Apple Watch battery drain after watchOS 11 Update

Yeah...This is the WORST battery issue I have had with an Apple product in recent memory, and I own at least (1) device in every major product category Apple currently offers!

My 45mm Series 9 just turned 1 year old last week and until these latest 11.0 and 11.01 updates I was more than satisfied with the battery life. I have always charged my watch back up to 100% at around 5:30PM every night with about 15% to 25% battery charge remaining when I would place the watch on my charger stand most days.

Now I am getting battery charge alerts hours before the usual charge time with often less than 10% battery remaining as early as 3:30PM! The watch can not currently make it through a full 24 hour period without coming very very close to being at 0% charge remaining! Since I am not usually back at home until after 5PM, there is no simple way to charge my watch back up so much earlier than my usual 5:30PM schedule. Apple really needs to get to the bottom of this ASAP since the current situation has destroyed my Apple Watch's viability as my daily driver!

And before anyone chimes in with the usual finger pointing away from the actual cause of the issue at hand...

I have changed NOTHING on my watch in terms of software and typical use case. The only thing that has changed has been the recent update to 11.0 and then recently to 11.01. This situation is not sustainable for the majority of us out here who rely heavily on this product's ability to run a full 24 hours between charges!!!

"Disabling Live Activities seems to have solved it. "

Being forced to disable features you were previously using in order to get the same battery performance you had before an OS update can hardly be considered a viable fix to a problem.

That most recent post from someone who did the full wipe/reset and reinstall of their Apple Watch, only to have it revert back to having the same exact battery drain issue a week later is exactly why I refused to even consider doing that with my AW9. I've been down this road with Apple before.

This type of issue can't be fixed from the user's end. That is simply because there is something seriously wrong with the 11.01 Version of watchOS that Apple needs to address, and I Strongly believe that until that is done, all of these hoops people are willingly jumping through trying to get their watch to behave itself is just a waste of time. And I would go further to say it's probably causing more harm than good in the long run.

SOLVED!!!

You need to COMPLETLY UNPAIR your watch and set it up AS NEW!!

NOT FROM BACKUP!!

I've also disabled the Live Stack... Battery back to normal

Just spent close to an hour troubleshooting with Apple support. No resolution.

Ive had all notifications disabled, no Bluetooth accessories, live activities disabled, always on disabled, and my ultra 2 is dying in under 18 hours with no usage.

If anything, the update to Watch 11.0.1 made the battery drain on my AW 9 even worse. The update also added a few new problems (My watch repeatedly asked for permission to allow access to Location for Weather and other Apps, and the Watch face I use, Infograph, "lost" the Weather and Music Complications, which then dropped out of the list of available Apps so that I couldn't replace them).

In another thread Ingo2711 suggested that I unpair and then repair my watch. I did so last evening, and am happy to report that my watch seems not to be draining its battery and the missing Weather and Music Apps have returned, been added to my Watch and my watch has only asked for permission to access my Location once today. While I'll keep an eye on things, 24 hours after unpairing and repairing my AW 9, all seems well and back to normal under Watch OS 11.0.1.

After an OS update, it's common to experience an increased battery drain as certain tasks related to the update continue in the background including indexing, you should only experience this increased battery drain for a few days before it goes back to normal.

If after a couple days, your battery is not back to normal, I would recommend unpair and repairing your Apple Watch with your iPhone ⇢ Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Hello, i also have an 8 and updated yesterday, after over 9 hours of charging the battery only went from 56% to 79%…….

I have the same issue. Can’t get more than 6 hours of use and before the update was getting 16-18 hours! Help!!!

I bought 3 new watches and they all have terrible battery life. My ultra 2 is at 50% battery life after 12 hours of use. So much for 36 hours. Come on Apple fix this!

Same battery drain for me on AW7!

Unfortunately no press/media sites are writing about this issue :(

I got similar response from an agent working for an Apple Reseller. He said if I don’t use iPhone then battery will last longer. No 💩

Yep. Same. I was always getting a full 24 hours and then some. Not now.

i don’t have any 3rd party apps.

I’ve turned off live activities.

I don’t store music or photos.

it’s not the beta

I’ve rebooted.

come on Apple!

I may have to give up on my Apple Watch 9. I can’t get more than 10-11 hours of battery out of it since I switched to OS11. That makes it totally useless to me. I turned off live activities, but that didn’t help. I am going on a trip in 7 days so I will need a different — non-Apple — watch.