Apple Watch S3 not charging past 80%

[mj_]

My S3 started acting up this weekend by refusing repeatedly to charge past 80%. I've tried two different chargers, both original Apple chargers, on two different USB ports. It will charge to 80% then simply stop. The display will then change from nightstand mode to regular mode as if no charger was connected to the watch. I can reconnect it and it will detect the charger but stop charging again after a few seconds and disconnect from the charger.

According to the watch itself battery health is supposed to be 97%. The watch itself is 4 years and 2 days old according to applesn.info. Until it started acting up the battery usually lasted for between 1.5 and 2 days on average.

Any ideas?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I would try re-pairing the watch. If that didn't work, I would wipe and set up as new.

 

[mj_]

That'll be my last resort as I have only recently had to re-pair it when updating to watchOS 7.5 (or was it 7.4? not sure anymore). There really isn't any other way to fix problems with these watches is there?

 

[Apple_Robert]

That'll be my last resort as I have only recently had to re-pair it when updating to watchOS 7.5 (or was it 7.4? not sure anymore). There really isn't any other way to fix problems with these watches is there?

Not that I am aware of.

 

[Howard2k]

Is this related to optimized charging?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Is this related to optimized charging?

Good question. I had put that in my post before I edited it out as I wasn't sure if the watch takes that cue when mirroring from the Phone.

 

[mj_]

Oooh that's an interesting observation. I haven't changed any settings but yes, it might be. Optimized charging is incredibly erratic and utterly pointless on my iPhone, too, so maybe my Watch finally decided to join the crazy train and start acting up. I will look into this, thank you.

 

[jav6454]

Oooh that's an interesting observation. I haven't changed any settings but yes, it might be. Optimized charging is incredibly erratic and utterly pointless on my iPhone, too, so maybe my Watch finally decided to join the crazy train and start acting up. I will look into this, thank you.

Optimized charging is good. I use it and is not erratic. However, you do have to properly setup everything for it to work right.

 

[mj_]

Agreed, optimized charging is a good thing if it works. However, apart from once or twice it never worked on either of my iPhones even though I am on a very regular charging schedule (go to bed around the same time every night placing my iPhone on the charger; wake up around the same time every morning taking it off the charger again) and never did so on my Watch either. Which, admittedly, unlike my iPhone is on a very erratic charging schedule, so I never expected this to work anyway and never paid any attention to it.

So if this now actually works with my watch, which I charge whenever I feel like it, and not my iPhone, which I take off the charger around the same time every morning, then I dare say that Apple's current implementation of optimized charging is wonky at best

 

[mj_]

Well, turns out it was neither optimized charging nor a messed up pairing. Last night, when I put the watch on the charger for a quick top-up it completely refused to charge and was stuck at 10%. I had to force-restart the watch in order to get it to take a charge again, and it seems to be working again now. We'll see later today whether or not it will actually charge past 80% this time around.

Update: it charged just fine to 100% this morning. No issues, problem solved.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Well, turns out it was neither optimized charging nor a messed up pairing. Last night, when I put the watch on the charger for a quick top-up it completely refused to charge and was stuck at 10%. I had to force-restart the watch in order to get it to take a charge again, and it seems to be working again now. We'll see later today whether or not it will actually charge past 80% this time around.

Update: it charged just fine to 100% this morning. No issues, problem solved.

Glad to see you were able to fix the problem. It is very frustrating when something like that happens.

 

[Beards]

Well, turns out it was neither optimized charging nor a messed up pairing. Last night, when I put the watch on the charger for a quick top-up it completely refused to charge and was stuck at 10%. I had to force-restart the watch in order to get it to take a charge again, and it seems to be working again now. We'll see later today whether or not it will actually charge past 80% this time around.

Update: it charged just fine to 100% this morning. No issues, problem solved.

Only just joined the topic and was about to say carry out a Force-Reset but see you have done this.
What you experienced was EXACTLY identical to what I had been experiencing with my Series 3. Force-Reset cured the problem…. Must have been corruption in the battery data panel that refused to accept beyond 80%.