Apple Watch Battery Drain

I had the exact same problem. My iWatch went from 2+ days of charge to (after the update) using up 90% charge by 2pm same day. I tried all the power cycling, and bluetooth manipulation that SAL-9000 suggested, but that did not work for me. What worked was resetting the watch, but keeping my phone account on there (it's an option when resetting). After resetting, I paired it again with my phone but did NOT include all the apps. Instead, I selected the option to install apps manually, and that was it. There was an app that was draining my iWatch's battery. I'm not sure which one, but I've been wearing my watch for 3 hours today and it's still at 96% charge. A little math tells me that 4% charge spent for every 3 hours means it will use 32% per day, which puts me back in the 2+ day range again. But the next update for the watch is coming tonight, so I guess we'll see what happens.

My problem was not as severe as the watch becoming unusable. Only when using the RunKeeper and MapMyWalk fitness apps. The battery drained down from 100% to 10% in 20 minutes. But…good news! I stumbled upon a fix. All I turned off Bluetooth on my phone and watch. Then shut down the phone and watch. After 1 minute turned on my iPhone and Apple watch. Turned on Bluetooth on the phone and watch. MapMyWalk has been working great for weeks! No more rapid battery drain! 😊 I deleted RunKeeper but feel it would also have worked fine with iOS 15.3.1 and watchOS 4.2.2. Hope this helps anyone with similar problems.

Had the same issue of battery drain with 8.4.

Unpairing and reloading from a backup did not fix the issue.

Unpairing and doing a new install and excluding any extra apps that were installed on the phone has fixed the problem.

In my case I think it must have been one of the “extra” apps causing the problem. I don’t know which one and will not test this as it is too much effort. I don’t really miss the various extras like public transport, library lending, shopping etc since these are better done with the phone.

SAL-9000’s method helped me:

״

All I turned off Bluetooth on my phone and watch. Then shut down the phone and watch. After 1 minute turned on my iPhone and Apple watch. Turned on Bluetooth on the phone and watch.״

Try it out!

I was able to resolve this issue by factory resetting the watch and then restoring from an older update.

However, my watch did not retain the older OS (8.3 for me) but did resolve the issue entirely.

I’ve been running on 8.5 for about a month now with no issues.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here, because I've had very small flashes of hope with my S7 battery... but it's been GREAT since the 8.5 update... I cannot believe I've only lost 20% in 8 hours!!

Plus, it didn't die on me in sleep mode for ONCE!!

The ONLY other thing I did different besides updating to 8.5 was to turn 5G from "on" to "auto" on my iPhone cellular settings. I do not think that has anything to do with it, but I thought I'd mention it since that was the only other setting change I made at the same time.

Will my 4 1/2 month multi watch / troubleshooting nightmare be over with finally??

I'll post an update if I make it past 4 days.. That is the last streak I had as far as consistently good battery life back in January.

I hope this may help you as well.. I understand how insanely frustrating this is for all of us.

Hello Sunbird24,

Thanks for getting back to us. At this point, we recommend contacting Apple Support directly for further help with this issue.

Get Support

Hello Sunbird24,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

If we understand your post correctly, you have some concerns about your Apple Watch battery because after updating the battery only lasts a few hours. We'd like to help!

Below is an article that is very informational about the watch battery and performance.

Apple Watch Battery and Performance

Here is a great resource for maximizing the battery life of the Apple Watch: Maximizing Battery Life and Lifespan

This article, Apple Watch battery, is another great resource about the Apple Watch battery.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!

My Apple Watch went from a full charge to the power reserve mode in less than 5 hours. I thought it has a battery health issue (79%). I went to a local Apple Store for a checkup. They found two issues: battery health and heart rate monitor. It would cost a lot (~$300) to get it repaired. I ended up trading it for an Apple gift card.

So, the battery drain could be a hardware issue.

Yes I’m having the same issue. As of today my watch is about to die midday. No change in usage. Usually lasts up to a day and a half with my normal usage. I’m on a watch se 44mm cellular. The watch was just updated this morning to 8.4. Something is way off.

After updating my Apple Watch Series 4 to watchOS 8.4.1 on 2-1-22, The battery drains from near or at 100% to 10% Low Power Mode after about 20 minutes of walking with the RunKeeper App or MapMyWalk App. Location services is only on while using these apps. The battery discharges normally if I don’t use these two apps. I NEVER had this problem prior to updating to watchOS 8.4.1 with these two apps. Anyone else experiencing this?

Did you update recently and this show up just after updating to 8.4.2 because this is a very common coincidence.

If so just search 8.4.2 Apple Watch battery draining or phrases like this.

You will see how common this is.

Sorry for the bad news

Since the 8.4.2 update my watch battery has been terrible. Take today for instance, I took it off the charger at 9am and right now as of 14:05 it just dinged less than 10% battery life and I've been mainly stationary at my desk working. I rebooted the watch a couple days ago and it seemed to have fix the issue then, but now its shown its ugly face again.

Something is definitely up w/ this update.