watchOS 9 battery drain

I noticed that after the upgrade the training sessions, don’t stop always. When a training session doesn’t stop it drains the battery. In my case, making sure that they finish solved the issue. With the previous operating system version this never happened.

I have had the same problem since OS9, but my watch is also freezing. First time I had to reboot it, but now it seems to burst back into life if I get up and walk around. Unpaired the watch and then re-paired. Asked which backup to use so I selected a pre OS9 version. However, after setting back up it was still at OS9. Not at all happy with the upgrade.

this battery drain has just started happening to both my wife's watch and mine, we both have series 4 watches and since the update to 9.0.2. I don't think both our batteries are bad at the exact same time. I think the new version has something running in the background that is draining the battery. also I have paired/unpaired my watch already. this didn't help.

😮 I also had the problem of my watch freezing. I would wake up in the middle of the night and it would be only 00:10 or something. If I went to the loo it would jump to the correct time. This too has been fixed by my face change.

See my previous comments on this. Until Apple provide a solution try changing the watch face. I use to have Unity Lights as mine. Series 5 watch upgraded to OS9 and battery drained, but also the watch would "freeze". I now use a Chronograph Pro face and all is back to normal.

Tried unpair ing a d actually restored from an iCloud pre-OS9 backup. However, on completion I was still on OS9 ☹️ and didn't solve the problem.

Mine was solved by changing my watch face from Unity Lights to a Chronograph Pro one.

+1 for unpairing and re-pairing to resolve the issue. After the OS 9 upgrade, I immediately went from 15-16 hours of battery life to 10 on my Watch 6. Battery health was 90%, so it was not an old battery issue. Unpaired, re-paired, restored from a backup, and I'm right back to my old battery life and possibly even a little better.

I also turned off a half dozen or so little-used Watch apps, in case the problem was that one of them had a compatibility issue. And I changed my watch face to something with fewer complications (California), just in case that was part of the problem. But this afternoon I moved back to the Infograph face and am not seeing any noticeable drain increase as a result.

3rd watch was good for 3 days and now the issue is BACK AGAIN!.. Every trick and things to shut off are turned off and this piece of junk still loses 10-15% per HOUR. Doesnt matter if bluetooth is on/off on my phone. Repairing seems to fix for a few days. Apple support just told me to put in a lower power mode. LOL I didnt buy an $800 watch to put in low power mode after I just charged it.

I have a hunch that Apple did it deliberately, to force consumers to buy new Watches, as we have been staying on the old ones for too long. This is because it's made too obvious for their employees to not see it. It happened before with iOS on iPhones and ended up with lawsuits.

"Accidentally", some newer Watch users are impacted too.

I guess Apple will "fix" this bug in new watches in the future. This time they would do it much cleaner, leaving no traces for old model users to sue them.

Let's see what they would write in 9.1.1 release note.

So I’ve always had my Series 6 set to Display Always On, as I would always have at least 30% battery left when heading to bed.

However, since upgrading to os9, it’s always less than 10%. So today, I set the Display to Off, and the battery was at 62% at bedtime

Going to set it back to Always On for tomorrow and see how it goes, but looks like the display is using way more battery in os9, for whatever reason…

Same here Apple Watch S5 running WatchOs 9.1 battery health 83%

Sudden battery drain at 80% using Strava; on other occasions (4 times!) Using workout doors. I've already erased, unpair and paired again... Two things left to try: 1) erase, set as new; 2) new battery...

alternatively, a third and final solution: Get a Garmin Fenix as I should have from the beginning. No more BS Apple.

I have had the battery drain after installing 9.1 on my watch. I did the troubleshooting at home with Apple, and then took it to the genius bar. The Genius Bar did verify that the battery was draining at a rapid rate. My battery health is 100%. The watch is six months old. The watch was sent into Apple for repair, but they said they couldn’t find the issue and are sending me back a defective watch. I have filed a better business report, and will be returning to the Apple store to see if a manager might be able to do something more. It seems like they should replace the watch when it’s only six months old. Clearly it’s a software issue because everything was functioning fine before that. I had not installed any new apps. I have read that other people are having this issue. I am incredibly upset at Apple for not standing behind their warranty.

I use the same setup. Series 5, workoutdoors. I just got back from my first run after factory resetting the watch. It started at 67% and was dead by the end of the second mile. Just like before the factory reset. I also changed the face to chronograph pro as mentioned above.

I will try again tomorrow with cellular turned off and not listening to music via bluetooth. And I’ll use the native fitness app instead of workoutdoors. Hopefully I’ll find something that works and will post updates.

Of course these are all just workarounds. Apple is obligated to fix this to retain me as a customer. I was so close to buying an Ultra, but now I find myself checking out Black Friday deals on Garmin Fenixes.

I had a fully functioning watch 2 weeks ago. Then Apple forced an update and now it’s useless. This feels like theft.

After my positive experience when setting the display to ‘Not’ Always on, I set it back to Always On for yesterday, and purposely left it on Numerals Duo for the full day. I actually didn’t end up taking it off for charge until about 4am, and there was 51% battery left. Unreal, I’d never had it last that well.

So today I’m purposely setting it back to my most usual setup, the Utility face. So far it’s at 95% after been taking off charge 1hr45mins ago. I’ll report back later how the drain goes, but it looks like pacf’s watch face theory has some merit. Maybe it’s something to do with the complications on my Utility face, as Numerals Duo doesn’t have any.

But my suspicion of Always On being the culprit seems to have been put to bed anyway

I have tried every workaround I could think of, as well as every workaround Apple told me to do. After trying all the problem-solving on my own, and with Apple on the phone, the watch went into Apple for repair, and they don’t know what the problem is. The battery drain was documented at the Apple store with a diagnostic they ran. They are sending me back a defective watch that drains within a few hours. It’s an SE, so the always on is not even an issue. I called Apple and asked to speak to a manager. I requested that my watch be replaced because they didn’t fix it. He said they don’t replace a watch unless it is a hardware issue. So, they sell you a watch with a warranty that only works for the hardware. It seems like they should be responsible for the software you have to install to use the watch as well. It was an absolutely insane comment. I will be going down to pick up my watch at the Apple store today or tomorrow and will talk to a manager there. As it stands, I have a $250 piece of junk that I’ve owned for six months. Perhaps someone in the store will replace it, but I’m not very helpful. I have filed a Better Business Bureau complaint.

[Edited by Moderator]