Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and the one used in the Apple Watch is no different. After the first year of ownership, you’ll notice that the battery runs out a lot quicker than before. If this is bothering you, here’s a quick list of things that you can do to improve your Apple Watch’s battery life.
Check your Apple Watch’s battery health
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Before you try anything else, check if your Apple Watch’s battery health is below average. If it is, that indicates a hardware issue.
On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and see if it’s below 80%. If it is, you should consider getting a battery service from Apple. On the same page, be sure to check if Optimized Battery Charging is enabled. It’s enabled by default, so there’s nothing to worry about here for most people. If it’s disabled, consider enabling it to reduce battery aging.
In case battery health isn’t the problem, we can try a few other things to make the Apple Watch last longer on a single charge.
Look for sudden battery dips
On the watch, go to Settings > Battery and check the graph to see if there are any sudden dips, which you can attempt to correlate with what you were using the device for at that time, so you can determine if there’s something you need to be doing differently.
Enable low power mode
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At the start of a long day, consider enabling low power mode to prolong your Apple Watch’s battery life. Your Apple Watch will automatically prompt you to enable low power mode when the battery is at 10%, but you can proactively enable it to make it last longer.
Low power mode turns off sensors and background apps to extend battery life. This includes the heart rate sensor, which means that you won’t receive notifications for low or high heart rates, and your workouts may not display accurate heart rate data with low power mode enabled. Incoming notifications may also be delayed.
If you’re okay with the trade-offs, press the side button on your Apple Watch and tap the battery percentage button. Then select Low Power Mode > Turn On. You can also turn on low power mode during workouts by going to the Watch app on your iPhone and navigating to Workout > Low Power Mode.
Update your Apple Watch
At times, being on older versions of watchOS could be causing battery drain. Apple keeps issuing software updates that address various issues, so you should try updating to the latest version of watchOS to improve battery life. To do this, go to Settings > General > Software Update on the Apple Watch.
Don’t turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone
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This may sound counterintuitive, but you should not disable Bluetooth on your iPhone if you value your Apple Watch’s battery life. If Bluetooth is enabled on your iPhone, the communication between the iPhone and the Apple Watch is much more power-efficient.
Turn off Always On Display
Higher-end models of the Apple Watch (such as Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2) let you quickly check the time without first waking your watch’s display. Unfortunately, this feature is a well-known battery hog, and if you want to bump up your Apple Watch’s battery life, you should let it go. On your watch, you can go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Always On and disable this feature.
Turn off Siri
Siri is pretty useful on Apple Watch because it speeds up things that require multiple taps on the tiny display, such as setting timers or reminders. If you haven’t been using Siri much, you can tell it to stop listening for the wake phrase, which will sacrifice the feature but extend your battery life.
To do this, go to the Watch app on your iPhone or Settings on the Apple Watch and navigate to Siri. Disable everything here, including Listen for “Hey Siri,” Raise to Speak, and Press Digital Crown.
Disable Walkie-Talkie
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Walkie-Talkie allows you to communicate in real time with others who use Apple Watch. It is a great feature if you use it regularly, but if not, you should disable it to prolong the watch’s battery. Press the side button to open the Control Center on your Apple Watch, and disable Walkie-Talkie, which has a radio icon. If it’s yellow, it’s enabled; if it’s gray, it’s disabled. You can also disable Walkie-Talkie notifications. Open the Watch app on your iPhone and go to Walkie-Talkie and select Notifications Off.
Use Sleep Mode for bedtime
Most people don’t need to have the Apple Watch active while they’re asleep. This is where the Sleep Mode can be used to good effect. Once you set up a sleep schedule, Sleep Mode will automatically be enabled and disabled at the time you specify. In Sleep Mode, all notifications are snoozed, screen brightness is reduced to a minimum, and the device just shows the time and when the alarm will go off.
You can set this up by going to the Watch app on your iPhone and navigating to Sleep > Manage Sleep Focus in Settings. This will open the Sleep page in the Settings app on your iPhone, where you can enable Sleep Schedule and configure it to your liking.
Disable Background App Refresh
Background App Refresh allows apps to update even when they haven’t been opened. This feature makes it easy for the Activity app on the Apple Watch to seamlessly send fitness data to your iPhone. Similarly, Background App Refresh means other apps won’t spend time refreshing data when you open them.
That said, this feature also negatively impacts battery life. Some apps may be pinging your phone too often, or there may be a buggy interaction leading to decreased battery life. That’s why we recommend reviewing which apps need to refresh in the background, and disabling the feature for all other apps. You can do this by going to the Watch app on your iPhone and navigating to General > Background App Refresh. Disable the feature for all apps that don’t need it.
Delete unwanted apps from the Apple Watch
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Sometimes, having too many apps can also result in battery drain. You can quickly get rid of the apps you don’t use via the Watch app on your iPhone. Scroll down to the Installed on Apple Watch section and tap the name of any app you want to remove. Then, disable Show App on Apple Watch or select Delete app on Apple Watch.
Disable unwanted notifications
Reducing notifications on the Apple Watch also extends its battery life. Some notification are essential, but a vast majority of alerts are probably unnecessary on the Apple Watch. If you don’t mind reducing notification spam, then go to the Watch app on your iPhone and select Notifications. Scroll down, select an app, and tap Notifications Off to disable alerts.
Be mindful of how often you wake your Apple Watch’s display
Some people lead an extremely active lifestyle, which may inadvertently wake the Apple Watch a lot more than usual. If you are one of these people, open the Watch app on your iPhone and go to Display & Brightness and disable Wake on Wrist Raise. You can also select Wake Duration and select Wake for 15 Seconds to reduce how long the display is on after you wake it.
