Level 1

12 points

Apple Watch Series 7 Poor Battery Life after Watch iOS 9

I purchased my Apple Watch 7 41mm in mid-February and have had it for 8 months and the battery is at 95% health. My battery has been draining extremely quickly in the past week after updating to 9.02 and then 9.1. It has died overnight the past 4 nights in a row despite having the exact same charging schedule for the past couple months and the same activity level (work from home most days and pretty sedentary for half of the day, 1.5 hr workout in the evening). I use the face with the 3 activity rings.

I have limited many functions on my watch to save battery and I'm tired of seeing these same recommendations that I have done since the first day or two of owning my watch. Can anyone PLEASE provide additional helpful advice other than what I have done below, I am so disappointed:

Turned off AOD
Reduced screen wake time
Turned off wake on wrist
Turned off every push notification except for calls, a couple credit card charge apps, and ride share apps
Turned off background app refresh for every app except calendar, Heart rates, and Workout app
Reduced Motion
Turned off Hey Siri (I have never used this feature on any Apple Product)
Updated to the latest update (9.1), which I honestly feel that this has something to do with it.
My watch does not have cellular data functionality and I keep it near my phone at all times.
Unpaired and re-paired my watch after the latest update.

Thank you very much

Apple Watch Series 7

Posted on Oct 26, 2022 4:44 AM

Top-ranking reply

LengthyEpic

Level 1

37 points

Posted on Jan 12, 2023 7:36 AM

New and encouraging update from me! Sorry for the wall of text, but it looks like this saga may finally be over and I just want to luxuriate in it a little bit.

So the new OS updates did nothing to help, but another Apple product issue led to what may finally be a resolution (still want to wait and see rather than declare immediate victory).

I'd bought an AirTag a year and a half ago to put on our dog, especially in the crate while we travel and he goes in the plane hold. When I got it, I was able to add it to my account, but the Precise Finding and Play a Sound features never worked. I was a little miffed but never really thought about it too hard. I eventually called Apple Support this past summer, but I was a month or so past the 1 year mark and they did a bit of troubleshooting and eventually said that it must need repair but it would cost as much as a new one, so I gave up on it.

At Christmas, friends of ours got us a couple of new AirTags. When I went to set them up, they had the same problem. Could set it up, but not communicate after. This time my fiancé has a new iPhone with the UW chip, so I reset the AirTag (my phone couldn't even connect to remove it from my account so I had to factory reset the AirTag), and it worked fine on her phone.

Finally a new clue. Maybe it's my iPhone that's causing issues? Both AirTags and my Watch aren't working correctly. For that matter my AirPods sometimes have weird issues as well. I had noticed in my experimentation that although Low Power Mode seemed to not stop the battery drain issues, when I switched off Bluetooth, that helped. So I called Apple Support about the AirTag and Watch battery drain and how I suspected that maybe the phone was the problem. They insisted on treating them as separate issues, tackled the Watch first and did all the same steps and couldn't figure it out so they set up another Genius Bar appointment (the Watch drained about 10% in 20 minutes on the call). Onto the AirTag and same failure to find anything wrong. They ran a communications diagnostic on the iPhone and said that it's working as expected. They said one final step was to try a factory reset of the iPhone and to call back if that doesn't work, but I was already preparing to fight tooth and nail at the Apple store to get either a new Watch or new iPhone or SOMETHING so I wouldn't be plagued with these issues anymore.

But guys... it worked! On everything! After doing a factory reset and iCloud backup restore of my phone, the AirTag issue is solved, the Watch battery drain so far appears to be fixed, and other miscellaneous annoyances also seem to be working normally. For instance, I wanted to try the Plus subscription for PocketCasts so I could listen to podcasts on my Watch without having my phone, but my account status wouldn't sync across no matter what I did. Now it does.

Since Tuesday @ 2:30 pm:

Went from 100% to 77% in 6 hours.
Did an overnight sleep tracking, 100% to 82% in over 9 hours.
- Continued on down to 50% in 16.5 hours total.
Another 100% to 62% in 14.5 hours including an overnight.
Currently sitting at 77% after I fully charged it this morning over 8.5 hours ago.

So in other words, back to fantastic battery life! I've been feeling so confident that I have already re-installed all of my third party apps. Nothing saying that it can't degrade again, after all I had similarly promising results after doing factory resets on the Watch that then crumbled away over time, but I'm optimistic that maybe this solved a root cause.

For the record, I have an iPhone 12 Mini, and an Apple Watch Series 7. I hope this account helps anyone else suffering from battery drain. Could be caused by something affecting the communication between the Watch and the iPhone. Try to do a factory reset of your phone, for extra credit, maybe try factory reset of both (back up both, factory reset the Watch, then factory reset the iPhone, then boot up and restore the iPhone, then boot up and restore the Watch). Good luck to anyone who finds this thread in the future!

View in context

Similar questions

62 replies

Nov 2, 2022 4:17 AM in response to Switchfoota

I called Apple Support again yesterday, unfortunately I didn't realize there was an update to the Watch. It doesn't alert me to updates, I have to go into software update in the Watch app for it to check for them (despite auto-updated set to on). I was on 9.0.2, update was for 9.1. The Apple support guy assured me that the update would fix the problem and to try it out and call back if there were issues.

I don't think it would surprise either of you that the update didn't solve anything, although it looked promising for a moment. Yesterday after the update seemed bad but was inconclusive. I didn't wear it for sleep tracking because I've just given up on that. This morning, I put it on before heading to the gym at 7:19am (I've taken to taking screenshots frequently on the Watch so I have a trail of battery times and numbers). After a hard, 50 minute workout while playing a podcast, it was at 98% at 8:10am. Perfect! That's incredible.

Then it rapidly went downhill.

9:34am: 91% and that was after it was mostly off while I was taking a shower.
10:41am: 79%
10:58am: 72% (7% in 17 minutes!?)
11:27am: 57% (tracked a simple 30 minute walk and it killed 15%)
11:57am: 45% (another 12% while doing very little)
12:11pm: 38% (literally just while sitting here typing this up)

This is the worst user experience I've ever had while using any product, from any company.

Switchfoota Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 9, 2022 10:18 AM in response to Switchfoota

As an update, Apple took my watch last week to go through updates under my limited warranty, and promptly returned it without any targeted identification or insights. I also saw a couple other comments on this thread an hour ago that are no longer available to view? Unsure if they got removed by someone... but I am not happy about this and will not be buying another device.

Nov 16, 2022 10:03 AM in response to Karsten Silz

And the battery still drains as fast as it did before: Set up as a new watch, no third-party apps, no workouts, just sitting and some walking. Still, it lost 96% in less than six hours. Back to the Genius Bar tomorrow.

Switchfoota Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 16, 2022 6:07 PM in response to Karsten Silz

Extremely frustrating. I even tried "Low Power Mode" and my watch is lasting maybe 12 hours with minimal activity. I'm up to charging it to full twice a day, and a few hours off my wrist every day. How is that accurate and useful in tracking my ongoing vitals and trending health?

I'm so angry about this

KSHIID

Level 1

8 points

Nov 20, 2022 2:43 PM in response to Karsten Silz

I’m glad you’re getting a new watch but the struggle with battery drain is real. My watch is only 17 months old. I’ve turned off almost everything. Making my watch nearly useless.

There are too many complaints about this. It’s beyond user error.

Switchfoota Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 20, 2022 6:49 PM in response to KSHIID

KSHIID I agree- I just got my watch in late February this year so only about 9 months. I did not buy this watch to render most of the functions useless, nor did I plan to buy a new watch and invest this much money on a yearly basis. Even in low power mode I still have to do at least two full charges per day and essentially only have call notifications, credit card charge alerts, and my activity rings tracking. So disappointed, hope you all have better luck and just hoping they release some kind of update or patch

Switchfoota Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 20, 2022 6:50 PM in response to Karsten Silz

Karsten I’m glad they are replacing it!! It’s ridiculous that we users paying hundreds of dollars even have to detail-track all of these symptoms over days and weeks that are CLEARLY caused by something in the latest updates.

Nov 21, 2022 2:10 AM in response to Switchfoota

I'm a software developer myself. So I think I know a little about the challenge that Apple has here. Whenever you build tens of millions of something (like watches or iPhones), stuff will go sideways. Now fixing a bug like the one we encountered costs Apple probably tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands: Finding it, fixing it, testing it, rolling it out, and so on.

But more importantly, when Apple fixes that bug, they can't fix other bugs - or build new features (so-called opportunity cost). So Apple always has to consider: Do we really fix this now? Or do we just throw some money at this and replace a couple of hundred watches?

Switchfoota Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 21, 2022 5:47 AM in response to Karsten Silz

Hi Karsten, I would completely agree with you IF Apple has not been so difficult in acknowledging that this has impacted hundreds of people's watches and older models. The fact we have had to go through hoops and Apple Store visits and (for me, at least) it didn't result in any sympathy on Apple's part is uncalled for :-/

Nov 21, 2022 6:22 AM in response to Karsten Silz

Karsten Silz wrote:

I'm a software developer myself. So I think I know a little about the challenge that Apple has here. Whenever you build tens of millions of something (like watches or iPhones), stuff will go sideways. Now fixing a bug like the one we encountered costs Apple probably tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands: Finding it, fixing it, testing it, rolling it out, and so on.

But more importantly, when Apple fixes that bug, they can't fix other bugs - or build new features (so-called opportunity cost). So Apple always has to consider: Do we really fix this now? Or do we just throw some money at this and replace a couple of hundred watches?

Karsten, thanks for this!

Nov 21, 2022 6:49 AM in response to Switchfoota

I think the challenge Apple has is this: Let's say they publicly acknowledge "increased battery drain". It'll make headline news in all the tech sites, and lots of people will contact Apple. Probably even many that don't have a problem with their watch. That's bad.

And Apple doesn't have a solution yet. So what does it tell all these folks?

Nov 21, 2022 6:51 AM in response to KSHIID

Apple telling you to turn off apps and features is just standard troubleshooting procedures - you want to isolate the root cause.
Apple (and nobody else) can calculate the "cost to Apple associated with those of us who might go back to their competitor". That's a known unknown, to quote somebody famous. What Apple can calculate is the cost of troubleshooting & fixing this in their software.
Having a bug in watchOS that drains the battery faster doesn't make Apple "a company that purposely makes their products obsolete".

KSHIID

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2022 6:57 AM in response to Karsten Silz

as I read your response, all I could think is your right. Apple is stuck between a rock and a hard place. But ultimately I guess they’re letting us know that either they’re more interested in their stock performance bonuses then they are being honest and acknowledging a problem and the customers needs

Personally, I think it’s sad that society punishes honesty. But I get that’s a me thing.

Ultimately, Apple might lose some customers because we don’t know what’s happening and we need to watch that works the way it was sold. And also maybe not I guess that’s the gamble for all of us.

Nov 21, 2022 7:37 AM in response to LengthyEpic

@LengthyEpic: Sorry to hear about your trouble! I agree with you - if this isn't widespread, it won't get fixed in software. You're then up to the mercy of the individual Apple Store whether they replace your watch or not.

Does anybody know how other companies would deal with such a low-probability tech support issue (e.g., Samsung)?

Nov 21, 2022 7:42 AM in response to Karsten Silz

@Karsten

Back when I was a heavy Fitbit user, I had a unit that was acting up and they replaced it for me. My dad actually dropped his and it got run over and they replaced it for him. Although to be fair to Apple, if this was actually a hardware issue, I'm sure they would have replaced my Watch for me by now.

The issue is they keep running network and battery diagnostics which are telling them that everything is good, and they obviously have a policy of not replaced a "working" Watch if it's a software issue.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Apple Watch Series 7 Poor Battery Life after Watch iOS 9