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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?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Sep 25, 2023 8:16 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

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.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 4, 2023 12:31 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

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.

Nov 3, 2023 11:51 AM in response to jkm2713

As many others here I am facing battery drain issues since I updated my S7 (86% battery health) to Watch OS10 / 10.1

In general I think there were two issues:


  1. Massive battery drain up to the point where the watch doesn't even charge, mostly caused by 3rd party apps and 3rd party watch face apps
  2. More battery drain than usual, making the watch only last for approx. 12 hours instead of 16 with around 50% battery left


I was facing the second issue and tried everything suggested:


- Removed weather widget and watch face complications

- Deleted all watch faces and only used a very basic one without any complications

- Disabled all measurements for heart-rate, blood oxygen, etc

- Disabled background app refresh

- Disabled hand washing timer

- Disabled always on display

- Disabled WiFi and Bluetooth

- Reset the watch and set it up as new


Nothing helped. Even when using Low Power mode my watch was draining around 5% per hour. (I have an excel sheet where I enter the remaining battery load every hour at the moment to see what actions might have helped)


I then decided to see what happens when I connect my watch to my work iPhone (older XR that I usually only use for work related stuff) and guess what: No battery drain at all. Used it normally and after one hour it was still at 100% (where I would have been at 93-97 before) and even some hours later it just went down a bit. With that it seemed like the issue wasn't actually related to the watch but more to the phone or something on the phone. I then did the following:


  1. Put the watch on the charger
  2. Unpair the watch
  3. Disable Watch App from iCloud settings on my iPhone
  4. Uninstall the Apple Watch App from my iPhone
  5. Restart the iPhone
  6. Reinstall the Apple Watch app
  7. Pair Apple Watch to phone again as a new watch


Not all of these steps might be required but since I did this I see some improvements. After 12 hours of using the watch my battery is now at 50% where it would have been between 20 and 36 before. This is still not like 50% at the end of the day as it used to last but with 86% battery health I think this is not too bad.

Interestingly the Watch App is not showing up under my iCloud settings again, yet. It completely disappeared from there.


I don't know what exactly helped and if this is really a fix or just some more voodoo like all the other suggestions but it feels like an improvement for me and might be worth a try for others facing similar issues.

Oct 19, 2023 4:01 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

LUKE, THIS IS THE FIX YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!


I had the same battery life issue (my battery was dead in about half the time of what was normal right before installing the update) and also noticed that my weather complications were staying blank. I found this Apple recommended solution for the complications issue and it solved both problems. See this page:


If the Apple Watch Weather complication isn't working - Apple Support


The first recommended fix on this page did not help me, but the second one definitely did. I am three days into the fix and all is back to normal and watch is running great. I am getting 18+ hours battery life with light use on my Series 5.


BTW, here's what I did before finding and using the above fix. None of these things helped:

  • Turned off both watch and phone. Did not help.
  • Factory reset and repaired my watch as a new watch at least three times. Did not help (but wasted a lot of time).
  • Factory reset and repaired my watch with a restore from a recent backup. Did not help.
  • Factory reset and repaired my watch with a restore from an older backup. Did not help.
  • Changed watch from 12-hr clock to 24-hr clock, as many had recommended as a fix for the blank weather complications. Did not help.

Sep 30, 2023 11:50 PM in response to nelsonfromsarasota

Yesterday, my Apple Watch SE was charged 100% and left to shop at approx. 18:10.

By 20:15 it was down to 43%!


I had not used it for navigation, music or podcasts. That's 57% used just being on standby!


I then used the countdown timer for 15 minutes. Once completed, the battery was down to 17%!


Apple must release a patch update to address this severe issue as soon as possible!





Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update

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