watchOS 9.2 Battery Drain? Apple Watch Dying Fast? (Fixed!)
Last updated on December 17th, 2022 at 08:06 pm
Posted in Errors and Issues by Patricia on December 16, 2022
watchOS 9.2 battery drain
Are you experiencing watchOS 9.2 battery drain issues? Apple Watch is dying faster after the latest software update? A full charge cycle depletes within 4 hours instead of one full day? You’re not alone!
watchOS 9.2 Battery Drain Issue?
This issue has been reported by Rob:
“Watch v6, is 9.2 (updated last night) and battery drained like crazy today.”
and confirmed by numerous other readers:
- Jeff: “Battery went from 82% to 18% during 6+ hours sleep. I went from 97% at about 10 am to 40% less than 5 hours later. Battery health is 93%. Watch is series 5.”
- Sue: “Same problem for me.”
- Josh: “Same here on ultra. 20% in 1 hour.”
We could not replicate this issue, so far, but have found more complaints on Apple’s Discussion forums and the MacRumors forums.
Apple Watch Battery Drain Fix?
Apparently, the extreme battery drain is caused by iOS 16.2. We’ve seen a report on Reddit, complaining about this issue even with Apple Watch still on watchOS 9.1 and paired iPhone on 16.2:
Thankfully, you can troubleshoot this problem by applying the following sequence:
- 1. Force restart iPhone: Click & release Volume Up, followed by Volume Down and press & hold the Side Button until the Apple logo is displayed on the screen.
- 2. When the Apple logo is shown on the iPhone screen, force restart Apple Watch by simultaneously pressing and holding the Digital Crown and the Side Button until the Apple logo is shown on the screen!
Credits: Thanks Randy-12 for sharing this fix!
Extra Fix For watchOS 9.2 Battery Draining Fast
Wilton confirmed that he managed to solve this issue by unpairing and re-pairing Apple Watch to iPhone and deleting apps that were rarely used on the Watch:
- 1. Open Watch app on iPhone and tap on All Watches (top-left corner of the screen).
- 2. Tap the ‘i’ icon next to your watch’s name.
- 3. Go for Unpair Apple Watch (A backup of your wrist-worn device will be automatically created and saved on iPhone).
- 4. Reboot iPhone.
- 5. Re-pair Apple Watch. Does it help?
Have you managed to fix watchOS 9.2 battery draining fast? Do you have a better solution or other problems to report? Share your feedback in the comments!
Related: For more watchOS 9.2 bugs and available workarounds check our detailed review!
This force restart on both devices did not work for me. Still a huge battery drain on the watch. Running iOS 16.2 on the phone, and 9.2 on the watch.
Did not work for me either. 100% at 9am. 40% by noon. APPLE ARE YOU LISTENING??
Sorry to hear this. Some suggested that unpairing and re-pairing the Apple Watch helps.
P.S.: We’ve submitted feedback for this problem. Case no: FB11881261
any updates from apple?
Nothing yet…
I recently bought the apple watch se 2nd like 2-3 weeks ago I notice the battery drains when I’m it using it, I’m not sure if this is normal but It states it last around 18 hours but It drains overnight and when I’m not using it like 2-5 percent every hour this is frustrating and I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the update or if my watch is defective. Anyone else have this issue?
18 hours is not that bad. Try the fixes mentioned in this article and let us know if you get more screen time.
Still having issue with watch and phone battery. Also, having issues where I click a text and it lags. Super frustrating! I’ve tried restarting, hard restarting and almost every listed “fix” online.
Sorry to hear this. The issue with clicking the text occurs on the Watch or on the iPhone? Can you provide more details?
Uh sorry to hear this. Have you tried to unpair and re-pair Watch from iPhone?
This actually works! Thank you
You’re welcome! Thanks for confirming! Let us know if you encounter any other problems in watchOS 9.2.
Worked for me also
Great! Glad it did!
Didn’t work for me.
Sorry to hear this. Do you notice anything misbehaving on your Watch that could justify the battery drain?
I have the same problem, I tried unpairing and restarting both. Didn’t help.
That’s strange. Ok, next step is to uninstall all third-party apps. If the problem is fixed. Start adding apps back one by one until you isolate the one that’s causing the battery drain.
I unfortunately have been experiencing this problem since the day I upgraded the software. I have tried both suggested fixes above, but the problem persists.
Thank you for your suggestions, please continue to post about fixes to try.
Sorry to hear this. Will update the article as soon as something new comes up. Have you tried to remove all third-party apps and see if it makes a difference?
UPDATE: After implementing the two suggested fixes above (force restarting my phone and watch, then unpairing and repairing my watch to my phone), my battery seems to be back to normal today, lasting as it should – THANK YOU!
Glad it does. Thanks for the follow up.
I tried both of these methods and finally the third time unpairing/repairing solved the issue. Thank you!
You’re welcome. Glad it worked in the end.
We are facing same issue with my iwatch series 6 after upgrading software to 9.2 , I have resettled the watch than paired again, removed most of the notifications but problem persist
Sorry to hear this. Try to delete all third-party apps and let us know if it helps.
Same here! I think I know why: after a while the heart rate flash keeps going and going even when the watch is not at my wrist? That sucks the battery empty really quickly!
Thanks for reporting. You can test it out and temporary turn off heart rate measurements in the Watch app on the paired iPhone:
In the My Watch tab, go for Privacy and disable Heart Rate. You should also turn Off Blood Oxygen MEasurements and Respiratory Rate, as those are also causing the LED flash to light up.
Does it make a difference?
I tried to unpair n pair again for many times and reset the Apple Watch ultra v9.2 as new watch, also have not installed any apps. But the battery still keeps draining so fast.
Hope anyone may share some other solutions.
Thanks so much!
Are you also noticing that the LED for Heart Rate measurement is ON all the time?
Got the same issue. Re starting both phone and watch offer a temporary rest bite to the battery drain. Fine for a day, then the drain starts again 🤦♂️
Uh, that’s bad. I wonder why only a relative small percentage of users is affected. Did you notice anything else? Like, some user reported LED sensors staying turned ON all the time?
Nope, I haven’t seen the led on all the time. What I have found is when you go into the watch app on the iPhone the battery drain issue starts
Thanks for the follow up. Does it stop if you force quite the Watch app on the iPhone, from the App Switcher?
No. I had an issue where there were duplicate watch faces. So i deleted them from the app, then the battery drain started again. The only way to fix it again was the force re-boot of both phone and watch.
The iPhone is a 13 running the latest IOS 16.2 with the watch being a series 5 on 9.2
Thanks for clarifying! Let us know if you encounter any other watchOS 9 issues.
Since the last update, I have not received any call notification from the phone on the watch
Thanks for reporting. Does anything mentioned here, help you out?
https://www.iphonetricks.org/notifications-not-showing-on-apple-watch-fix/
Hope this helps. I have an (old now) Apple watch 4 . After updating it to watchOS 9.2 the batteries began to almost visibly drain. There was a small watch face in the centre of the screen which was scrolling and trying to update the complications but without success. I had to keep the watch on charge to execute the suggestions above. I tried all the above suggestions such as resetting the watch and my iPhone – nothing worked. I was surprised to find that I could talk to someone at apple here in the UK with it being New Year’s Eve but I managed to (UK 0800 107 6285). This lady asked if I had reset my watch using a backup. Yes I did. She suggested resetting it from scratch on my iPhone (10XS) as if it was a new watch. I did and SUCCESS! Bit of a pain putting all the complications etc as they were but a relief that my watch was working again.
Thanks for sharing the fix that worked for solving watchOS 9.2 battery drain on your Apple Watch. Anyone else having success with this workaround?
Thanks, I did think about that (as I’m still regularly re-booting both devices). I assume you lose all your old data on the watch? ( Activity and rewards ect)
No sure about that. They might be saved in the Health app on your iPhone.
Your activity and reward history should still be on your phone.
Battery usage even worse with latest download of 9.3! And yes I’ve repaired,checked to make sure settings remained the same. Honestly thinking of going back to Fitbit. Never had these many issues !
Thanks for the feedback. Sorry to hear this. Anyone else having watchOS 9.3 battery issues?
I gave up on the battery issue. No more Apple Watch and back to my Fitbit. So much happier and does everything the Apple Watch does. I can even wear it to bed and not worry about charging beforehand or going dead during. Even my Apple phone doesn’t drain the battery like it use to.
Thanks for the update. Enjoy your Fitbit.