What Drains Apple Watch Battery? (7 Battery Saving Tips)

Apple Watches aren’t known for having a very long battery life. However, there are some things you can do to make sure your Apple Watch battery lasts all day, every day.

If you want your Apple Watch battery to last as long as possible without needing multiple charges a day, keep reading for seven great battery savings tips!

What Drains Apple Watch Battery?

Some of the biggest drains on your Apple Watch battery are…

• Keeping the display on
• High display brightness
• Excessive notifications
• Background refresh
• Graphics and animations
• Hey Siri

Keep reading to learn how to stop wasting your watch’s battery life.

Limit Display Wake Time

The first step to extend your battery life is to limit the time your Apple Watch screen is awake, AKA how often and how long the display is illuminated. 

Depending on the model and age of your Apple Watch, as well as how you use it, the battery should last between 18 and 36 hours on a single 2-hour charge. 

However, if your Apple Watch display is set to “Always On” mode, meaning the time is always displayed on the screen, your battery may drain much faster than that. 

Your watch’s wake time, or how long the display stays illuminated after you check your watch, also has a big impact on battery life. Adjust both of these settings to extend your battery.

1. Open Settings
2. Select “Display and Brightness”
3. Select “Always On” and toggle the switch off
4. Press the back arrow to return to the “Display and Brightness” settings
5. Select “Wake Duration”
6. Select “Wake for 15 seconds” instead of 70 seconds

Adjusting these two settings should make a noticeable difference in your Apple Watch’s battery life, but keep reading for more tips to extend it even further!

Reduce Brightness

The display is the largest battery drain on your Apple Watch, so reducing the brightness is another easy way to get more life from your device. 

1. Open Settings
2. Select “Display and Brightness”
3. Press the lower brightness icon or turn the crown on the side of your watch

You may need to turn the brightness up on your Apple Watch display in bright sunlight, but you should keep the brightness as low as you can at all times. 

If your Apple Watch battery is constantly draining, you might need to replace the batteries.

Turn Off Nonessential Notifications

Getting notifications from every app isn’t just annoying; it’s also a drain on your Apple Watch’s battery. 

Of course, there are some apps that you want to get notifications from, especially if you use your Apple Watch to control your smart home devices. 

However, turning off notifications for nonessential apps will help extend your battery life. You can easily adjust which notifications are sent to your watch from your iPhone:

1. Open the Watch app on your phone
2. Go to the My Watch tab
3. Tap Notifications
4. Switch toggles off for apps from which you don’t need notifications

You can always go back and adjust which apps send notifications to your watch if you need to, but limiting notifications to your Apple Watch will help preserve its battery life.

Turn Off Background Refresh for Nonessential Apps

Background Refresh is a setting that allows applications on your watch to update even when you’re not using them, which uses up a lot of battery power. 

You can leave this setting on for essential apps, but you should turn it off for unnecessary apps. The apps will still refresh as soon as you open them! To adjust Background Refresh:

1. Open the Watch app on your phone
2. Tap General, then select Background App Refresh
3. Toggle off apps that don’t need to be regularly refreshed
4. Or, use the toggle to turn Background App Refresh off altogether

It’s up to you to decide which, if any, apps you’d like to background refresh, but keep in mind that the more apps refresh, the quicker your Apple Watch battery dies. 

Turn On Reduce Motion

Some display graphics on your Apple Watch can drain your battery, so consider turning them off. Although they look neat, these graphics aren’t really necessary. 

Reduce Motion is a setting that limits some animations and graphic effects on your watch to conserve battery. To turn on Reduce Motion…

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone
2. Click Accessibility
3. Select Reduce Motion
4. Turn on the toggle next to Reduce Motion

With the Reduce Motion setting turned on, your Apple Watch won’t waste its battery life on nonessential animations. 

Turn Off Hey Siri

When the Hey Siri setting turns on, your Apple Watch uses battery power to listen to your voice commands. 

If you don’t use Hey Siri often, consider turning this setting off to extend your battery life. Follow these steps to turn off Hey Siri:

1. Open the Watch app on your phone
2. Go to the My Watch tab and click Siri
3. Adjust the toggle in the Ask Siri section to turn off Listen for “Hey Siri” and Raise to Speak

If you still want to use Siri on your Apple Watch, keep the Press Digital Crown setting turned on so that Siri will start listening only when you press the crown on the side of your watch.

Use Power Reserve Mode

Power Reserve mode is kind of a last resort for saving battery.

This setting makes your watch function like any old watch; you’ll only be able to use it to check the time. You can use this setting to keep your watch alive until you get to a charger.

1. Swipe up to open the Control Center on your Apple Watch
2. Tap the battery percentage
3. Slide the Power Reserve Slider across the display 
4. Tap Proceed

To turn Power Reserve mode off, hold down your watch’s side button until you see the Apple logo.  

Conclusion

Apple Watch battery life feels far too short for some users, but taking steps to reduce screen wake time and turning off unnecessary functions can help you extend the time between charges.