Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update

Since updating to WatchOS 10.0.1, the watch battery charges only to 80% overnight and the battery drains more quickly than before the update. I also updated my iPhone 14 pro to iOS 17 around the same time. Would this impact the watch battery?


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Posted on Sep 25, 2023 8:16 AM

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Posted on Oct 4, 2023 12:31 PM

Here’s my situation today:

  • wake up at 6 am: watch is at 100%
  • get in car at 7:20 am: watch is at 91%
  • sit motionless for four hours
  • at 11:30, walk around for approximately two hours (no workout being tracked)
  • sit motionless for another two hours
  • by 3:30 pm, watch is at 56%, having only been looked at 6-7 times. There were no functions engaged, only one alert shown, no workouts tracked, and WiFi is turned off.
  • since I have to leave the office at 4 and drive for about 3 hours, I fully expect that by 7:30 pm tonight my watch will be dead, having not done anything at all today.


I have updated my phone OS also.


Before this update, my watch lasted until 12 am-1 am, which included a minimum 2 hours of workout tracking and many activations.


this is an utter joke. Nobody can use a watch that can’t last 10 hours even when it’s not tracking anything.

771 replies

Nov 27, 2023 9:39 PM in response to Dchery

In 5 hours from 100% charged overnight with battery saving on, down to 23% already. This is after also fully deleting content and new pairing.


This problem happened to my Apple Watch before but it would stop some time after an update. Now, all we’re told that some third party apps can drain the battery? Nonsense.

Nov 30, 2023 11:46 AM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

I have the series 5 40 mm and it used to last all day and plus some depending on notifications. But I have noticed a DRASTIC change in battery life with updates. This morning I took it off the charger from charging all night and it was at 90% and not 30 minutes later it was 80%. It is not just before 3pm and it is at 40%. I have done nothing on it all day. I have even turned off many background push updates and removed many additional apps. WTF!!!

Dec 4, 2023 2:11 AM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

What I’ve begun to realise, is that charging takes a LOT longer than it used to. 

I wear mine to bed, and put it on charge as soon as I wake up. It used to be fully charged by the time I was ready to head out, but not anymore. I have to give it a top-up when I get to work. 

I’ve tried with optimised charging on and off. It makes no difference either way for me. 


Dec 4, 2023 3:40 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

After I upgraded from iPhone 14 premax to the 15 premax my apple watch very rapidly loses its power. It used to last the whole day. Now I need to recharge 3-4 times a day making almost worthless. I was hoping the 10.1.1 would fix the problem but it didn't. Note unlike some mine will recharge to 100%, but that helps little. Apple needs to fix this pronto.

Dec 4, 2023 9:03 PM in response to michael sfromsanta monica

I hav previously has the same issues as most of you but i hav noticed with my watch that once i update either phone or watch if i do a full reset after the battery again goes back to normal iv done this after each update it may not work for everyone but its worked for me iv also not turned any apps off including photo sync im using my watch daily paired with airpods for music and the battery is still at 45% by night time

Dec 10, 2023 2:59 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

Watch Battery Issue Solved: So I did 3 things that were recommended, all at once.  1) Turned photo synch off and doing a hard reboot. 2) Dim display to lowest level. 3) Turned off wake on wrist raise. Combined these got me to normal life. I then turned on wake on raise as I didn't like that being off. Battery life was still good. Then I increased display brightness to middle setting. Battery life is still good.

SO I THINK THE MAJOR CULPRIT IS PHOTO SYNC, which I never used anyway.

Dec 15, 2023 3:53 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

Apple Watch battery drains 40% faster than prior to update. I Updated my Apple SE watch and I phone 14 Pro Max the same week and only since these updates have I had this battery drain issue. I was able to go two days without charging it and use all the regular apps and now it is dead at 4pm? What the heck! Get it fixed Apple!!! Tech is no good if it doesn’t work when you want it to.

Dec 16, 2023 12:24 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

Just updated my Apple Watch 8 and it drained from 100% to 9% before lunchtime. I charged it up again and two hours later it's 74% and it's almost too hot to wear. I've shut it off. For the past 13 months I’ve been able to get two days on a charge with the battery between 60 and 75% after the first day and only at 48% when I’d charge it the second day. Then the update comes along and it's pointless to even put on now.


I use this for medical reasons and I can't depend on it now.

Dec 16, 2023 3:00 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

For me, on an Ultra 2 under 10.2, it has become really bad.


I lose 1% of the battery life every 3-6 minutes. This is more than twice the rate of loss than under 10.1.2.


No workouts, no phone calls, no streaming...


Re-paired the watch and no better.


I am now having to recharge the battery while driving to keep the watch running. This is very frustrating.


Help please.

Dec 17, 2023 7:12 AM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

A few more observations from my end:

I talked to Apple support on Friday morning and they did some remote diagnostics, including a battery usage report from where they could see that the app that mostly uses the battery on my watch is the Maps app. An app that I never use and I have all direction notifications disabled.

According to an Apple support document it should be possible to delete the maps app from the watch with WatchOS 9.4 or later but I can’t uninstall it on my watch.

I have reset my watch one more time on Friday evening. While doing so I noticed that the watch App on my phone shows more than 500MB documents and data. On my wife’s phone it only shows a few MB and she doesn’t have the battery drain issue. So I thought I delete the app from my phone, restart the phone and then download the app again to clear that only to find that it still shows the same amount of documents and data afterwards.

I still went ahead and set up the watch again and this time (probably did this 4 or 5 times already) on Watch OS 10.2 things seem to have gotten better. Today, Sunday morning I took it off the charger at 9:00am and now at 11:30am it is at 96%. 

One more thing that is different after the reset now though is that I don’t see anyone who I am sharing my fitness rings with anymore on the watch. They still show up on my phone but not on the watch and they report that they still see me but without any data. It just shows all my rings as 0 for them.

My wife only shares her rings with me while I share it with 6 people in total.

wondering if the battery drain could be connected to the number of people you share your fitness rings with.

Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update

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