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]
As many here I was affected by the constant battery drain of approx. 5% per hour and I think I found what was causing this for me.
When I checked the Watch App on my phone ==> General ==> About it showed that it synced 15 photos even though I have not selected any photos or albums to sync.
Opening the photos app on the watch confirmed that and showed that there are no photos on the watch.
I then selected an album with one picture to sync and the photo count went up to 16. Next I created a photo watch face and set it to dynamic and suddenly the watch showed random pictures that I never selected to sync. I searched for these photos on my iPhone and deleted them from there until the watch only showed 1 picture being synced, which was the one from the album. I then changed the watch face back from dynamic to album and left the face on the watch.
I did this on Tuesday. Yesterday, on Wednesday my watch was at 37% after wearing it without additional charging for almost 17 hours. Usually it would have been dead after 14 hours max. Today I took the watch off the charger at 7:30, at 8:41 it jumped to 99% where it would have been at 94% or even less before and now at 12:30 it is still at 87% which is 2.6%/hour.
I think the constant photo sync would be a good explanation for this issue as the watch would constantly download new pictured from the phone and would index them. In addition to that it would also explain why not everyone is affected by this since this would not apply to people having their photo sync configured to sync specific albums rather than the watch syncing random photos when nothing is selected for the photo sync. And it would also explain why resetting the watch doesn't help to fix this issue since the watch would start randomly syncing photos again after the reset.
Might be worth to check/try for others.
I am so sorry to hear you… do you think if you take off ALL 3rd party applications it could make it better? I would try.
I uninstalled most of the third party apps and for the last 12 hours overnight it only drained 23%. I am going to see how it will act during the day and if it will last as usual.
I also uninstalled some and moby was one of them the charging seems to go fine now. Not really heating up so lets hope it solves it for now
there is a third party app that is causing this issue… mobyface .. this app needs to be removed from the device .. thus will fix the issue with battery… your welcome 😁
I turned my photo sync off and will monitor.
I FOUND A FIX for my iPhone. Just a hard reset and now it's holding a much better level of power again. (Not as good as pre update though. But at least all day now!!
this may be a possibility: could you need a new watch charger?
On my Apple Watch 7 45mm gps I used to get around 32 hours a year ago. And just before updating to 10.0.1 I was getting at least 20 to 24 hours. Not im getting about 12 to 14 hours. Seems like every update makes it worst. My battery health is at 85%. Fix this apple.
Same here. My Apple Watch Ultra use to be able to last me 48 hours where I'd still have about 15-25% left before I'd charge it, now I only get about 36 hours before needing to charge. Also my calendar compilations no longer update unless you open the watch calendar app. They need to release an update to fix some of these issues.
Power efficiency isn’t the strongest part of the latest watchOS. My battery was draining for 3-4 days after the release. Then it stabilized. Anyways, before I charged them in mornings and I had ~50% at midnight. After the update I have to charge my watches twice a day. And on 10.0.1 it dies during the sleep tracking period despite the battery is between 80-90%. I hope Apple patches it asap.
I got the Apple Watch Ultra 2 on release day Sep 22 and it was working just fine for the first 2 days until the 10.0.1 update then it started draining, I updated to 10.0.2 and it drained even faster. I did all the tests and everything was fine via phone support, went to my genius appointment at the Apple store yesterday and they were willing to replace it but the same thing is happening. It can't even last for 6 hours on a full 100% charge (no workouts, no music).
This is beyond frustrating. I got the AWU2 for my first marathon in Chicago on Sunday but the battery life is worse than my series 7. I think I'm better off getting a Garmin like most endurance athletes...
Somehow my S4 recovered - I don’t exactly know, what helped - was it the unpairing/repairing, the hard reset of the watch (pressef crown and button until Apple Logo appears), the Restart of the iPhone12 or whatever else.
(un)fortunately I bought a Garmin Epix G2 in the meanwhile to continue to track my excercises, health and sleep and - mainly - because of Apples lack to communicate and to support on this case, which seems not to be a solitary issue of a single watch.
Tbh this was my last Apple device. I know, that other manufactorers may have the same or even worse problems. But that does not make this very issue acceptable to me. Customer communication is key - especially after major software updates, like the ones, which lead to this issue.
I am even wondering, if Apple had implemented some kind of hypercare after the release to monitor and adress unkown issues. I don’t have the feeling they had…
Good luck to everyone out there, struggeling with this battery drain issue. I wish to you, that these issues will get solved.
Cheers
Updated my Apple watch 7 to 10.0.1. Updated my iPhone 12 to 17.0.3.
Before “upgrade” of watch OS, I only needed to charge my watch first thing every morning, and it charged to 100%. Now watch battery no longer charges to 100%; only charges to 75%, and by mid-day, it’s down to about 20%. By about 8PM it’s back down to 20-30%. Charge it again, and by morning it’s back down to 20-30%. No noise stuff on, no location services on, no fitness tracking on. It’s functioning just as a watch—not why people buy Apple watches, right?
Now I’ve discovered that if I turn my watch off before I put it on the charger, it will actually charge all the way to 100%. However, it still drains the battery just as quickly throughout the day.
My phone battery also drains faster since I “upgraded” my phone OS, but it’s not as drastic as the watch battery.
And of course I’ve done the turn off, wait, turn back on multiple times with both watch and phone. Also unpair/re-pair. Didn’t improve anything.
Someone noted that there is a watch OS update out, but it’s not showing up as available to me.
Apple needs to get their act together. This battery performance is unacceptable, especially given that it’s across a wide range of watch versions. It’s not like they can claim that there’s an issue with one particular watch in the series.
Update to 10.1 seems to have helped for me. Series 6 will now last for the day at least. Not sure if update solved all the problems as I stopped a number of apps and removed others so I'm not 100% sure it was the update that improved things. Odd, only affects some watches, but it is obviously a OS issue. Hopefully Apple will acknowledge and provide an update that will work for everyone!
Or maybe Apple sent the specs for the update to MobyFace and Facer and they haven’t written code to read over properly. That’s normally the problem. Developers don’t code correctly. They get the update way before it goes public. The developers code to Apple’s software, Apple doesn’t code to their app. That’s like buying an aftermarket camshaft for a Chevy engine and getting mad at Chevy it they made the shaft or lobes wrong. Anyways, I need my watch to be functional more than I need a third party face. That’s just me though.
Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update
