38mm Series 2 WatchOS 6.3 Battery Drain

Question

38mm Series 2 WatchOS 6.3 Battery Drain

I had extremely poor battery life on my 38mm Series 2 Apple Watch, it would die in under 40 minutes with screen off.

I replaced the battery and now it lasts about 9 hours but will hit low power mode by the end of the work day.

I've let the watch die, charged it for 4 hours, let it die again, and charged it again for 4 hours but I'm still losing ~10-15% an hour just wearing it.

Does anyone know how to fix the apparent battery drain in WatchOS 6.3?

I cannot figure out where this drain is coming from.

My Series 1 watch on 5.x would last a day and a half on one charge with normal use.

Apple Watch Series 2

Posted on Dec 13, 2022 6:56 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 13, 2022 9:36 AM in response to LD150

Apple classifies it as "vintage" and no longer works on them, not much choice but to replace.

New battery is fine, so there's an issue with 6.3 causing a battery drain, which unfortunately there's no battery monitor app or health for the series 2 to see what the culprit is.

I've searched the boards and I'm not the only one with heavy drain of 6.x ruining their watch.

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Answer 2

Dec 13, 2022 9:48 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

I'm not sure what you're hoping anyone here could possibly offer you? You have a very old, out of date watch, using a WatchOS version not supported for at least 4 years now. Other than suggesting you avoid running apps which are battery users, like streaming music, there's little else anyone can advise. It's not like any users now or in the past can get into WatchOS. Other things which you can try would be to unpair the watch and start over again from scratch. But I highly doubt that will improve battery life for you. Especially since you have a 3rd party part in your watch, which you have no way of knowing is even close to the quality of an Apple installed battery.

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Answer 3

LD150

Level 10

91,151 points

Dec 13, 2022 9:16 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

You changed the battery or Apple Store changed the battery?

If it was you then we can't advise further except to say..

You can repeat the test to charge to 100%, take off charge, turn the watch off completely and leave ovenight. If the charge is less than 95% in the morning then the battery or the watch have a hardware defect.

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Answer 4

Dec 13, 2022 9:21 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

In addition to great advice LD150 offered, you are actually causing more harm to your battery in your watch, by letting it fully discharge. That is injurious to LI batteries and can greatly reduce the overall health of the battery.

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Answer 5

Dec 13, 2022 9:29 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

Sorry, but you are completely wrong on this. Lithium iON batteries should NOT be fully discharged. And there is no such thing a "Calibrating" a LI battery. Calibrating batteries died years ago, and only applied to batteries before the age of LI.

But it's your watch, do as you please.

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Answer 6

Dec 13, 2022 9:31 AM in response to LD150

Apple classifies it as "vintage" and no longer works on them, not much choice but to replace.

New battery is fine, so there's an issue with 6.3 causing a battery drain, which unfortunately there's no battery monitor app or health for the series 2 to see what the culprit is.

I've searched the boards and I'm not the only one with heavy drain of 6.x ruining their watch.

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Answer 7

Dec 13, 2022 9:42 AM in response to lobsterghost1

Asking for what other people have done to fix their battery drain, battery replacement is not the subject here.

If apple no longer services my watch, what should I have done with it? Original battery was garbage.

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Answer 8

Dec 13, 2022 10:01 AM in response to lobsterghost1

I'm not the only one with bad 6.3 battery life. Which is why I'm here, asking about a 4 year old watch I'd like to revive instead of having a paper weight.

I have a 3rd party part because apple doesn't support my watch anymore, again, trying to avoid a paperweight.

Considering the excellent life my Series 1 has, it's an OS issue, probably by a rogue synch issue, or a compatibility issue between ios16 trying to push or receive info from the watch.

It's not a hardware issue, it's software. Which is why I'm here asking about software.

If you're not going to contribute any OS suggestions then keep trashing my old hardware I'm trying to save.

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Answer 9

Dec 13, 2022 10:06 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

Do you understand this is a user to user only forum? No one here works for Apple. No one here has anything to do with software on Apple Watch. Other than typical user tips, such as Restart, Force Restart, Unpair and Pair again, there is nothing anyone here can offer you about WatchOS software, which is completely out of date and no longer supported.

I am not trashing your hardware. It's simply VERY old at this point. And then you chose to replace the battery yourself, which means you don't have an authentic battery in your watch.

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Answer 10

LD150

Level 10

91,151 points

Dec 13, 2022 10:14 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

As lobsterghost1 says

you are completely wrong about LiIon batteries in Apple devices
You are on your own now you opened the case yourself

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Answer 11

Dec 13, 2022 9:26 AM in response to lobsterghost1

Incorrect as almost all modern battery calibration is reinitiated with a complete cycle after battery replacement. Bad to repeatedly full cycle, fine for the initial replacement.

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Answer 12

Dec 13, 2022 9:36 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

We can't offer you any help and Apple won't get involved with your watch, since by your own admission, you replaced the battery yourself.

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Answer 13

LD150

Level 10

91,151 points

Dec 13, 2022 10:20 AM in response to WatchOS6Point3_IsGarbage

Do the overnight test. Do we at least agree that a powered off Watch should not lose charge over 8 hours?

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38mm Series 2 WatchOS 6.3 Battery Drain

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