Experiencing bad Apple Watch 5 battery life? If so, you’re not alone as many users complain of short Apple Watch Series 5 battery life, especially during the first week of use. That’s not how things work, even with Always On Display. Here is a guide on how to fix battery life issues on the latest Apple Watch.
Apple says you should get all-day battery life on the Apple Watch Series 5 and rates it at up to 18 hours. This is the same as the old Apple Watch 3. If your Apple Watch isn’t working all day, there are some things you can do to fix the problem.
Take a look at seven things you can try to fix bad Apple Watch 5 battery life;
- Restart Your Watch
- Install updates
- Wait a few days
- Unpair and Remap
- set as new
- Turn Off Apple Watch 5 Features
- Install watchOS 6.1 Beta
Try these on your own and contact Apple if they don’t fix the problem.
Restart Your Watch
To fix some Apple Watch 5 battery issues, reboot.
One of the easiest ways to fix battery life issues is to restart your Apple Watch and restart your iPhone. This takes a minute or two and can fix problems pretty quickly.
Press and hold the side button on your Apple Watch 5, then swipe to Power off. When the watch is turned off, press the Digital Crown to turn it back on. Restart your iPhone while this is happening. This can fix many problems, so start here.
Install updates
Apple has already released watchOS 6.0.1 and we expect new Apple Watch 5 updates in the coming months. These include bug fixes that can provide official battery life fixes.
Here’s more information on why you should install watchOS 6 updates. While it’s a good idea to wait a few days after a release to install an update, this is one of the best ways to fix Apple Watch battery life issues on the new model.
Wait a few days
Wait a few days to see if this helps.
We’ve also seen Apple Watch 5 battery life improve for a few days or up to a week. This may be because the clock restored from the setup process is completing background tasks, especially if you set it up from a backup.
It’s annoying to deal with but sometimes just waiting and dealing with 3-5 days of battery life issues can fix it.
Unpair and Remap
While this may sound frustrating, sometimes you can fix this by unpairing the Apple Watch from your phone and then re-pairing it with the iPhone. This will take some time, but if your battery life is still bad, it’s an important step to try.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Tap My Watch, then tap Apple Watch.
- Tap to Unpair Apple Watch.
- Then tap to confirm and if Activation Lock is on, enter your Apple ID password to turn it off.
Once that’s done, restart your iPhone and then open the Apple Watch app to set up the watch and connect it to your phone.
Set as New Clock
After unpairing the Apple Watch 5, you can try setting it up as a new watch instead of restoring it from backup. This can leave problems behind from a backup. It’s not a guaranteed fix, but if you’re on your rope, it’s a good move.
Turn Off New Apple Watch Features
Turn off new Apple Watch 5 features.
Some users are turning off Always On Display and noise monitoring to see if the issue is resolved. You can try this, but keep in mind that most users haven’t found a major fix.
- Always=On To turn off the screen;
- Open Settings on your Apple Watch
- Tap on Display & Brightness
- Tap Always On
- Tap the toggle button to turn it off.
While this isn’t a great permanent solution, it might help you get through this tricky patch and then try turning it back on after watchOS 6.1 arrives.
You have to use your iPhone to turn off noise notifications and monitoring.
- Open the Apple Watch App.
- Tap the My Watch tab.
- Tap on Noise.
- Tap on Noise Threshold.
- Tap on Off.
This can help you get better battery life, but it’s hit or miss.
Install watchOS 6.1 Beta
You can install the watchOS 6.1 beta, although this is not for everyone. We’ve been hearing some reports that watchOS 6.1 has significantly improved Apple Watch 5’s battery life.
Here’s how to install the watchOS 6.1 beta, even if you’re not a developer. There’s no downgrade option, so you’ll be stuck with watchOS 6.1 until Apple releases a new version, so don’t install this lightly.
