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Is it Just Me, or is the Apple Watch Battery Horrible on watchOS 9?

Does your Battery Drain on watchOS 9?

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    101
IT Provisor

IT Provisor

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 23, 2022
103
128
California, USA
Ever since I updated my 45mm gold stainless steel Series 7 to watchOS 9, I've had a pretty bad battery issue where it would drain MUCH faster than normal. For example, when tucked away in my Apple Watch box overnight, it would drain over 30% by the time that I get around to wearing it the next day (even with Low Power Mode turned on)! Also, I checked my battery health: it's at 97% after owning it for almost 9 months since I got it new directly from Apple as a birthday gift.

I actually went as far as to contact Apple Support today, have them run remote diagnostics and, unsurprisingly, it came back with no issues reported. Also, outside of Apple's Weather App and Dark Sky, I have NO other apps running in the background, so there's nothing else that should be draining it. I'm just wondering, at this point, if it's a watchOS 9 issue. When I had my Ultra that I tried out and used for 4 full weeks, this issue wasn't present (which makes me miss its battery all the more)...

Note that I've been using my Apple Watch pretty much in a normal mixed way: checking apps here and there, being on cellular for when I go walking outside the house and doing an outdoor walk exercise for about an hour, and having the always on display turned on (it's a watch, after all). Also, I did try erasing and setting it up again, but still no difference. What about you guys? Any issues? If so, have you reported them to Apple? I know I will...
 
Yeah battery is noticeably worse on my S7 now. Not horrible, it still gets through the day fine but it's usually around 40% when I put it on the charger vs. 60% or more before this update.
 
I had  WATCH 4 on version 9 and didn’t feel any impact on battery life. Now I have series 8 on OS 9 and no impact either.
 
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S8 here. I usually still have around 50% battery remaining when I put my watch on the charger. at night I'm wearing it from 7am until about 9:30pm each day. So roughly about the same battery drain I experience on my SE AW.
 
My S8 was getting decent battery life in 9.0, and even better in 9.1. I just top it off once a day if needed because I use it for sleep tracking, but it seems to sip battery.
 
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These responses are interesting. Perhaps it's just me, then. OR, perhaps it's just that I got used to Ultra's stellar battery life... 🤔
 
Battery life seems to have improved a little going from watchOS 8 to 9.

I used to end the day at around 20%, then it improved to around 30% after updating. Though these few days, my watch seemed to drop below 20% when I checked before going to bed. It could also be because I am busier and am clocking longer days of late, so the watch is working harder tracking my activity.

But this is on a freshly replaced battery that is still at 97% battery health. I will probably start to have issues (again) with it lasting through a full day of use next year as the overall capacity dips further.
 
On my S7 I watch a very inconsistent battery drain with watchOS 9. Especially notable when doing workouts outside with GPS enabled. Sometimes the watch drains 20% per hour, sometimes up to 40% (always doing the same, same sensors, same audio streaming, same area).

With watchOS 8 the battery usage outdoors was very consistent (and lower).
 
With my S7 the battery drain on watchOS 9 is noticeable, in that I had to start charging it in the evening so I had enough battery to track my sleep. Updating to 9.1 seems to have helped with the battery drain. It's still worse than watchOS 8, but not horrible.
 
I haven't noticed it with my S7, but I don't really pay attention to my battery indicator when I put it on the charger if it's not less than 10%, which it still never is.
 
After a year, my nTi S7 is at 93% battery health, but I still finish every day around 50%, including an hour or more of workouts. I've unsubscribed to the cellular service, so that probably helps.
 
Yeah, came to this Watch forum because of this issue. I was able to charge my watch once per day on previous watchOS. Now it feels like I have to keep topping up whenever I get the chance.
 
Update: It seems that my Series 7 has been doing a little bit better with its battery after giving it some time to optimize it after updating to watchOS 9.1, but it still seems to not be as good as it was on WatchOS 8. Hopefully Apple can optimize watchOS further to improve non-Ultra models’ battery life…
 
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