Apple Watch Experiencing battery drain post WatchOS 10.6 update

watchOS 11.0.1

This update includes bug fixes for your Apple Watch, including:

Apple Watch may unexpectedly restart for some users

Music app may unexpectedly quit when loading media

Battery may drain more quickly than expected

Touch screen may be temporarily unresponsive for some Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users

Messages may unexpectedly quit when replying to a message with a shared Apple Watch face

This happens occasionally when Watches are updated. What is required is a forced restart of your Apple Watch. A forced restart is more than just turning your Watch off and on. After the forced restart, observe the battery usage for the next 24 to 72 hours. If there is no improvement you’ll need to unpair the Watch from your iPhone, force restart the Watch and the iPhone and lastly pair the two devices again. Battery usage will return to normal in 24 to 72 hours.

Force restart Apple Watch - Apple Support

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Did you read any of my posts in this thread? I’ll share it again. Many people posting in the community have commented that it’s resolved their issue. 😀

>>This happens occasionally when Watches are updated. What is required is a forced restart of your Apple Watch. A forced restart is more than just turning your Watch off and on. After the forced restart, observe the battery usage for the next 24 to 72 hours. If there is no improvement you’ll need to unpair the Watch from your iPhone, force restart the Watch and the iPhone and lastly pair the two devices again. Battery usage will return to normal in 24 to 72 hours.

Force restart Apple Watch - Apple Support

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support<<

Hi,

If you’ve waited a couple days and the drain persists, it’s likely a third party complication/app that is the issue. How many complications on your Watch face? Can you switch to a simple watch face with no complications for 24 or so. You’ll need to do a forced restart after you switch faces, just to be safe background processes have stopped. Charge full and then evaluate the performance.

You have two choices, you’re performing the forced restart wrong or your Watch has an issue that will require Apple to evaluate.

Forced restart is fairly simple. Remove the Watch from its charger, press and hold the Digital Crown (round button) and button directly beneath the Digital Crown. You’ll need to hold them until the screen turns black and a white apple logo appears (this can be as long as 1 minute). Once the logo appears, release both buttons.

How many days has it been since you last paired the devices? It can take up to 3 days for normal battery performance to return. A lot of the iCloud syncing happens at night and it sounds like it’s not completing and trying again the next night. If it’s been more than 3 days, I’d say it didn’t work, but to try it again. One community member mentioned in another thread on this subject that he had do it 3 or 4 times before it worked.

Every time I update my phone and watch the batteries drain a lot faster. I simply turn each off for at least 10 minutes or more then turn it back on. The batteries seem to go back to lasting much longer.

It has definitely been more than 3 days since the last time I tried this. I have found another thread mentioning turning off Handoff has helped a person on 10.6. Will try this and report back if any improvements.

I have tried.

Unpairing and are pairing as instructed.

Erasing and reinstall of iCloud back up.

Hard restart.

Turned off background app refreshing for all apps.

Changed watch face to use no 3rd party apps as well as a more basic face.

Nothing works. My battery is gone in around 8 hours.

I give up until an update comes out to hopefully fix it.

2nd Gen SE

You may have a separate issue not caused be the update. It could be third party apps, software errors or a hardware issue. I’d contact Apple Support and see about getting service on the Watch.

My battery runs out TWICE AS FAST !!!

crazy - even when I turn off many features - like background update , health ( heartbeats, breathing etc etc ) even turned Siri off

it will not last one day !!!!

and before , at the end of the day if had 45 % left !!!!

still ,,,, 😡😡😡m

fix this Apple ! Please

Your welcome. When you get it charged, press and release the side button (below the Digital Crown) and the Control Center will appear. Scroll up or down (finger on screen or rotate Digital Crown) and find the item that looks like Flashlight (torch).

This is what happened to me. I’m on holiday, and I noticed my watch restarting during the day, and ever since it’s been a nightmare. Battery drains so quickly. I’ve carried numerous forced restarts. I’ve reset the watch. None of it has worked. I’m trying the unpairing process as a final step.

SE 2nd gen.

@Jeff. When re-pairing. Do you use an existing backup or as a new watch?

I just upgraded to 10.6.1 and the watch battery has drained down to ZERO 3 times now in 14 hours - 8 of which were in sleep mode! I admittedly have an older version S4 watch, but this is RIDICULOUS and only started happening after this last update.

I did contact Apple support, they told me to wait for the new update before going to An Apple Store. Strange really, before i did the update iT was running fine…