Apple Watch 3 drains overnight while on charger

[DEMinSoCAL]

Put my watch on the charging stand by my bed last night. Had about 70-75% battery level (typical for my day). Woke up this morning, and found that the watch only shows time and a red lightning bolt. Unclear as to what that was, I researched and discovered it was in Power Reserve mode. Why, when it was on the charger all night?

Tried doing the reset (hold side button) and forced reset (hold both buttons), but neither would cause a reset.

I could press the crown button and it would display the time and the red lightning bolt. I could put it on the charger and the red lightning bolt turns green. Tried resetting it while ON the charging stand. Nothing.

Thinking my watch was broken, I put it on the charging stand. A couple minutes later, I saw the Apple logo display on the watch, and now the display show the normal display while charging, and the charge indicator shows a sliver of charge.

So, what the heck would cause my watch to completely drain overnight, while on the charger at that!? I could see, possibly, if the watch wasn't fully seated on the charger, and not charging (though I do ensure I see the charging sequence on the watch each night), but even if not charging, how could the watch lose 70%+ of it's charge just sitting overnight?

Scary stuff.

 

[BlueMoon63]

Sounds like a beta version of the o/s. At least that was the case for me. If the green ring doesn’t come up right away showing that it is charging, mine has not charged and instead drained. The only solution was to power off the watch and put on the charger where it will start a reboot and charge.

This is only happened to me with O/S 5 betas. Sometimes it will say it is charging on my phone widget but will actually go down in battery life. Sometimes it shows it isn’t charging and I take it off the charger and it is at 100%. All only with o/s 5 betas. Never before, so I hope that is your problem.

Shut the watch off and put on the charger. It will power on and charge properly. Not a bad practice anyway I suppose.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

So, what the heck would cause my watch to completely drain overnight, while on the charger at that!?

Maybe the watch wasn't actually magnetically coupled to the charger, and thus not charging. I find the magnetic binding force of the charging puck unpleasantly weak to be honest. Even if you put it on correctly a slight errant nudge is enough to dislocate it, and then it immediately stops charging. A stronger magnet for the charging puck is near the top of my wishlist for the next generation, for sure.

Sometimes I've also attached my watch to the puck and then not had the watch registering that it's actually on the charger. If the watch doesn't ding and show the charging indicator (the nice little swirly animation these days, but didn't exist 3 years ago or even 6 months ago ), then it likely isn't charging either. It might, or it might not - who knows. So I make sure I hear the ding/see the swirl before taking my eyes off the devilish little gizmo.

 

[ToyGuns67]

My particular charger is a 3 way charger (phone,watch, and airpod) and it does this as well. It charges the watch until full, then begins to drain it until just a red icon appears. I have to monitor it and just leave it on at night until it’s full then take it off. It’s a pain but otherwise it’s a great charger. It was one of those Facebook ads and I can’t get the company to respond to me.

 

[Howard2k]

My particular charger is a 3 way charger (phone,watch, and airpod) and it does this as well. It charges the watch until full, then begins to drain it until just a red icon appears. I have to monitor it and just leave it on at night until it’s full then take it off. It’s a pain but otherwise it’s a great charger. It was one of those Facebook ads and I can’t get the company to respond to me.

I created as shortcut so my watch pings my iPhone when it's charged above 75%. It's just a loop that runs 10 times and then every 5 minutes it will do a check on the battery and if it sees 75% or more it sends out the ping. I just have to tap the shortcut when I put my phone on charge. It's not perfect but it works surprisingly well.

It would also work to do "greater than or equal to 99%" to catch the watch right at the top of the charge.

 

[ToyGuns67]

I created as shortcut so my watch pings my iPhone when it's charged above 75%. It's just a loop that runs 10 times and then every 5 minutes it will do a check on the battery and if it sees 75% or more it sends out the ping. I just have to tap the shortcut when I put my phone on charge. It's not perfect but it works surprisingly well.

It would also work to do "greater than or equal to 99%" to catch the watch right at the top of the charge.

Can you share how to do this? I’ve searched the internet and still have no clue.

 

[Howard2k]

Create this on your phone, then make it available on the watch.


There is a REPEAT (15 times) and then inside the repeat there is an IF to check the battery, then following the IF there is a WAIT.

 

[ToyGuns67]

Woah, that’s some deep level programming. You’re assuming I know WAY too much about this. 🤣

 

[Howard2k]

Woah, that’s some deep level programming. You’re assuming I know WAY too much about this. 🤣

Check your messages, I'll try to find a way to share it with you.

 

[mk313]

If it happens regularly, it's likely some kind of software or hardware issue, but this sounds like a one time thing. In that case, it's much more likely that the watch didn't make a solid connection to the charger when you went to sleep. I've had that happen a couple of times. I always just watch it until the nightstand mode comes up & it shows that's charging, and I haven't had an issue since then. It is definitely easy to do though.