Apple Watch ultra battery draining fast

Do a forced restart of your Apple Watch. If you’re unfamiliar with how to do a forced restart please review the Apple Support article I linked below. After the forced restart the battery usage should return to former levels in 24 to 72 hours. After an update the Watch performs indexing and syncing of apps and data in the background and this can consume a lot of battery power.

If high battery usage persists after 72 hours please unpair your Apple Watch and iPhone, force restart both devices and then pair them again.

If your Apple Watch is stuck on the Apple logo - Apple Support

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

The problems with watchOS 10 probably involves more than just 3rd party app(s).

When watchOS 10 first came out my watch updated automatically. I’m one of the unlucky few whose watch started using too much power. Using extra power after a major update is common for a couple days. After two weeks, my watch still had to be recharged several times per day (not acceptable). This was not an issue with watchOS 9.6 (there is no way to go back).

I have some draconian steps and a configuration that gets my watch through a day on one 90 minute charge, but NOT back to pre-watchOS10. My settings remove or disable much of what makes an Apple Watch special…but it’s better than a frequently dead watch.

As a side note, Apple Technical Support has been consulted twice: online and in-person at an Apple Store Genius Bar. Diagnostics pass, my watch has never been wet, and my S4 is not covered by a warranty. 

Apple Tech Support is aware of the problems and tried to solve my issue but ultimately provided two options: 

1) trade in my watch for a new S9 (net cost $400) or 

2) replace the battery even though it has 84% capacity ($299 cost for battery capacity over 80%, $99 replacement battery capacity less than 80%).

Neither option seems all that great…yet.

Here are some tricks and tips that might increase an Apple Watch’s daily battery use with the current watchOS 10:

• Adjust display settings. The display is one of the biggest battery drains, on S4 through S6. Reduce display impact by adjusting the brightness, reducing the amount of time the display stays on, and disabling the always-on display for S7 and newer.
• Reduce the number of notifications. Every notification that appears on the screen  requires the watch to wake up and use battery power. Try disabling notifications for apps that you don't use often and/or try setting notifications to silent delivery.
• Turn off haptics. Every time the watch has to send a haptic, a small vibrator has to use battery power.
• Remove apps from the Smart Stack. While this is a new feature, on my S4 it seems to consume significant power. 
• Delete 3rd party apps. Some 3rd party apps are not behaving well with watchOS 10. Delete the 3rd party apps on the watch AND on the iPhone. 
• Disable location services, especially for the Apple weather app. Apparently the weather app frequently checks location and retrieves weather for the location, even if your location is not significantly changing. Remove all but one weather app location. Completely removing the weather app may help too. 
• Turn off background app refresh. Complications will still update in the active watch face. Other apps will refresh when you open them or a watch face with corresponding complication.
• Turn off as many features as possible. Many Apple Watch features use battery power, even when not actively using them. For example, the heart rate sensor, GPS, and Wi-Fi can use battery power. Try turning off these features to save battery life.
• Use Power Saving Mode. This mode disables certain features to extend battery life. 

Here are some additional tips that may help improve battery life on watchOS 10:

• Unpair and re-pair Apple Watch. This can sometimes resolve battery life issues.
• Restore Apple Watch from a backup. This can also help to resolve battery life issues.
• Reset Apple Watch and do not restore from a backup. This can also help to resolve battery life issues.

If these fail to help with the short battery life:

• Contact Apple Support. If you're still having trouble with battery life, contact Apple Support for assistance. Do not expect good technical support from these Apple Community Forums, there are a few trolls who generally  make condescending and smug remarks.

If you are not happy with watchOS 10, share your concerns directly with Apple at Feedback - Watch - Apple  

Hope this helps your situation!

Do a forced restart of your Apple Watch. If you’re unfamiliar with how to do a forced restart please review the Apple Support article I linked below. After the forced restart the battery usage should return to former levels in 24 to 72 hours. After an update the Watch performs indexing and syncing of apps and data in the background and this can consume a lot of battery power.

If high battery usage persists after 72 hours please unpair your Apple Watch and iPhone, force restart both devices and then pair them again.

If your Apple Watch is stuck on the Apple logo - Apple Support

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Faster than usual battery drain and occasionally sluggishness are to be expected within the first 24-48 hours after a major update. Wait a day or two then restart. Don't panic.

I was dealing with the same issue on my Apple watch and have tried many Apple recommended fixes but what works for me is changing the Apple watch to a simple watch face and also tweaking a few settings of different Apple Watch features and now it is giving me much better battery performance for the steps you can refer to this 15 Apple Watch Battery Saving Tips That Actually Work

what fixed it for me was completely resetting the watch and setting it up as a new watch instead from a back up. Now it lasts me into day 3. Before it would be complete dead within 1 day and half.

I saw another post that said power off the watch and power back on. In years I had never powered off my watches. I did the ultra 2 and my power drain has returned to normal.

Hello domenic55, See this Apple Support page to Restate your Apple Ultra Watch.

Restart Apple Watch Ultra – Apple Support (UK)

Fix (what worked for me): Simply restart. There was no need to completely reset the watch. Check below for details.

No clue of what may have caused the issue as I have changed nothing. Not sure when I updated the OS, but certainly it was not the day before the onset of this weird behavior.

Update:

After the battery drained to 17% by 4 PM drained in Day 2, I fully charged it and starting testing again by 6PM. It appeared it was working properly.

Tested for two more days, drained around 35% and 20% on days

3 and 4, respectively. The restart fixed the issue.

mine was resolved by hard resetting both Watch7 and iPhone XR which seemed to be looping in the background after update.

Try to restart the watch. Power off, and power back on. This should solve the issue. At least it did in my case.

Whether this is acceptable or not is another question! At least if this is a persistent issue, the update should force a restart as you may encounter with some phone or computer updates.

UPDATE: 4/15/24 I updated my firmware to version 10.4 and the battery life seems to be back to normal.

I found this solution in another thread…

check your phone for the App “Moby Face”. If you have it, delete it immediately!! I did and my watch returned to pre-update battery life

The Ultra's description from Apple states the battery can last 36 hours. If you got 48 count your blessings.

Apple does not play such a dirty trick as you suggest on its valued customers.

M1 Mac mini, macOS 13.5.2;  Watch, series 7 GPS/cellular, watchOS 9.6.2; iPad Pro 2nd Gen, iPadOS 16.6.1; iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 16.6.1; TV 4th Gen, tvOS 16.6; HomePods, audioOS 16.5 and Airport Express w/ Airplay 2

How to restart the Apple Watch