Is your Apple Watch battery draining too fast? You’re not alone. A lot of Apple Watch owners find their battery drains faster than Apple claims of 18 hours.
It is important l to understand the reasons why your battery could be draining faster than usual, to help fix the issue.
If your Apple Watch battery is draining fast it can be due to, not updating to the current Watch OS, too many background apps, an always-on display, too high screen brightness, overusing Siri, too many notifications, an always-on display, background app refresh, and a colorful watch face
In this article, I will go through a step-by-step guide on what you can do to fix your Apple Watch battery issue so it can last a full day.
The Apple Watch is an amazing device, but it can be even better with the right accessories, I’ve found some of the best accessories on Amazon so you can find what you need to make your watch work for you. Check them out by clicking here.
12 Ways To Fix Apple Watch Battery Draining Fast
- Update to current watchOS
- Force restart Apple Watch and iPhone
- Adjust Apple Watch notifications
- Delete unused Apple Watch apps
- Turn down Apple Watch screen brightness
- Turn on power saving mode
- Turn off Apple Watch always-on display
- Use darker watch faces
- Change how you use Siri
- Adjust background app refresh
- Complete factory reset your Apple Watch
- Contact Apple Support
1. Update to current Watch OS
- Open ‘Watch on iPhone
- Go to general
- Then ‘software update’ and make sure automatic updates are clicked on
Sometimes certain versions of watchOS will cause your battery to drain quickly, it’s always better to update to the latest version of your watch’s software to get the best performance out of your watch.
You can see in this thread how someone updated to watchOS 8.3 and now their battery only lasts a few hours, Apple’s latest update will always fix this issue.
2. Force Restart Apple Watch & iPhone
How To Force Reset Apple Watch
To force restart your Apple Watch, press and hold both the side button and the Digital Crown for at least 10 seconds, then release both buttons when you see the Apple logo.
How To Force Reset iPhone
- Press and hold either the volume button or the side button until the power-off slider appears.
- Drag the slider, then wait 30 seconds for your device to turn off. …
- To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button (on the right-hand side of your iPhone) until you see the Apple logo
If your device is having problems 9/10 doing a reset will fix your issues, I do it ALL the time with my MacBook Air.
Your Apple Watch and iPhone and interconnected, if your iPhone is having issues this can affect your Apple Watch, which is why resetting both is an excellent way to fix your battery issues, resetting just your Watch won’t do anything if your iPhone is the issue.
Not sure if overcharging an Apple Watch can damage it? Check out my experience on if overcharging can really damage your Apple Watch.
3. Adjust Apple Watch Notifications
- Go to ‘watch’ on iPhone
- Click on notifications
- Turn off notifications you don’t want
By default all applications that are cross-platform with iPhone and the Apple Watch will be downloaded to your Watch, making your watch more cluttered with unnecessary notifications and apps, which puts strain on the battery.
Turning off notifications that you don’t want makes your Watch less cluttered, as after all who on Earth wants to play Chess on their Apple Watch?
4. Delete unused Apple Watch apps
- Go to ‘watch ‘on iPhone
- Click on the app you don’t use
- Unselect ‘show app on Apple Watch
The more apps your Apple Watch has, the more RAM your watch will use as apps will constantly refresh in the background putting stress on your watch’s battery.
If you don’t feel a need to have a specific app on your Apple Watch (like Chess!) always remove it, this saves battery and also reduces clutter on your Watches screen so you can find the apps you DO want.
Do you know if you should drain your Watches battery before charging? Learn the truth to keep your Watches battery healthily in my article.
5. Turn Down the Screen Brightness
- Go to ‘watch ‘on iPhone
- Go to ‘screen & brightness
- Select from the 3 available options
The brighter your Apple Watch the more resources it uses from the battery to keep itself bright, setting your default brightness to low will make a huge impact on the battery.
Honestly, there isn’t a huge difference between the brightest level and the lowest, I personally set it to medium, but low is the best option if your suffering from battery issues.
Does your Apple Watch get hot while charging? It’s normal for a battery to get hot charging but not too much, to find out what to do when this happens you can read my helpful guide.
6. Use Workout Power Saving Mode
- Go to ‘watch ‘on iPhone
- Go to ‘Workout’
- Turn power saving mode on
If you use your Apple Watch for running and walking workouts, the display and the watch’s heart rate sensor will be on which drains the battery, turning off these features may reduce the accuracy of estimated calorie burn but your battery will thank you.
7. Turn Off Always On Display
- Go to ‘watch ‘on iPhone
- Go to ‘Display & Brightness
- Go to ‘Always On’ and Switch to off
By default, your Apple Watch is Series 5 or later display is set to always-on, in this mode, the time will always be visible on your watch, and your watch face or most recent app.
Of course, this puts strain on your battery, disabling the feature makes your Apple Watch only turn on when you interact with your Watch.
8. Switch To A Darker Watch Face
- Go to ‘watch’ on iPhone
- Go to ‘face gallery’
- Find a dark watch face and click ‘add’
Your Apple Watch screen is OLED which is why it gets deep blacks and clear colors, but with an OLED screen when the screen is black it’s not displaying black color, rather it’s turning off pixels in that area which uses less energy.
If you use an Apple Watch face that is black this saves you battery as the Watch is using less energy to display the face. The one I recommend if you are having battery issues is the ‘Simple’ face.
Curious if you overcharging your Apple Watch? It’s important to know as you might be damaging the battery, learn the truth in my helpful article.
9. Change How You Use Siri
- Go to ‘watch’ on iPhone
- Go to ‘Siri’
- Turn ‘listen for hey Siri and ‘raise to speak’ off
By default, your Apple Watch is always listening to you, your virtual assistant Siri is always waiting for ‘Hey Siri’ and for you to raise your watch to speak.
Turning both these features off will have a huge impact on battery life, as Siri is always waiting in the background for your commands
10. Adjust Background App Refresh
- Go to ‘Watch’ on iPhone
- Click ‘background App Refresh’
- Select the apps you don’t want to refresh in the background or turn off all of them
Apps that you are not using will automatically check for updates in the background, think apps like Twitter or Facebook, this puts added strain on your Apple Watches RAM which uses the battery.
You can turn off background refresh on an app-to-app basis to switch off background app refresh across your entire Apple Watch to make the biggest impact on your battery life.
With the feature of your only miss out on a couple of seconds saved when the app has to open up and check for new updates, think of Twitter taking a few more seconds to load than usual.
11. Do A Complete Factory Reset
- Go to the ’Watch’ app on your iPhone
- General > Reset
- Erase All Content and settings
Sometimes a factory reset is the only way to get your device working correctly again, you could download a bug or a virus that caused your Apple watch battery to deplete quickly.
It is crucial you do a FACTORY reset not a soft reset, the Watch has to become like it was straight out of the box, if you do a soft reset it will still carry all its files and applications, one of which is likely caused the issue in the first place.
12. Contact Apple Support
If all else fails get into contact with Apple who can directly help you with your Apple Watches battery issue, access their official support system here