Battery > Battery Health to see the 'Maximum Capacity' for your battery. Take your time, and go through each of the screens we mentioned to get this information. We'd recommend service when it reaches 80% or less as a battery. Here's a link that goes over watch Repair for your reference.

If you need more help, we recommend reaching out to Apple Support here: Get Support

Take care!

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Answer 3

cp from OH

Community Specialist

Dec 20, 2020 4:31 PM in response to nfazekas

Hey there nfazekas,

We'd like to help get your watch working smoothly, along with getting the most out of the battery. Let's start with some basics:

For your model, the latest version is watchOS 7.2. You can verify which version number is installed within Settings > General > About. Here's a link that'll show how to Update your Apple Watch.
If you're pairing it with a compatible iPhone model, the latest version is iOS 14.3. You can verify which version number is installed within Settings > General > About. Here's a link that'll show how to first back up, then Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
You can confirm the watch battery health under Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
It'll be a good idea to check for any app updates on both devices. The steps can be found here: Update apps or use automatic downloads

Cheers.

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Answer 4

nfazekas Author

Level 1

29 points

Dec 20, 2020 7:36 PM in response to cp from OH

Appreciate the suggestions but I’m on the latest OS for both devices and the battery health indicator only helps, as far as I can tell, the iPhone. If there’s a way to check the watch, it certainly isn’t Settings > Battery > Battery Health.

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