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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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.
Hello, this is what had happened to my watch. When the first update happened the battery drained like a sieve the first day. After the next charge it was back to normal. When I updated the second time the same thing happened again. It drained drastically that day then when I recharged it overnight it is back to normal.
You certainly have the rotor your opinion… but from what I understand, the people that was having problems with battery draining due to a app was only the MobyFace app… not tones of poorly written apps. MobyFace is available at the Apple Store and is a very popular app.
The only thing that I agree with you is that it is a OS problem. As far as having a lot of apps, I think it is a personal choice but the OS should support the use of some apps available on the Apple Store, if not, why even having a App Store?
Santanesia wrote:
The only thing that I agree with you is that it is a OS problem. As far as having a lot of apps, I think it is a personal choice but the OS should support the use of some apps available on the Apple Store, if not, why even having a App Store?
Have you ever written software? It is non-trivial to properly test it in all situations. And sometimes the author plays fast and loose with the operating system calls, then gets caught when the operating system changes. Sometimes the author just did not realize that they were coloring outside the lines (software bugs happen).
For Apple to actually test every single app, in every possible situation, such as different carriers, different carrier signal strengths, on WiFi/off WiFi, streaming over cellular, streaming over WiFi, Bluetooth connected to the iPhone, WiFi connected to the iPhone, Cellular connected to the iPhone (like when you leave your iPhone at home), how the app contacts the developer for services, creating an account with the developer for services, with a subscription to the developer's services, without a subscription, using the app for free, or paying for the extra features in the app, etc... This is just scratching the surface of all the different ways an app can mess up and do not nice things to the Apple Watch.
Apple is NOT going to do this testing for the vendor. Apple limits its testing to make sure the app does not violate Apples app rules, and does not attempt to bypass operating system permitted calls.
If Apple had to do all this testing, they A) they might not have an App Store, or B) it would take months for any app to get an update, and months for a new app to be offered on the App Store, and C) Apple would charge the developer a lot of money for testing labs and labor such that Free apps would go away, and paid apps would cost a lot (LOT) of money.
In other words, it is the app vendors responsibility to make sure their app works correctly in all situations.
And as users, it is our responsibility to shun apps that do not work well, or worse cause our devices to need frequent charging. Or if not shun them, contact them and ask them to fix their app, especially if we paid the developer for the app.
I'm currently on the phone to apple now. I can concur with those that say apple haven't heard of this situation.
The operator is doing all the things I have done in the past two weeks - to no avail.
I've wasted so much time on this which is not my fault.
Looks like I'm going to have to send my watch of to apple.
This is ridiculous and apple will more than likely edit my post like last time.
So it's have a problem but don't make it look so bad when you are posting about it.
Battery drain.
Cannot get past preparing
Two weeks.
Watch is useless.
Battery charging slow on charger.
Battery not charging on the charger.
All these issues have come about through no fault of my own.
Been on the phone for hours today on and off since 11.30. it's now 15.00
My Watch Ultra 1.Gen - 13 Months old - always lasted a minimum of 50 to 70 hours. After iOS17 and after WatchOS 10.0.01 this dropped to approx. 30-35 hours. Reset, Re-Pairing etc., frankly all the things I have read here, which could be of help, did not brought me any further. But for some of you it did, which is a good thing. :)
WatchOS 10.1.1 made it even a little worse..
So, what is the next little piece of hope? WatchOS 10.2. maybe? I wish I have never said "yes" to auto-update.
They did a patch WatchOS upgrade over the weekend that made it even worse. Now it runs completely dead under light use in less than 6 hours.
Someone in OS programming needs to work some overtime, or just let us revert to the old OS.
Yes. I shouldn't have used 10.1.1. My watch was almost back up to normal from the previous update and when 10.1 came out I tried it out. I'm not losing a lot compared to others. But it's consistently using a bit more compared to what it had improved to.
Well today was a good day. I started off with a full charge with my Ultra and I am down only 14% 12 hours later. Yesterday I deleted 2 apps. One was a weather app Windy and I got rid of the Apple Podcast app. Not sure if it helped or not by deleting these 2 but it was an overall improvement. The other day at this time I was at 43%.
Exact same predicament. Apple Watch 7. Updated itself to 10.1.1 three days ago (I believe this update was to fix a Watch Ultra rapid drain issue) - ironic because it caused mine.
I’ve charged it 3x times each day and still not able to do sleep tracking. For reference I’ve always achieved >24hr battery any sleep tracking without any issue.
Tried a device reset and restore to backup but this has not provided the fix, if anything its draining quicker.
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Me too, and it’s actually got worse with 10.1.1, that was supposed to address the issue!
Edit:
just seen the comment above about photo sync. Mine was already off, but I’ve turned it on/off to see if it helps.
The problem is that, no matter what you configure, the photo sync comes back. I have disabled it multiple times, deleted the synced photos from my phone and still there are new photos synced to the watch every day or sometimes even multiple times a day. This bug needs to be fixed by apple and then this will also fix the battery drain!
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.
I'm having issues too. Although this update is very elegant and looks more appealing the battery is definitely not. Installed this update 2 days ago and it was keeping stable battery but of course there is always a reason. At the time I was in a different country so to prevent cellular phone plan charges cellular was off. However when I came back home and turned on cellular my battery can crashing down here is a time list.
6:30 AM Wake Up 100%
7AM Eat Breakfast 96%
8:30 AM at school 82%
Watch Powered off for 3 hours
11:30 AM Lunch 64%
Watch Powered off for 4 hours
3:30 PM 42%
Charged 4PM 38%
Test on Apple Watch SE 2 with battery health of 87%
My watch would last 12-15 hours before now I can barely use it for 6-7 hours. Every update the battery drains and Apple needs to fix this fast. I am relieved to hear that I am not alone.
My Apple Watch Ultra has battery life issues, also. Just after the 10.2 update, my battery life was nearly 60 hours. The next battery life cycle was in the 40-hour range, and the next in the 24-hour range. I've lost count of the number of charging/discharging cycles, but this current cycle is going to be under 10 hours. The battery life issue appeared in my first Ultra and is now in the replacement Ultra. Usage and settings are fairly consistent over time, so I'm not introducing too many variables. Version 10.1 had a similar lift with a gradual reduction in the battery life.
Like many of the others who replied, expectations from Apple in general, and specifically for the Ultra series, is the battery life should be exceptional, longer term, and consistent. Removing and limiting normal usage to improve a fundamental issue is pushing the fix/workaround out to the installed base... which is not desired or expected from Apple.
My 7 watch was awesome before the update. I worked out several workouts a day. My family group text all day long and by midnight I still had 68 percent battery. Bought a 15 max pro phone and when pairing…the update happened. My watch with no workouts over Christmas or any activity is at 30 percent by 8 pm. This watch was my everything. I am not happy at all. I hope Apple gets it right because apparently I am not alone. It’s just not right.
Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update
