Why my Apple Watch is not charging 100% ?

Why my Apple Watch is not charging 100% percent

Apple Watch Series 8, watchOS 9

Posted on May 10, 2023 2:56 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 10, 2023 2:58 AM

Hi, thanks for reaching out! Try to go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch, then tap Battery > Battery Health. In this area, there should be a feature named 'Optimized Battery Charging'. Disable this feature and see if you are now able to charge your iPhone fully to 100% again. Hope this helps.

71 replies

Feb 3, 2024 6:29 PM in response to Luigi_Gioia

A long reply, sorry. My Watch 9 ran out of power a couple of days ago. First time ever. Wouldn't charge past 83% and I had no idea what was going on. Frustrated!


Now I own a Tesla Model Y Long Range with NMCA battery and Tesla recommend not charging to 100% (and keeping it at that) regularly. They recommend 80% max for most charges. I was pointed by a friend to a Youtube video by a battery chemistry engineer who recommend charging Tesla NMCA Lithium batteries to 40% and 60% for daily driving. They claim this will extend the life of the battery.


Based on that, I'm assuming Apple are being cautious with the Watch charge range to optimise battery life. I just wonder how much of a difference it would make?

Feb 3, 2024 10:13 PM in response to NoosaGuy

NoosaGuy wrote:

Based on that, I'm assuming Apple are being cautious with the Watch charge range to optimise battery life. I just wonder how much of a difference it would make?

Personally, I'm not convinced it makes a huge difference in the case of the iPhone or Apple Watch. However, I have observed, over the years, that there are lots of people who obsess about their batteries, about how long they last, and about how to charge them. It would not surprise me if adding some of these features wouldn't be in response to that customer perception. But, though I worked in the cell phone industry for 20 years, I'm not an engineer.

Feb 5, 2024 10:14 AM in response to lulu1566

I have a series 3 Apple Watch and I’ve had it for 4 years. I don’t have the option to optimize my battery on my watch. It connects and then 5 minutes later it disconnects without me even having to touching the highest I’ve gotten it to charge is 70% but instead of it staying there and continuing to charge it will randomly drop to 40% all by itself.

Mar 31, 2024 9:17 AM in response to MrsDuhart

To me, this is a major problem! My Apple watch App says that my Apple watch must be connected to its charger AND be charged above 80% before any update will proceed. Until I discovered the fix, I could not figure out why my watch would not update to the next version software! I think the feature of battery optimization needs to be rethought.

Jun 20, 2024 5:37 PM in response to Luigi_Gioia

I have turned off the optimisation, restarted watch, turned back on the optimisation, restarted watch and repeated numerous times. When you get off a 12 hour shift the last thing you think of pressing the battery symbol to get watch to charge fully. Then when you finish work and go to the gym you discover the watches died half way through your workout. This is a new watch and was only upgraded because of the 3G being switched off.

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Why my Apple Watch is not charging 100% ?

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