Apple Watch battery draining fast after watchOS 11 Update

It looks like you need to keep your 10.nn if possible, until the final 11.nn bugs are out. It does appear that my series 6 is slightly better with 11.1 than it was with 11.01. My wife's series 5--which actually is displaying an end-of-life warning under battery health--is lasting longer than my series 6. Hers shows capacity down to 77% from new; mine is 93% from new. The series 5 apparently is not compatible with the iOS 11.nn versions.

Timing is everything. I had almost convinced her to trade up to a series 10.

I purchased my Apple watch series 9 with cellular in June and was delighted with it as it worked really well. After updating to the latest IoS on iPhone 15 pro (18.1?) and watch 11.1 my watch is almost useless as the battery constantly drains. It can be at 100% when I go to bed and then it drains less than 4 hours later. I have tried all suggestions: switch off both devices; keep iPhone within inches of the watch at night - never necessary before the update - and unpairing etc but nothing has helped! I am left with a six month old watch that cost £499 (plus additional monthly charge by my mobile network) that is now useless.

Does anyone have any other suggestions that might resolve this situation?

Series 6. iOS 11.01 started the problem for me. Rapid battery discharge and barely made it to the end of the day. I kept a charger on my desk to be able to charge during the day. Then came iOS 11.1 (a .1 update is bigger and more important than a .01 update). Initially after that the battery charged to 80% overnight, explained in a message on the watch as a battery life extender. However, the watch is now back to 100% charge overnight. I don't know why. Battery health says I'm at 93% of original battery capacity.

Also, after 11.1 installation, at end of day (7am to 11 pm typical), the remaining battery life is highly variable, from as low as 15% to as high as 40%. I don't play music on my phone. I have the Modular watchface. From there, I do look at text messages (but use the phone to reply). I look at the weather forecast. A few times a day, I check exercise rings. For 45 minutes or so, I switch to the Activity watchface and run the Indoor Walk app while on the treadmill. I have the Passcode function turned off. My daily life is consistent (and boring) activity, so why my battery discharge is so variable is a mystery, as is why the watch was charging to 80% and now back to 100%

A question for all who have posted your battery issue here: Have you told your story outside of this limited venue? I'm not a Facebook, X, Instagram or other social media user, but I'll bet a lot of you are. So far there are 8 pages of complaints and observations here, but it seems we're "preaching to the choir." Everyone here already has an Apple watch. Posting problems like this elsewhere will serve as a warning to those who don't have one but might be considering one as a gift. If you read that there is a charging problem that has been unsolved for months and months, you might think twice about buying one. What's more, the Apple execs looking for their annual million-dollar bonuses might decide this really needs to be fixed. Just my thoughts.

BTW, the history I've seen is version 11.0 must have had bugs. Version 11.01 may have fixed them but introduced a battery charge problem. Version 11.1 was intended to fix it and did for some but not others. Now I'm on 11.2, and while a full charge seems to bounce back and forth between 80% and 100%, daily charge is lasting through the day, typically 7am to 11pm. Notes. I have Passcode turned off (and btw, the watch is way less trouble without passcode for me). I've also turned off most apps that I never use. I do an "indoor workout" (1 hour on the treadmill) pretty much every day, and I use the watch to find my iPhone once or twice a day, and I use the timer maybe every other day. Battery "health" for my series 6 is 93%, and the Last Charge was to the Optimized Limit of 80%.

Apple does not follow these user to user discussions, using the Feedback link is the only way to reach them.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

And, if your criticism does not end in a rant, the moderators should have no reason to remove parts of a post.

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copied from: Terms of Use Apple Communities, Part B/3

Not sure if there's other threads but I've got 11.3 update and my watch battery goes from 100% to 10% in a matter of several hours instead of the day and a half it used to last without changing any other settings or apps.

So, I've got to use it in low power mode and turn off cellular and WiFi making it just a bloated Fitbit.

I have mu Ultra2 for exactly a year. 3 days,with sport and notifications on for dozens of messages, was my battery life.

After the automatic update to 11.3 the battery life is from morning to evening.

With everything off:cellular,activity tracking,wi-fi, background app refresh,everything. i know all the tricks about battery saving, i am a apple guy since iphone2.

One day only with a 1000€ watch...

My battery RECOVERED when I updated to 11.1 but after moving to a new phone and re-pairing, the battery was junk again. removed, re-set, re-pair dance done several times. Then also trying updates after updates, now on 11.4, battery is junk again.

Watch currently has almost every feature turned OFF and it still dies in an hour or maybe 2 if I am lucky. Series 7 GPS + Cellular.

There's a new 11.2 firmware out. I wonder if it fixes anything. My AW7 are almost useless after the 11.1 update.

to apple watch teams

Terrible battery drain after updating watchOS 11 on apple watch series 7. The apple watch goes from 100% to 84% in less than 1 hours. In 8 hours, the apple watch is running out of charge.  Worst of all, this is using it as normal watch, not playing music, not tracking any sports or activity from workout app, just putting in my wrist to use it as a normal watch.

I am having the same issue on my Series 6, Series 7, and Ultra watches. My two Series 4 without any updates are lasting longer than my Series 6 and Series 7. Series 7 is lasting about 4-5 hours and Ultra is lasting about 8 hours after Watch OS public RC. Definitely need to get the issue resolved apple.

Has anyone had any luck with apple support on this? my aw6 drained a fully charged battery in just over 3 hours...it has been like that since the OS11 update.

So far support says they aren't aware of any issues and have me doing things like low power mode which have no improving effect.

My Apple Watch 8 stainless steel is basically dead after the OS 11 upgrade. The battery drains from 100% to zero in 3 hours. Watch gets warm. I took it to the Apple store and the diagnostic says that battery still has 85% life, however they couldn’t charge it enough in order to reinstall the OS.

So I would declare Apple dead. Not only they are failing to bring anything truly innovative, they brick 2-year-old devices. I’m someone who bought dozens of Apple Watches. My family of 5 all have Apple Watch. My extended family has Apple Watches that I bought. Today I just ordered a Casio dumb watch. I’m starting being done with the Apple nonsense.

Oh, they may want $400 in order to fix my Apple Watch 8. Maybe time to jump ship

Same here! I have the Series 8. I charge my watch at around 11 at night to 100%. I then sleep with it on for sleep tracking and wear it throughout the day. By the end of a work day, it is usually hovering between 30-40% charge. This is usually plenty for me to track a 3 to 6 mile run while listening to music. Ever since I updated to watch OS 11, my watch is at 10% at the end of the work day and I have to charge again before going on a run. What happened!?

Well that could be a solution.

You cannot expect every user to search the internet for a solution. A user just needs to know what to look for. Perhaps they are looking for something else and come across like-minded people who then completely criticize an Apple watch.

Apple should just prevent this. Such a large company and you pay significantly more for their products that you should not expect. And if there is a problem, they have to solve it without a user having to look something up on the internet.

Unfortunately, this was also the case with iOS 10. You can assume that a watch will last for years without these kinds of problems. Or do they do this on purpose? This was also the case with the iPhone a few years ago?

But now I'm also speculating...