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ios9 upgrade causing battery drain on apple watch

I am using the Apple Watch (42mm) for just about 2 weeks and was initially very impressed with the battery life - I am only using very few notification and absolutely no apps - I got almost 2 days battery life - Yesterday, I upgraded my phone to IOS9 and since observe battery drain on the watch of about 20% per hour without any usage ... presumably, IOS9 is connecting and exchanging data with higher frequency, or things have changed on how the watch connects to the watch, different usage pattern between wifi or bluetooth, regardless, IOS9 on the phone made the watch utterly useless.

Apple Watch 42mm, iOS 9

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 6:50 AM

Top-ranking reply

LarryHN

Level 10

106,124 points

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 7:01 AM

I upgraded to IOS 9 and do not see that at all

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56 replies

vk2bkq

Level 1

10 points

Sep 27, 2015 8:44 PM in response to sphaase

Hello all,

I have the same issue of high battery drain on iPhone with watch OS 2 and first 5S and now 6S Plus.

Contacting support has resulted in "Nil success" with promises of call backs which never happen !! (Very poor show,APPLE" The only thing not tried is a setup as new and then restore from iTune back up. Has anyone had any success via this method ?? Battery drain was fine with IOS 8.xxx and watch. IOS 9.01 seems to have brought it on!

Regards

vk2bkq

nick101

Level 5

5,144 points

Sep 27, 2015 11:01 PM in response to vk2bkq

Here and elsewhere, people have reported success with this method. It's laborious, but effective

Sep 27, 2015 11:13 PM in response to markusfromeaston

UPDATE: all issues resolved - bought the new iPhone 6s, upgraded to iOS9.01, wiped the watch to "virgin" state, paired and upgraded to watch2.0 - viola, almost 50 hours battery life ...

Sep 28, 2015 9:11 AM in response to markusfromeaston

That's hard to believe!

Ungrrr

Level 1

9 points

Sep 28, 2015 7:20 PM in response to markusfromeaston

DIdnyou restore the watch to a backup?

Sep 29, 2015 7:31 AM in response to Colbster182

no, really - I am observing an average of 1.8% battery drain per hour, I am now getting a little over two days battery life out of the watch ... I am not using any apps and notifications are set to only a few critical items ...

Sep 29, 2015 7:33 AM in response to Ungrrr

no, since I switched the pairing from my old 5s to the new 6s, no backup was available - I set the watch up as brand new device.

Sep 30, 2015 5:39 AM in response to markusfromeaston

I want to chime in here with my own experience. I to was experiencing an issue with the battery only making it through about 1/2 a day. I unpaired the watch and restarted both the watch and phone. When pairing them up again I selected NEW rather than restoring from a backup. Secondly when it asked load all the APPS from my phone I chose NOT to and selected a later option. Yesterday I made it to the end of the day with nearly half a battery left. Previously I had let it add ALL apps from my phone for the record. Hope this helps...

JeffWagg

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2015 4:04 PM in response to JeffWagg

Sadly, after being fine for a few days, the watch died at 6PM today. It was at 100% at 8AM.

I'm guessing some process is getting stuck, but there's no way for a user to figure out which one it is.

Oct 1, 2015 12:00 PM in response to JeffWagg

UUpdated 6S Plus to 9.0.2 Tuesday. Wednesday battery was fine. Today, down to 28% at 2:00Pm off charger at 6:30

s.safa

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2015 1:14 PM in response to markusfromeaston

I'm having the same problem after upgrading. the watch is losing its charge in about 4/5 hours and I'm not using any apps. Prior to updating the OS I could use the watch for about 48 hours without recharging. something is wrong

Oct 2, 2015 5:23 AM in response to spiderguy84

Same for me: Updated to 9.0.2 this morning and my watch went from 100 % to 7 % from 8 AM to 2 PM. Now I "cold" restartet my iPhone 6 with power+home and the severe battery drain on the watch seems to have stopped at least for the moment...

Oct 2, 2015 2:25 PM in response to richardalan1975HUH

Thanks Richard! Your suggestion solved this issue for me! I was waking up at 6AM and my watch was dead by noon each day. Following your advice to unpair the watch and setup as new fixed the drain issue for me. I'm at 86% and it's been 6 hours already. THANK YOU!