Apple Watch battery draining fast

I thought it was only me, since I’ve gotten my watch in October, I’ve never even seen it go past 45%. So today when it was at 38% I was surprised, I figured it must be because i was receiving a lot of texts even though I don’t normally use it, but it’s almost 7pm, I left the house at 5:30 and it was on 90% there’s no reason it should be on 22% now and draining. What’s going on?? This is why I don’t like to jump on updates. Can they give an update to fix this issue, this is very problematic.

Exact same thing with my Apple series 9, noticed the battery draining today. Was charged last night, wore it at 6:30 and by 8:30a m I got an alert for 10%! Have had to charge it twice today- as I speak it’s already at 56% after fully charging 2 hours ago.

This happened to me for the first time today too! My battery was at 100% at 11:00am and then died around 5:00pm. I hadn‘t been checking the battery % during that time so it seemed like it just died suddenly for no reason. I just got mine (series 9) in January. I hope, as others have suggested, that it is just an update glitch and that it will be fixed with a new update very soon!

It just started today for me too! The draining is so rapid, I charged it 3x today. This is ridiculous and I just got it a few months ago. Open to suggestions on how to remedy this problem. The preparation for update is also taking forever

My watch too, is suddenly draining ridiculously quickly. I’m glad I found this thread as it sounds the same as all of your issues. Fully charged when I went to bed last night, dead on waking this morning. Charged it twice yesterday. I’ve just checked for updates and 10.4 is there waiting but there had been no notification, which there usually is. Is anyone having the issues AFTER updating to 10.4 or does that fix it? I don’t want to exacerbate the problem. Thank you. BTW does Apple ever respond on these threads, as I don’t think I’ve seen any assistance from them?

I hope this helps someone and isn’t just a coincidence.

Yesterday, I woke up and my watch was dead which was odd since I had pulled it off the charger after 11pm the night before. Normally, it had almost 90% charge left at this time.

I charged the watch back to 100% first, and then saw that there was an update and thought that would fix the battery drain. So, I tried to install it and it got stuck at the “preparing” step and I found myself in this thread looking for a solution.

I tried a factory reset and re-pair and that didn’t work.

I then found the recommendation to delete the download and try again. I also restarted my watch and phone each time I deleted the download. I did that 3 or 4 times and it kept getting stuck at the same point during installation of the download. I had hoped that somehow the battery drain problem would fix itself, but it didn’t. I had other stuff to do so I deleted the download and went about my day.

I tried again, about 6 hours (and over 50% of my battery) later and the update stalled again (after I charged it above 50%). At this point, I decided to turn off automatic updates for my watch (which I’ve always kept on) and then delete the download one last time and restart my watch again.

Since that time, the battery drain has STOPPED.

I don’t have the latest update, but at least my watch will make it through the day now.

My conclusion (and it may be wrong but hopefully not) is that some combination of this particular update plus automatic downloads is the culprit to the battery drain.

Turn off automatic updates, delete the download, restart, and cross your fingers.

Good luck!

Same as everyone else with the update managed to update watch to 10.4 still same issues dropped 9% battery in about 30 minutes Someone on here said to toggle off “background app refresh” on the Apple Watch app Im trying this and so far it’s holding charge not dropped below 91% in the last 10 minutes or so so this could be a work around until Apple pull there fingers out and sort it 🙄 will update with how I get on next few hours

FYI in case helpful; I downloaded 10.4 which took longer than usual, but does seem to have addressed the issue for now; it’s dropped around 15% over the course of 5/6 hours. Will keep an eye to ensure the ‘fix’ has worked

Same here: battery draining as like the rest of us. Read that update might help so looked to see if there was one waiting. 10.4 was available. Update was fairly quick. Now running for over an hour and still at 100%. Fingers crossed!

Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) 44mm case (Model: A2723)

Same here. I have reset updated (10.4 update) twice and it is still burning the battery so fast. I lose 10% within 10 mins without doing any activity. Not sure what else can be done or do we wait for a new update.

For all those who are facing battery drain issue post 10.4 update on their apple watch I have a fix for you

got to settings > Go to passcodes > Turn of wrist detection it will get your watch back to its normal battery function.

I don't know how this thing started happening all of a sudden do give it a try

I have the 10.4 update and it’s not helping at all. My battery drains so fast. It was at 90% and I checked one message and then it was at 88%. I’ll try to unpair and repair since that seems to help others. But I can’t not delete the update. It’s not showing up.

I’m having the same issue on my series 9. I’ve been on 10.4 and since April 11, my watch battery has been continuously draining at minimally 1% every 2-3 min. I just turned off automatic updates and background app refresh, restarted, and it’s still plummeting at the same rate. I’m writing this after charging my battery to 100% before sleeping with my watch in sleep mode and having no other activity on my watch. There’s a ghost in the machine for sure…

Hi,

So I had the same issue since the last 5 days. Turns out it was an update pending. The problem was that the update was not installing and was stuck at preparing which was probably what was draining the battery. I tried everything from restarts to deleting update file from storage and re installing it, but it was still stuck on preparing. Finally I left the watch on charge for 2 days and wore it sparingly. I also unselected the auto update option so the watch being connected to Wi-Fi and charger ended up completing the ‘preparing update’ mode. Post this it showed install update mode. So now my watch battery is back to normal and running the usual 18-24 hours of my usual wear time. So again let it move from preparing to install now mode and that should fix the problem hopefully.

Will update you all on battery life after the 10.4 update is installed and running on my watch. Hope this helps

What worked for me:

Unsuccessful Attempt 1: Turned off automatic updates and background app refresh and force restarted (simultaneously holding side button and dial until apple logo appeared)

The battery drained to near zero and I recharged to 100%

Successful Attempt 2: I immediately force restarted after taking the watch off the charger at 100% and it has been rock solid for 4.5 hours right now - only 10% battery drain with light usage which has been typical. I did not unpair or do anything at all with my iPhone 14 Pro. Just those 2 attempts. Hope this helps you!