How to Fix watchOS 6 Draining Battery Fast Issue

Is the battery of your Apple Watch (running watchOS 6) draining much faster than before?

Well, you are not the only one experiencing this issue. Several users have been asking the same question, especially those who recently updated to watchOS 6.

But what could possibly be the cause of this issue on your watch?

For starters, updates change your device’s system can cause issues. you must consider a number of factors first before blaming it on the software updates. This can include application usage, background processes, and settings, which are some of the more common factors that cause battery drainage issues.

Now before you go ahead and try to replace your Apple Watch’s battery, try out the below solutions to see if they’re able to fix your Apple Watch.

Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

• 1. Keep Charging the Watch and Turn It Off.
• 2. Check for Unused Connections.
• 3. Mind Your Usage.
• 4. Adjust the Settings.
• 5. Limit Your Notifications.
• 6. Remove Unused Apps.
• 7. Reset Watch and Pair Again.
• 8. Ask Help from Apple.

 

1. Keep Charging the Watch and Turn It Off.

It is possible that your watch is not giving your battery charge status accurately.

With this, you can always restart your watch if it is not working correctly. But what if the issue is caused by a glitch within the watchOS itself?

In which case, there is a workaround you can do in the meantime that works for some users if a fix is still unavailable. You might want to do this during night time.

Here’s how to effectively charge your watch:

1. Go ahead and take off your Apple Watch before charging it. Remember to handle your watch and it’s accessories safely.
2. Then, connect the USB power adapter to the Apple Magnetic Charging Cable or Dock.
3. Next, plug the power adapter to a stable power source or outlet.
4. Now, place the charger’s magnet to the back of your watch, and you will see a green lightning icon on the watch screen.
5. Continue the charging for 4 to 6 hours even though you see the battery charge indicator is 100%.
6. After that, press and hold the Side button of your watch until you see the power slider option. Drag the Power Off slider to turn it off.

 

7. Finally, leave it off for about 15 to 20 minutes and turn it back on by pressing the Side button again until you see the Apple logo.

 

 

2. Check for Unused Connections.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections are common sources where the battery drainage can occur, especially on smaller devices such as your Apple Watch.

Here’s a thumb-rule: the more you use your device connected to the cellular data, Bluetooth, or VPN, the quicker battery is used up.

That is why you only need to use it if you really need it. We recommend that you turn off any such services if you are not using it.

 

 

To do that, simply tap the Cellular Data or Bluetooth icon in the Control Center of your watch. If you want to go offline, you can also tap the Airplane icon to enable Airplane mode which is helpful when you want to squeeze out a little more battery life for your device.

 

 

3. Mind Your Usage.

Having multiple apps running in the background can eat up a lot of battery resources. You need to be mindful of how you use your applications on your watch. Applications that use high contrast text and graphics can drain your battery faster.

Another feature that might be running on the background is your watchOS updates. If the update is running while you are using your watch, the battery will drain much faster. So it’s expected that you may experience faster battery drainage as the device downloads the latest watchOS updates in the background.

A handy tip would be to schedule the watchOS updates during times when you don’t use your watch, such as night time.

 

 

 

4. Adjust the Settings.

There are a couple of features on your watch that can effectively preserve your battery life.

For instance, the animations from certain graphic intensive apps on your watch can eat up a significant percentage of your battery. Also, the more your watch is active, the more it will consume the battery.

Minimizing the usage of these features and only using them when they are intended will help preserve the battery life.

Here’s how to disable these battery consumers in your settings:

1. Go ahead and open the Watch app on your iPhone that is paired with your Apple Watch.
2. Then, tap on the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen and tap on General options.
3. Now, tap on Accessibility and enable the Reduce Motion option and disable the Reduce Transparency option.
4. After that, go back to your Apple Watch screen and open the Control Center.

 

5. Finally, tap the Theater mode icon (theatre masks) to enable the feature. This will enable ‘Silent Mode’ as well as preserving the battery by keeping your screen dark. You can still turn the screen bright by merely tapping on the screen or pressing the Digital Crown.

But if you are in a tight spot and need to preserve your remaining battery until you get home to charge, you can always enable the Power Reserved mode. This will, of course, limit the usability of your watch to conserve battery.

 

 

5. Limit your Notifications.

It is not necessary to push all of your notifications to your watch when instead, it can be checked on your iPhone.

Unlike your Apple Watch, your iPhone has more than enough battery capacity to handle these tasks.

One handy solution would be to select which app gets notified on your watch and only choose the necessary apps. This way, you can lessen the tasks on your watch, hence, less battery consumption.

Here’s how you can disable notifications on your Apple Watch:

1. First, launch the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Then, tap the My Watch tab, and then tap on the Notifications option.
3. Now, tap the name of the app that you want to disable the notification push to your Apple Watch.
4. Tap on the Notifications Off option so the app will not send notifications to your Apple Watch.

 

5. Finally, repeat Steps 3 and 4 to the other apps you want to turn off the notification.

If an app will not give you an option to turn off the notification, scroll down to the Mirror iPhone Alerts From section and disable the setting next to the app name. If you want to temporarily disable all notifications, you can also enable the Do Not Disturb feature by tapping on the half-moon icon from the Control Center.

 

 

6. Remove Unused Apps.

Having unused apps installed can also be a source of excessive battery drainage on your Apple Watch.

In which case, you can either choose to update these apps or remove them entirely. We recommend the latter where if you’ve to find yourself not having used the app in the past few weeks, months then you might as well remove it from causing any problems.

Doing this can also free up some of your storage on your Apple Watch and will overall help improve with the responsiveness.

Here’s how you can remove an app from your Apple Watch:

1. Go ahead and open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Then, click on the My Watch tab on the bottom of the screen.
3. Now, tap on the app which you want to remove from your watch.

 

4. Toggle the Show App on the Apple Watch option to remove it from your watch.
5. Finally, repeat Steps 3 to 4 to all other apps you want to remove from your watch.

Alternatively, you can do this process on your Apple Watch. Just tap and hold the app icon on your home screen until the (X) icon appears. Tap on it, and your app will be removed from your watch.

 

 

7. Reset Watch and Pair Again.

It is also possible that there may be bugs and glitches within watchOS version 6 itself, which can be causing the battery draining issue.

Besides making sure that you’ve installed the latest watchOS patches, one other way would be to reset the device to its factory state. The caveat to doing this, however, is that you will need to pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone again.

Resetting your Apple Watch back to the factory state will ensure that watchOS is working Apple is intended. This removes the possibility of any issues caused after you’ve made some settings configuration to the device previously.

Here’s how to reset your Apple Watch and pair it again with your iPhone:

1. First, launch the Settings of your Apple Watch, and then tap on General.
2. Then, tap Reset and then tap Erase All Content and Settings.

 

3. Now, launch the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
4. Next, tap the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen and tap the [watch name] at the top of the screen.
5. Tap the ( i ) icon next to the name, tap Unpair Apple Watch, and then confirm the process.

 

6. Move your Apple Watch near your iPhone until the message Use your iPhone to set up this Apple Watch is on display. Then tap Continue.
7. Next, use your iPhone’s camera to scan the animation on your Apple Watch until you see a message that your watch is paired.

 

8. Finally, follow the remaining instructions on how to set up your watch until you see the option to tap Digital Crown to complete the process.

If you have experienced some errors in the middle of the process, check out the complete article provided by Apple Support on how to reset your Apple Watch and pair it again with your iPhone.

 

 

8. Ask Help from Apple.

Lastly, if you’ve gone through all of the above and still find the battery issue draining persists, you will need the professionals’ help at your nearest Apple Store.

 

 

Apple’s certified technicians can dig deeper into your device and inspect any issues with your battery or the hardware itself.

If there are issues related to your battery or the hardware of your Apple Watch, then it’s worth checking if you qualify for any warranty coverage for your device, which will help discount the service costs. If you’ve just bought the Apple Watch recently, then take note that you have up to 14 days for returns and refunds based on Apple’s policy.

Now that you have reached the end of this article, we hope that this post helped provide solutions that helped fix your ‘watchOS 6 draining battery fast’ issue. If you have other questions related to this article, please feel free to leave a comment below.

 

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