Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Before os7 I didn’t even *know* how much battery my series 4 had left because it always lasted a full day, 7am through to midnight and often later. I even wore it through the night a couple of times and it was still going in the morning.

updated to os7 on 15th or 16th September and every day Watch has died mid to late afternoon. Called Apple on Friday 18th only to be told to give it a few days. It’s improved by an hour or two (more likely to make it to 5pm now), but never alive by the time I go to bed.

this is with hand washing turned off and turning off practically every background app update (despite not realising I had so many of them on before updating). I also disabled the smart battery charging feature as my watch was saying it hadn’t been charged to 100% since Sunday 20th.

massively regretting updating. I was excited by the new clock faces but should have learned my lessons from previous Apple software updates on iPhone destroying battery.
 
I called Apple today and it was a waste of time. They told me my watch (that's DRAMATICALLY WORSE) is normal @ 89% capacity after 23 months of use.

A week ago I was getting hours of additional battery life. No way I'm buying another one when they can fall off a cliff with any software update.

They told me I should be charging it twice per day.

I usually charge it fully at bedtime ~midnight. I'll put it on at 2AM or so and sleep. Rinse and repeat. My workouts are evening or as late as 9PM but the watch is dead by then.

I'm wondering if new sleep tracking is affecting it. It's fully charged when I go to sleep and ~79% most mornings when I wake. Since I never looked before I don't know how that compares but it seems like a lot for sleeping.
89% after 2 years is very good wear. It is a very small battery. Your expectations are not realistic. Why not have Apple replace the battery? Problem solved.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Never mind
89% after 2 years is very good wear. It is a very small battery. Your expectations are not realistic. Why not have Apple replace the battery? Problem solved.
I think the point is that it was lasting significantly longer before the update. So regardless of how long it’s been owned or the state of the battery, os7 shouldn’t have impaired its performance like this
 
  • Like
Reactions: compwiz1202
I think the point is that it was lasting significantly longer before the update. So regardless of how long it’s been owned or the state of the battery, os7 shouldn’t have impaired its performance like this
If the battery had better capacity for him, I would tend to agree, so long as apps and a weak WiFi / cell signal weren’t part of the equation. As it stands, his current battery state does negatively impact his daily usage. Until he negates that magic component, none of us can rightfully say, WatchOS 7 is sorely to blame.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tricky01
If the battery had better capacity for him, I would tend to agree, so long as apps and a weak WiFi / cell signal weren’t part of the equation. As it stands, his current battery state does negatively impact his daily usage. Until he negates that magic component, none of us can rightfully say, WatchOS 7 is sorely to blame.
But surely the battery state was just as low last week before os7? Good point on all other things being equal between the days before update and the days after (for me and working from home I know my behaviour is the most consistent week on week at the moment :)), but I can still imagine being annoyed at not needing a new battery under os6 and then suddenly needing one under os7, no?
 
After updating to watchOS 7.01 my AW5 drained virtually nothing during the last two hours. Let’s see how things work out the next days.


Drain is definitely less in normal standby mode.

During workout/listening music it is still bad, about 10% per 30min.
 
  • Like
Reactions: To_Batistone
7.01 seemed better but then this morning during a 30 minute commute battery went down 10%. Seems related to playing audio from the phone and maybe maps navigation on the phone. I have turned of background app refresh for almost everything at this point.
 
I found hand washing didn’t make a difference on my battery wear.

Only thing that worked was unpair/re pair from back up.
Yea I check a few more nights with handwashing and it's totally inconsistent. I woke up the next morning with 75%, and then the next dead again
 
I think the point is that it was lasting significantly longer before the update. So regardless of how long it’s been owned or the state of the battery, os7 shouldn’t have impaired its performance like this
Yea out of three mornings, I woke to a dead watch twice and 75%! another. That's a massive swing.
 
No issues with my S5 on 7 or since the upgrade to 7.01. Charged it up to 100% and went out for three hours streaming music from my iPhone to via my watch to my AirPod pro's during the whole time. Checked the battery and it said 91% so a loss of 3% an hour which is exactly what it was on WatchOS6. So for me, OS7 is working perfectly. What i dont understand it why some people have battery drain issues and others don't. It has to be something to do with personal setup and apps etc.
 
Updated to 7.0.1. Down 19% without ANY use. It drops 3% roughly every 15-20 min.

Do you have auto unlock enabled on your Mac? There’s been speculation that that feature might have something to do with the battery consumption.
 
I too came here to see if others were having problems. I put my Series 4 on at 7:30 this morning @100%. Did a 5 mile 1.5 hour walk using activity tracking and came back home at 10:30 AM with only 10% battery! It’s back on the charger now. My husband has the same watch and we did the same walk. He’s at 68%.
 
I got a new AW series 6 and it the battery was going crazy fast, I turned off "screen always on" and new it's good,,,but I'm disappointed with that because that was the main reason that I upgraded from my series 4. I wanted the always on screen. Yesterday ran the watch OS7.01 and it changed the way credit cards show up in the wallet. I was a the store and could only get 1 card and figured out that you no longer swipe across, but you now swipe up, or turn the crown.
 
I got a new AW series 6 and it the battery was going crazy fast, I turned off "screen always on" and new it's good,,,but I'm disappointed with that because that was the main reason that I upgraded from my series 4

that’s not normal behavior.
 
I updated my S4 to WatchOS 7 this week and the battery life went a cropper. I was burning about 10% an hour.

To remediate, I re-paired my watch yesterday and updated to 7.01 and now things are normal - the watch is using about 5% an hour now, which is roughly the same as last week on WatchOS 6.

Thanks to those who suggested re-pairing.
 
it all depends on the 3rd party apps and the complications being used and the background refresh... has anyone tested with a stock watch, with no 3rd party apps installed?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.