William Gallagher
An update to watchOS 10 has been released with bug fixes, which address the excessive battery drain seen by some Apple Watch users.
Following the release of watchOS 10.1 on October 25, 2023 — which introduced Double Tap — some users experienced significant battery drain. This isn't unusual when a device has first been updated, but in this case the drain didn't improve.
It's not clear what caused the problem, but reportedly it affected some number of users with Apple Watch Series 5 or later, and Apple Watch Ultra. Apple acknowledged the problem on November 6, 2023, and committed to fixing it with a forthcoming software update.
Now watchOS 10.1.1 is being rolled out to all users with a fix in place.
To update to the latest version of watchOS 10, users should first open the Watch app on their iPhone. Then on the My Watch tab, choose General, Software Update.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
7 Comments
Since the update, my Ultra has lost a day charge. I only get 2 days where I used to get 3. Hope fix comes soon.
The update also bought back the hidden complications on watch face of the blood oxygen and EGC along with the timer.
Oh, thanks AI. I didn’t know this but since the last update my ultra lost a day’s charge,
I’ll install this now.
Updated last night and so far I'm seeing a huge improvement in battery life. I was barely able to make it home from work on my Series 5, which is admittedly aging, but prior to the Watch 10 update, I was able to push through most of my day including a workout at night. Even switching off the Always On display, which was an easy way to stretch the battery, barely helped. Hopefully this is a firm fix moving forward.
Frustrating that battery drain issues crop up after major OS updates. I was half convinced that the new OS was just that much more power intensive.
This latest update only made my battery issues much worse. Now I can only get about 6 hours of power