Apple Watch battery drains super fast after 10.1 update.

came here to share pretty much this as a fix for me too. Tried nigh everything that has been suggested before, background refresh, turn off photo and music app sync, complication free watchfaces. Nothing helped.

what resolved it for me was an unpair and disable the “automatic app install” in general settings. Battery usage has returned to normal. Where i previously lost 20% battery in 3 hours, it’s now 5%!

wish i knew this months ago! During which my battery health dropped from the high eighties to just 81.

My battery used to last for 2 days. It would have 65% battery left after 12 hours, so I’d get 2 days wearing it before I have to charge it. Since the 10.2 update it’s at 30% after 12 hours. Very disappointed in Apple.

Not only does my battery drain faster since the update, my weather complication isn’t showing on my watch when I’m in my house. Once I’m out and about, it records temperatures with no problem.

I tried all the weather app fixes that didn’t work - then realized it’s not a problem away from my wi-fi.

I wonder what else isn’t working properly that I have yet to discover.

What I found is that in Settings, under Display & Brightness, the 'Always On' setting has been set to 'On'. If you turn that 'Off' and make sure that the 'Wake on Wrist Raise' and 'Wake on Crown Up' are set on, this should help. No need for the display to not turn off when you aren't looking at it (IMO).

It's not the battery folks; even people with Series 9/Ultra have reported the same thing in this very thread. Do NOT reply on Apple fixing this by giving them more money to replace your battery. This is absolutely software based, it's definitely a bug and Apple needs to get off their collective as*es and fix it.

That aside....my watch has been working ok since it died completely the other day.

I posted the other day that my watch died and took at over 4 hours on a charger to turn back on and was only at 16% when it came back on. I charged it overnight and it's now been lasting all day again.

It would not charge on my charger but did on my wifes. Her AC Adapter is lower amp and I have read in other threads that when a watch won't charge, it needs to be a lower amp AC Adapter.

If you have a lower amp charger, try that if your watch is dead, or try letting your watch die completely and charge it using a slower charger. Obviously no guarantees it will work, but maybe letting the watch discharge completely is blowing out the issue?

I charged mine to 100% before bed and it was dead when I woke up. I’m honestly done with Apple Watches after this and might just invest in a Garmin. My friends have all had theirs for 4+ years and they still work like new.

Went through this whole thing end of October, spent 3+ days trying to get my watch back to being a watch instead of a wrist warmer. My battery before this was at 92% capacity, after three days of instant battery drain my battery is now at 81%. Thanks to this update my watch shaved 10% of the capacity of my battery.

I just updated this morning and it went from 100 to 80% during update. OK. But then it crashed to 7% in less than 2 hours. Recharged back to about 80% and in less than an hour it's under 50% - not running any trackers or anything that I can tell. I've unpaired and repaired and restarted both it and my phone and it is blazing through battery life. Anyone have any fixes for this?

So here's a very good question: I know this is not an Apple site, but I have read of many people here informing Apple of this issue. I also would assume Apple monitors this & other social media sites (that in my son-in-law's job for another company; it is a common thing to do.). It started with the 10.1 update, so one might expect that after the complaints Apple would fix things in the next update. 10.2 did NOT fix it, and many more complaints have been made to Apple. Where is Apple in all this? Why haven't they come out yet with an update? It is long overdue for them to provide a fix. Is there only solution to "buy a new watch?" This just isn't right. Fitbit? Garmin?

Took my watch in to apple today and they ran diagnostics to confirm usage vs. drain was not right. The tech sent the report and this feed website to engineering. I explained this is happening to millions of people after the 10.1/10.2 update. My battery health is fine and he didn't try to sell me on anything. He did suggest more people do this because they have the engineers that will see the issues reported by the techs and that is a way for apple to do something. A new update is coming perhaps that will help, in the meantime, make an appointment and get you tech to do what mine did. Hope this helps!

watchOS 10.3 is now available. Time to see if an operating system update helps anyone.

I had to turn mine off to charge it -- in 20 min it's gone from 100% - 85% and it's actually quite warm to the touch. This update has basically killed my watch.

I've done a reset from backup and one from scratch. Killed my watch.

Try disabling one of the following:

Watch>Settings>Display & brightness > always on>turn off ALL complication updates under “Always on”

OR

Turn off the always on display (also disables complication updates while always on)

Watch>Settings>Display & brightness

it seems like Apple now allows complications to update on the always on display at a greater frequency, which has been chewing up battery life.

Let me know if this works for you.

I had the same problem with my Apple Watch Ultra 2, running watchOS 10.2. One week after the update, my battery started draining in less than a day. Before, it lasted for at least 2 full days on an 80% charge. The only solution that worked for me was resetting the Privacy and Location Services on my iPhone: About privacy and Location Services in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS - Apple Support

I tried every other recommendation I could find, in the order listed below - none of them worked for me:

• Reset and restore from backup
• Restore to factory settings
• Uninstall all 3rd party apps
• Turn off all passive services

I assume some background task that is using location services is running wild. Resetting Privacy and Location Services on my iPhone was the least time-consuming of all these steps, so I definitely recommend trying this before doing any of the above.

My wife and I have two S9 stainless steel watches (41mm & 45mm). Both running watchOS 10.3. Normal battery drain. Nothing drastic. Running 5-10 non-Apple apps with minimal effect on battery.

NOTE: I cannot confirm if the steps below work with models S4-S8 and Ultra 1 & 2.

If you update to 10.3, I would recommend the following process (this worked for me on both watches):

1. Erase watch - 1st Time (Settings > Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings)
2. Unpair watch
3. Pair watch again (1st time) with iPhone and set-up as a new watch (I did not use previous back-up)
4. Update to watchOS 10.3
5. Erase watch - 2nd Time (Settings > Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings)
6. Unpair watch
7. Pair watch again (2nd time) with iPhone and set-up as a new watch (I did not use previous back-up)
8. Now setup your watch as you wish.

I would prefer not to go through the steps above. However, my wife and I don't have as many apps, settings, etc., on the watches as we do on the phones. It would be easier to simply update and move on like every other Apple device (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV).

Good luck!