Battery drain WatchOS 9.3.1

Ensure iphone is in iOS16.3.1

Always update the iphone first, the updates come out in pairs.

Watch uses a LOT of battery 

Force restart your watch i.e. press and hold both the side button and Digital Crown for at least 10 seconds, then release both buttons when you see the Apple logo. 

Then Force Restart the paired iphone   Force restart iPhone – Apple Support (UK)

Then make sure to turn off background app refresh and  check walkie talkie is not accidentally turned on. 

Try it for a couple of days especially if you sync photos to your Watch.

Then if still no better you can check for damaged or self-discharging battery... 

How to check your Apple Watch battery fo… - Apple Community

If it’s OK 

Unpair the watch and then pair it again. 

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK) 

Set up your Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK) 

 If it still discharges unpair it and pair it again without restoring the backup. 

Check that the iPhone is not using any security apps or VPN that can affect apps on the Watch. You don't need any of them and they can be incompatible with iOS16 on the phone. 

see also 

Apple Watch - Battery - Apple (UK)

Batteries - Maximising Performance - Apple (UK)

You certainly did not test for self-discharge with them because it is not one of their tests. What else didn't you do?

And this is this time, not last time.

If you don't want to go through the list again now there is no point is coming here for help.

24 Hours? The subject of this thread is Series 7. They are not supposed to last 24 hours.

Apple Watch not Ultra - up to 18 hours

Apple Watch Ultra - up to 36 hours but only if out on extreme expedition

The recommendation is still charge all night every night if you want the battery tp last a couple of years or whenever you can if using Sleep Monitoring.

Whenever the Watch or iphone is sitting around doing nothing it is using battery that needs to be charged up again and it is the effective total of full charge cycles that ages batteries.

If you left an Apple device on charge 24x7 the battery health would stay near 100% forever. Extrapolate down from that fact.

I can confirm that problem. Since the update to os 9.3.1 the battery of my watch has a massive power drain. Also charging stops at about 80 %. Hope there is an os 9.3.2 (or 9.3.1.1) soon to fix this problem.

I'm noticing this too on my Series 5. Used to get to end of day at 25% and now it drains at 6%/hour or more. Battery health is a tad low at 77% but I don't want to replace the battery if it's a SW bug.

Anyone work with Apple and get any sort of response?

I have a Titanium Series 7 and the battery drain is very significant with watchOS 9.3.1. Percentage wise, it's consistently about 20% less than what I used to have. It's off the charger at 8am and by 7pm it's down into 20% range. Previously, I'd be in the 40s or low 50s. Something is wrong with this update with the series 7.

Similar problem with accelerated battery drain after update to 9.3.1 I don't use my watch for sleep evaluation, but 18 hour day's end have decreased from 40% to 50% to 15% t0 20%. Interestingly, the accuracy for outside walking distance (a peeve) improved significantly.

I can confirm 9.3.1 drains battery drastically (from 100% to 25% overnight with all notifications turned off), and watches heat up much higher (significantly) than used to be when charging, I am really waiting for Apple to resolve it asap, can't really use my Apple Watch 7 now... hopefully it will get fixed.

My battery drain issue was solved by hard resetting the watch (hold crown button and side button together until Apple logo appears), then I unpaired my watch from the phone, and paired it back with restoring to its’ previous state. The battery is acting fine now, just like before.

Interesting, worked for me just great. You probably restored the watch from iCloud copy and the bug itself returned back. Try to erase the watch (you can always return to its' current state later) and see if that worked for you. So just unpair the watch, hard reset it, pair it again, but don't restore it to the latest state, start it fresh, new, clean. See if that works for you. If it works, that means it's clearly just a software bug, if not - hardware problem. you can try contacting Apple to diagnose the watch in that case. At least you will be able to know which option fits in your case.

hugh battery drain, sometimes within 4 hours. Noticed the drainage the following day after update 9.3. Oddly nothing happened to my husbands watch. We have the same watch and settings. Took to the Genius Bar, they said the Bluetooth is pulling in the battery. Suggested that I turn off notifications, alerts, etc. my response was “why have the watch?”. I have unpaired it several times. Nothing id working! Thoughts?

Hi, I took my watch to apple and they really have no answer..

Maybe we should reboot which I did and set back to factory settings... wiping clean.

Now it's worse then ever... I had to purchase a new watch... I know other people who also

Have the same issue... I spent two hours at the store and another 2 on the phone... no one could help me...

Sad... there was nothing wrong with my watch before upgrade..

I noticed the battery drain as well. It’s quite significant.