Nothing is more frustrating than starting the day with a fully charged Apple Watch and having that watch get down to 15% before you get home from work. The battery life of an Apple Watch is supposed to be 18 hours, but we all know that is a hope and a dream. Between checking your apps and using it as your fitness buddy, it feels like a few hours before you have to throw it on the charger. Here’s why an Apple Watch battery struggles to stay alive and how you could throw it a lifeline.
How the battery gets drained when not in use
Your battery works hard even when you aren’t using your Apple Watch to check your texts. There are silent stealers of your battery you should know how to deal with.
Features suck battery life
If you like to use GPS to check your route to a place you’ve been a hundred times or to keep track of your heart rate while watching your favorite show, those actions slowly drain your battery.
Turn off those features that constantly run, like Siri or the wrist raise, to give your battery a longer run. The same goes for your phone or tablet.
Too many apps are left open
We know you love to hop between Instagram and TikTok endlessly. But if you keep all of your apps open and running in the background, your battery is working to keep them going. Close all apps on your watch you aren’t actively using.
You don’t need to get every notification
It feels good to see your watch light up with a notification. We get it. But if your watch is constantly on the lookout for those notifications to send your way, the battery never gets a break. Turn notifications off and step away from social media for a bit.
How the watch works against the battery
Sometimes, the machines fight themselves. Your Apple Watch battery life could be affected by factors that aren’t entirely up to you, but you still need to be aware of them.
Check for a software update
If you don’t update your Apple Watch regularly, you won’t get the newest features and functions, and your battery won’t like it. Yes, constantly checking for updates for your Apple products is annoying, but the updates keep your watch from bugs that will mess with the device, which will impact the battery.
Check your battery life
When the remote starts to work like it hasn’t had a cup of coffee yet, it’s the batteries. Since it doesn’t take switching out a few AAs, people forget that a tablet or iWatch has a battery that will eventually need to be changed.
If you’ve had yours for at least three years, the battery will slowly start to give up. If you’ve had the watch for over three years, look into getting it replaced.
Get rid of apps not made by Apple
While third-party apps technically work on an Apple Watch, they won’t work well. As with all Apple devices, Apple accessories work the best, which includes the apps. If you can live without non-Apple apps, delete them from your watch.
Your iPhone could be a culprit
If you didn’t pair your iPhone and iWatch properly, or if a connection issue messed up the pairing, the battery life of your Apple Watch will suffer, like when a storm knocks your internet router out. Try unpairing your phone and watch, turning both devices off, and then pair them up again.
Easy ways to prolong your Apple Watch battery life
There are basic practices to keep your battery in top shape — and you should apply them to any Apple device you spend your hard-earned money on.
Turn down the brightness
First of all, your eyes will thank you. But when it comes to your battery, the lower the brightness setting, the better the battery works.
Toggle on power saving mode
If you see the watch getting dangerously low on battery, go to the control center and activate Power Saving Mode, which also shuts off the heart rate monitor feature to give your battery a fighting chance to keep going.
Stay off your watch
It’s that simple. Stop checking your watch every minute. The more you are on your device, the faster you’ll eat the battery up.
Watch the temperature
If an electronic device becomes too hot or cold, it messes with the battery. Do your best to keep your iWatch at room temperature to stop the battery from hating life.
You don’t have to be an Apple Genius to show love to your Apple Watch battery. It is the top smartwatch whether you want one, so you don’t have to worry about always having your phone on you or you want to get serious about your health. Keep your Apple Watch off the charger and on your wrist longer with a healthier battery life.
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