Watch just updated to watch OS 8.3 and battery will only last a couple of hours before it is drained?

I figured out a solution after chatting with Apple and them approving to fix mine under warranty. I realized that right around the time of the update I switched phones from my X to my wife’s 11. So to test I switched back to my X and it totally fixed the battery drain problem. I have no idea why clearly a weird software bug Apple needs to resolve.

Happy swapping phones worked

have a XR that I had for 3 months, in July it happened on my older iphone 8 plus.

I do think it is a combo of something on phone and also watch together.

As mentioned we have two 40mm S4 and a 38mm S3 in the household all good.

Well lucky you.

I personally just upgraded to watchOS 8.3 nothing fancy.

I since then reset the Apple Watch multiples time, force reboot, etc... Nothing work, the battery drain way too fast compared to watchOS 8.2.

The battery issue definitely appeared on watchOS 8.3.

and nice to vent here although we know Apple will eventually fix it

hidden in bug fixes..

never to be mentioned again.. Until next time.

For me twice now July and now.

Android mate said my fault Apple must of noticed I am on a older watch and trying to force a update

mine getting better.. done a few forced boots and also let it go fully flat then to 100%

Today been good so far 72% 11 hours in from 1am 100% which is almost normal.

Although yesterday started well then had to charge around 6pm. 18 hours.. which not great.

I used to get almost 2 days when I first got it.. Every update it worse

well you're lucky.

Nothing working out for me unfortunately.

And like you said, every update make it worse.

I haven't enabled the new AssistiveTouch or antyhing new so that can't be it.

It's really troubling honestly. I just want it back to 8.2 :(

Same here, I use my watch regularly for working out and work (seeing emails while busy) and since yesterday when it automatically updated it has died multiple times throughout the day. The update has been the only change. My wife has a newer series and so far doesn’t have the issue. I hope it’s not Apple trying to force-phase-out the older models.

Mine is a new watch. Only had it a month. Worked fine until this update. 50% at night and now less than 15 by morning . Used to charge fully in am and would last till the next morning at a push. Now no chance . My old watch had battery issues so the new one was liberating but that’s ruined now

So I texted Apple Support and they ran diagnostics to no solution. He suggested to update my phone to the latest iOS 15.2 and I did. So far today I have made to 1pm and watch battery is at 81% when yesterday it died before lunch. Give that a try.

mine was better yesterday.. it lasted the day 1am 100% to 11pm and 18% left

only getting 15.2 updated now

I do think it is a indexing that gets stuck or something.

Second time now in 6 months which I spend 2 weeks on then it gets better.

mine is back to normal now.. 96% 11:56pm slept and now 85%.. where before it was down to 45% or lower just sleeping.

i think it is something to do with syncing or indexing back to iphone.

No idea what.

really a pain.

Honestly battery life sucks on watch to start with.. not got over a day for a long long time

Non apple watches friends have 3-7 days..

Same issues on multiple watches, one not upgraded to 8.3. Definitely an issue with Belkin chargers. Improved after I switched to Apple charging cables/pucks, but still reduced battery life (6-11 hours). I wish Apple would acknowledger the bug and issue a fix.

My series 3 watch has consistently got 1.5 days of charge, although I never wear it for sleeping. Various updates have caused my battery to die by early evening, but I was able to use the highly inconvenient but effective technique of erasing the watch and resetting it up from scratch to fix the overuse of battery issue. With version 8.3 (19S55), I have tried this twice and the battery is still draining like crazy.

Apple - please fix this: add premium support to your premium products.

Two things I've done that seemed to fix the issue for me: (1) changed from a Belkin charger to the included Apple charger and (2) Updated my phone to 15.2.1. The phone update seemed to make the bigger impact.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have tried both these steps and the problem still persists. It has to be the 8.3 update that introduced this behavior. Hopefully apple issues a 8.3.1 update to fix this soon!