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BigRed39

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
13
11
I have a Series 6. Ever since I updated to OS10 my watch gets stuck at 81% whenever I charge it. I have to reboot it before it will fully charge. Anyone else have this proble?
 
Idk but I’m glad you said something. I took my watch off the charger this morning to go to work and only 45 min later I noticed my watch was at 70%! I was floored. If it’s not charging past a certain point then it would make sense. Series 7 stainless here. I’ll let ya know tomorrow if I notice this on mine ◡̈
 
Optimized charging is supposed to know when you take it off the charger each day, but it seems broken with watch os 10. My Series 7 just gets to 80% and stops, every day this week so far.
 
Last edited:
Took mine off the charger this morning and it was 78%. This is now on 10.0.1. This has never happened to my series 7 on previous software.
 
If the battery optimization setting is on, after a few days, when it learns your sleeping habits, it will stop charging your watch around 80%. You still have to option to have it charge to 100% if you wish!
 
I did that yesterday. Same exact situation this morning. 80% battery when taking it off the charger at the same time I do every day.
You have tp turn off battery optimization on the watch itself. Settings —> Battery —> Battery Health —> turn off Optimized Battery Charging. For some reason Apple made the default “on” with watchos 10.
 
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I noticed after updating to WatchOS 10.0.1, now the battery drain is back to normal. No workout today, just normal usage with Modular Ultra watch face.

I charged my Ultra1 to 100% at 10.40am and after 6½ hours, it only drain 10% for WatchOS 10.0.1. Whereas for WatchOS 10.0.0, it's draining 10% every hour.
 
You have tp turn off battery optimization on the watch itself. Settings —> Battery —> Battery Health —> turn off Optimized Battery Charging. For some reason Apple made the default “on” with watchos 10.
This is correct.
Turned off optimization.

Now I get 2 full days of life after charging to 100% on my new S9.

Beats out the S7 with awesome battery life!
 
You have tp turn off battery optimization on the watch itself. Settings —> Battery —> Battery Health —> turn off Optimized Battery Charging. For some reason Apple made the default “on” with watchos 10.
I’ve had optimized charging on since I got the watch. That is the point here. Watch OS10 broke it.
 
Watch OS10 broke it.
Not quite, it changed it.

Optimisation has been updated so that the watch works out how much battery you're likely to use between charge periods and only charges to that level. They added this to older watch models in watchOS10.

It's called Optimised Charge Limit

In addition to Optimised Battery Charging, supported Apple Watch models offer Optimised Charge Limit. This feature is available on Apple Watch Ultra with watchOS 9 or later, and on Apple Watch SE, Series 6, Series 7 and Series 8 with watchOS 10. Optimised Charge Limit learns from your daily usage to determine when to charge to an optimised limit and when to allow a full charge. Optimised Charge Limit is on by default when you set up your Apple Watch.

With Optimised Charge Limit active, an open charge ring appears when you connect your Apple Watch to its charger. If you want to charge your watch beyond the optimised limit, follow these steps:
  1. Make sure your Apple Watch is connected to its charger.
  2. Tap your watch to show the charging screen, then tap the circle with the green or yellow charging icon.
  3. Tap Charge to Full Now.
Your Apple Watch takes time to learn your charging patterns before it uses Optimised Battery Charging or Optimised Charge Limit. If your Apple Watch is new, the charging screen will say Charging to full.

If you want to turn off Optimised Charge Limit:
  1. Open the Settings app on your watch.
  2. Scroll down, then tap Battery.
  3. Tap Battery Health.
  4. Turn off Optimised Charge Limit.
  5. Choose Turn Off Until Tomorrow or Turn Off.
Optimised Charge Limit changes dynamically depending on how you use your Apple Watch. Based on your usage patterns, your watch may charge to 100% on some days, and less on others.

Taken from here:
 
The new OS has a charge limit when you go to the battery health option. On my Ultra running 10.0.1 I see no way to turn off optimized charging. The only thing I can turn off is the charge limit that stops charging @ 80%. Kind of states that it tries to learn usage patterns and decide if you need to go beyond 80. Assuming based on how low you run before recharge or frequency if charging. Ironically it says that even if you turn it off it may still choose to limit to 80%.

It seems like they are playing the game of allowing higher % charge as battery wears to give a more consistent usable time frame over the expected lifespan.
 
Not quite, it changed it.

Optimisation has been updated so that the watch works out how much battery you're likely to use between charge periods and only charges to that level. They added this to older watch models in watchOS10.

It's called Optimised Charge Limit

In addition to Optimised Battery Charging, supported Apple Watch models offer Optimised Charge Limit. This feature is available on Apple Watch Ultra with watchOS 9 or later, and on Apple Watch SE, Series 6, Series 7 and Series 8 with watchOS 10. Optimised Charge Limit learns from your daily usage to determine when to charge to an optimised limit and when to allow a full charge. Optimised Charge Limit is on by default when you set up your Apple Watch.

With Optimised Charge Limit active, an open charge ring appears when you connect your Apple Watch to its charger. If you want to charge your watch beyond the optimised limit, follow these steps:
  1. Make sure your Apple Watch is connected to its charger.
  2. Tap your watch to show the charging screen, then tap the circle with the green or yellow charging icon.
  3. Tap Charge to Full Now.
Your Apple Watch takes time to learn your charging patterns before it uses Optimised Battery Charging or Optimised Charge Limit. If your Apple Watch is new, the charging screen will say Charging to full.

If you want to turn off Optimised Charge Limit:
  1. Open the Settings app on your watch.
  2. Scroll down, then tap Battery.
  3. Tap Battery Health.
  4. Turn off Optimised Charge Limit.
  5. Choose Turn Off Until Tomorrow or Turn Off.
Optimised Charge Limit changes dynamically depending on how you use your Apple Watch. Based on your usage patterns, your watch may charge to 100% on some days, and less on others.

Taken from here:

Appreciate the help but on my Series 7 I do not see any settings under battery for optimized charge limit, and I’m on watch os 10.0.1. no updates available.
 
This might sound weird but my S8 just for the first time did battery optimisation last night after 1 year of wearing the Watch.
Honestly because I never saw it stop at 80% battery I never even thought the S8 had battery optimisation (never looked in the settings)

Why would it take over 1 year for it to kick in?
95% of the time I always placed my Apple Watch on the charger at the same time.

So strange…
 
My Series 7 used to stop charging at 80% overnight, and then finish the last 20% in the final hour before I wake up.
 
I have an S8 on 10.0.1. Optimized charging has always been on and no issues with watchos 9. For watchOS 10, it is intermittent. Some days I wake up to 100% charged and some days only 80%. I have not changed my way of using the watch ( go to bed and wake up roughly the same time each day with watch on changer while I sleep). Looks like a bug. I have turned off optimized charging, reboot my watch and turned optimized charging back on again. Hope this will fix it.
 
Don't get me wrong I think it's great that it would hold to charge to full until wake up time I just never saw it work before until last night and it caught time me off guard lol.
 
So before watchOS 10, all watches would by default use "optimised charging" and charge to 80% first and then charge to 100% before the time that you typically take the watch off the charger (based on your alarm, etc). You would basically always take your watch off the charger at 100% (unless you woke up super early without setting an alarm).

In watchOS 10 there's another feature, optimised charging limit. This will only charge your watch to 80% on days where it thinks you won't use it much. This means that on some days you'll take it off the charger and it'll be at 100%, and other days it'll be at 80%. If you tap the screen while it's charging there's an option to "charge to 100% now" if you want to guarantee it's fully charged.

On the series 9 and ultra watches, there are two settings, one for each of these behaviours—so if you want you can revert back to the pre-watchOS 10 behaviour by disabling the "optimised charging limit" and keeping the "optimised charging".

On every other model (series 8 and earlier) there is one setting that controls both behaviours. So you can either have your watch decide whether to charge fully or charge to 80%, or you can have it charge to 100% immediately every time. There is no way on these watches to get back to the previous behaviour—short of waking up a little earlier and tapping "charge to 100%" every morning manually.

Hope that clears up some confusion—I just got bit by this when my watch got down to low power mode because it decided I only needed 80% battery today.
 
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