If your Apple Watch battery is not lasting long, read on to discover why this happens and 14 ways to extend your Apple Watch battery life.
The Apple Watch battery dies fast when too many features are on. To extend its battery life, you need to reduce how much it’s doing when not actively being used. Examples:
- Reduce Wake Screen
- Reduce Notifications
- Minimize Background Apps
- Turn Off LTE Mode
- Reduce Brightness
- And More…
14 Ways To Save Apple Watch Battery Life
Extending your Apple Watch battery usually requires prioritizing features. However, it sometimes requires a bit of fiddling, giving users flashbacks to the old IT standby, “Have you tried turning it off?” Here are 14 suggestions to consider to increase your battery life.
1. Cancel “Always On” Display To Save Battery Life
The “Always On” display is one of the biggest energy sucks of an Apple Watch. Canceling this feature will extend your Apple Watch’s battery life. Thus, as handy as it is to always have it at the ready, ask yourself if you really need it.
To switch off “Always On”:
- Go to “Settings”
- Select “Display & Brightness”
- Select “Always On”
- Select “Off”
2. Reduce Wake Screen To Save Battery Life
Having your Apple Watch wake every time you raise your wrist is another helpful feature. Unfortunately, like the “Always On,” the “Wake Screen” setting eats battery life. Thus, if you need to extend your watch’s battery, it’s an excellent feature to disable.
To switch off “Wake Screen”:
- Go to “My Watch”
- Select “General”
- Select “Wake Screen”
- Slide the green over to black for “off”
3. Reduce Notifications To Save Battery Life
Every app wants to send you Push notifications. Many alerts ensure your life runs smoothly. But do you need all of them? Every push lights up your screen, eating your battery life. Also, in order for your phone to provide this service, it has to be constantly scanning. Thus, the less your apps can alert you, the more battery life you save.
To manage your notifications:
- Go to “My Watch”
- Select “Notifications”
- Go through your apps
- Select any app you want to reduce notifications
- Select “Custom”
- Turn the app’s notifications to “off”
4. Minimize Background App To Save Battery Life
Check how many apps you have working in the background. Just because they’re not in the forefront doesn’t mean they are not using energy, reducing your Apple Watch battery life. Thus, sort through them and close everything you don’t need.
5. Turn Off Background Refresh To Save Battery Life
Apps are primed to stay up-to-date even when you think you have them off or just hanging out in the background. Unfortunately, every time they refresh, they devour a little bit more of your watch’s battery. Turn off this feature for any non-essential app.
To turn off background refresh:
- Go To “My Watch”
- Select “General”
- Go to “Background App refresh”
- You can turn it all off at the top
- You can turn individual apps by scrolling through the list
6. Turn Off LTE Mode To Save Battery Life
Apple Watch’s LTE connectivity can be incredibly useful. However, constantly connecting to cell towers gobbles your battery. Using it to talk to somebody will obliterate your battery in 90 minutes. Thus, when you don’t require the LTE, have it off.
To turn off the LTE:
- Go to the “Control Center”
- Tap the green lollypop “i” icon so it is no longer lit
7. Stop Streaming Music To Save Battery Life
Streaming music requires your device to interact with the internet continuously, accelerating the speed you eat through your battery. Download some tunes ahead of time to listen to while on the move without sending your battery to an early death.
8. Use Power Saving Mode For Exercising To Save Battery Life
Apple’s health features, including while exercising, have been a big hit with users. However, the features use up a lot of energy. Switching to “Power Saving Mode” while exercising will extend your battery life.
However, this battery-saving hack does mean a few features won’t work as well. For example, your heart rate sensor will be switched off, and other functions, such as recording calories, will not be as accurate. Thankfully, most gyms provide these features in their machines.
9. Reduce Brightness To Save Battery Life
Bright screens are easy to see, but they hasten your phone to an early death.
To reduce brightness:
- Go to “Settings”
- Select “Display & Brightness”
- Move the sun icon until it is smaller
10. Reduce Motion To Save Battery Life
“Motion” on your Apple Watch does not use a lot of battery. However, if you are desperate, it can eke out a little more life. This switches off the effects and animations that appear through various apps and menus.
To “Reduce Motion”:
- Go to “General”
- Select “Accessibility”
- Select “Reduce Motion”
- Then enable it
11. Unpair Your Apple Watch To Save Battery Life
Yes, unpairing your Apple Watch is a pain. However, unpairing it and then pairing it all over again can sometimes fix little gremlins that have crept into the system. It’s the more pain-in-the-rear version of turning your device on and off again. More annoying, it actually works, even though it is ridiculous.
12. Turn Off Siri To Save Battery Life
Siri has become many people’s dear friend. However, Siri hogs battery. The more you restrict Siri, the less battery lost. Completely disabling Siri will help when your battery is nearly dead.
13. Reboot Your Apple Watch To Save Battery Life
Another modern “switch off” fix is rebooting your device. Sometimes it sorts out a few little glitches in this process that are eating away at your battery.
To restart your watch:
- Hold the watch’s side button until “Power Off” appears
- Slide to “off”
- Wait a moment (or 10)
- Hold the side button until the Apple reappears
14. Update Your Apple Watch To Save Battery Life
Updating Apple products is a controversial subject. There have been many who argue that updating your Apple device will reduce its battery. While this is denied, Apple has been caught doing some rather dodgy things when it comes to batteries in the past.
However, it is also true that sometimes out-of-date glitches sabotage your battery. The only way to fix these is to update your phone. Thus, sometimes the very thing you fear is actually your winning solution. Good luck.
Conclusion
The Apple Watch’s promise of “up to 18 hours” of battery life is almost too good to be true. Many of the beloved features reduce the battery life far faster.
However, by going through your phone and making a few modifications, you can slow down the energy drain. Worst case scenario: try switching it off and then on again.