watchOS 26 Drastically Draining Battery

This might some people, after days of having a quick draining battery on my series 6 watch, i found that i had apps open in the back ground, To see open apps on your Apple Watch, quickly double-press the Digital Crown

One of them was a golf app that was probably use the GPS on the watch all day everyday, once i closed all the apps it was back to normal.

Strangely turning the watch off and on didnt close the apps, they were still open in the back ground.

i did check the diagnostic logs and shared them to gemini AI to find out what was causing the issue and it was something constanly pinging the gps location

Erasing and pairing the watch again helped some users in the past after upgrading from watchOS 10 to watchOS 11, to stop the battery drain.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

To rule out damaged data from the backup, set it up as a new device first and test the battery life.

If it is back to normal, restore from the latest backup and check again.

I need to add an update to my comment. My battery is fine now. The issue was the third party charger I use. As I have always done, I put my watch on the charger at night. My watch would indicate that it was charging so I didn’t think anything was wrong. In the morning, I grab my watch and go. But when I started noticing a problem, I checked in the morning and realized my battery was at 40 something percent after charging for 8 hours. I’m back to my plug-in charger that came with my watch and it’s working perfectly. So maybe watchOS 26 didn’t like that charger for some reason.

This happened to me and none of the advice here has solved the problem. It is a 6 series. I started tracking usage and it turns out the Podcasts app (Apple) is draining the watch battery at a rate of approximately 1% per minute. I use the Podcast app a lot, especially when I exercise, so unless my watch is charged to at least 70% I will lose everything including my workout activity.

It appears we are back to the iPhone 6 fiasco, for which Apple paid dearly...

I rebooted my watch and phone at the same time and battery has been essentially back to pre-update levels. I didn’t even disable any features. Just rebooted both simultaneously.

I’ve done a complète unpairing and then re-paired the watch. This seems to have helped a lot with the battery life. I will need to keep an eye on it in the forthcoming days.

I am not using the beta version of either ios26 or watchOS.

I had the same issue.. After OS26 update, battery drained from 100 to 86 in half an hour. Pressed both buttons for hard-reset and it's now working fine.. went from 86% to 82% in 3h.

Hope it helps

I also have a series 7 and have experienced rapid and unusual battery drain after an ios update. For me, a forced restart fixes the problem. Also try restarting your phone as well.

To power cycle (force restart) an Apple Watch, press and hold the side button and the Digital Crown simultaneously. Continue holding both buttons until the Apple logo appears on the screen, then release them. The watch will then shut down and restart

Did you also try unparing and connecting it again to your iPhone?

If yes and this did not change anything, let Apple know about the issue, so that they are aware of potential software issues in watchOS 26.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

Getting the battery replaced will bring your battery life back.

It worked with my old Series 5 when the Battery Health showed 80% and I had to charge the watch twice a day.

Apple Watch Service and Repair - Apple Support

Series 6. Battery was lasting 1.5 days on average before the upgrade to OS26. Then draining within 4 hours!

Battery Health: 98% (recently changed, so I guess this is a refurb).

This morning I put it on at 8:03am (and took a photo of full watch). I sat down at my desk and have hardly moved since then. Looked at my watch at 10:12am and battery is sitting at 56%.

Unpairing and re-pairing and will see if that helps.

Everybody having this shortened battery life since watchOS 26 should let Apple know directly about this issue by using the Feedback link, as this is the only way to reach them.

The more users do that, the more likely the issue will be noticed by Apple Techs and hopefully fixed in an upcoming update.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

I agree with Ingo2711. If you are at 80% its time to replace the battery.

I did a crown side button till apple logo shows up reset. Same on phone. Did you try this? Did it but still… having poor battery vs before watchOS 26.