Apple Watch battery drains super fast after 10.1 update.

The same exact thing happened to me. It gets so hot now that it won’t charge. It even drained the battery while on the charger. Battery lasted only a couple of hours at most. So upset! My watch is useless!

ios 10.1 updated overnight and my watch has switched its self off 3 times due to battery drainage issues. I tried a reboot closed all apps and it still hasn’t helped. Sat looking at the percentage go down one by one it’s just crazy. Any suggestions as to what I can do now ?

Like everyone on this thread I did the io10 update last night on se watch and in sat here now watching the battery drain like a stop watch, tried all the fixes but nothings working thought it was me until I found this useful thread. Hurry up with an update Apple

I had the same issues on both a Series 4 and Series 9.

Series 9 I unpaired/re-paired twice (this actually made everything worse). Series 4 I did not do so.

This morning I removed all 3rd party apps from both (Series 4 and Series 9) and they've stabilized, no more drastic battery drain.

I got that tip from a different thread, but theoretically apps shouldn't be able to use battery life in the background. So it might be a syncing issue after the os update that removing the apps "fixes", but the last 2 days was super-frustrating.

I also have this problem on Apple Watch Ultra. it even discharges by about 1% every 2/3 minutes. at 8 this morning it was 100%, at 12 it was 20%. I contacted support but they gave me generic answers. I wait to be called back by a technical specialist. I'm tempted to install the beta which they say is more stable. I have been an Apple user since 2008 and I don't remember similar problems, after iOS16 it's all a bug.

So, in my case, I did a factory reset of my Series 7. Along with that, I made sure no third-party apps installed (if some installed, I promptly uninstalled them). So far, I'm having no battery drain issues. 🙂 👍🏻 ⌚️

Geeez, why apple don't test the updates before releasing it? The Apple Watch is useless now.

I did a factory reset and still the same problem with battery, in less than 1 hour battery is dead, and cannot be charge at 100%, it got stuck at 77%.

I have an ultra two updated it to 10.1 battery drained to 10% in three hours from 100%.

I have reset the watched factory settings then paired to the phone and it’s still drained, and was very hot. The watch has turned into a wrist warmer

I was finally able to get 100% charge by turning it off, letting it cool, and while still off I put it on the charger where it charged to 100%. It did turn the watch back on but the screen was locked and did not overheat like before while charging and stopping.

I have found that if I do not unlock the watch, the battery does not drain but what good is a smart watch if it’s locked, and all you can do is see the time and date.

The battery appears to be OK as long as the watch screen is locked. What good is it if the screen is locked and you can’t even use it other than to look at the time. And then it’s annoying to see the lock screen pop-up to enter in your passcode. If you lift your wrist quickly.

Apple needs to fix this today!

My 7 updated to 10.1 last night and while it was on the charger, it never actually charged. I looked at the battery level this morning and it was going down about 5% per hour all night. I've got it on the charger after restarting (still wouldn't charge past about 5% and would drain that off in matter of about 10 minutes). I have now tried unpairing it with my phone and am hoping to get some charge on it, but it drained to zero while I was trying to unpair it. Hopefully now that it's unpaired on in airplane mode it will charge, but I'm highly disappointed with Apple on this one. Wish I had turned off automatic updates. I'd say we need a 10.1.1, but if my watch won't charge, it won't install an update and I'm angry that my year old several hundred dollar watch is unusable.

Midday update:

So far, I have seen improvement since I’ve unpaired and re-paired the watch. From 7:00 AM to 11:07 AM, the watch went from 100% to 73%. So the rate of battery drainage has improved, however it is slightly draining faster than normal. Normally I would still be at 85% around this time. Before unpairing and re-pairing the watch, the battery was draining at the rate of 30%/ hr. At that rate, the watch would have been dead by now. Let’s seen where we’re at later this afternoon.

I tried the unpair and then restore option. Then I tried completely resetting the watch, still same problem.

Talked to support chat guy -- and ended up making an appointment. I'm sure at this point, nothing is going to help.

I’m sorry you’re still having issues after having to go through all those steps. It’s must be very frustrating. It’s clearly a software issue. No sure the specifics of what’s causing the battery to drain. Hope they roll out another update to fix the issue.

So, I followed the advice someone gave earlier, which is to delete all third party apps. So far, my battery has been at 100% for the past 20 minutes.

For those with a watch that hardly charges, I used a heavier charger.

I did a reset via the watch (not the app) to erase everything except the cellular plan and then paired the watch to my phone again. That seemed to work: I have a fully charged watch again (prior it only got up to 75% after being on the charger for 12 hours), the heat from charging disappeared (even as it charged to 100%) and after being off the charger for 40 minutes it’s still at 100% when this morning it went down by 5% in 5 minutes.

Short story

2 watches series 7 & 9

Both updated to 10.1

Both dying around 3 hours from 100%

Tried restore. Didn’t help

Spoke with Apple technician via phone recommended deleting all third party apps.

Success 2% drain in 45 minutes.