Every Way to Maximize Your Apple Watch’s Battery Life
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Battery life has always been a concern with the Apple Watch. From the start, the Apple Watch needed to hit the charging stand each night. Even Apple's latest Watch Series 6 can only eke out 18 hours on a single charge. And that's the gold standard. Depending on how you use your Apple Watch, you may experience significantly less run time. Continue reading to learn about all the things you can do to maximize your Apple Watch's battery life.
Use a Dark Watch Face
It takes less energy to power black pixels, so changing your watch face to a darker option can give your battery a small boost.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Tap on the Face Gallery tab and choose a dark watch face.
- Tap the ADD button to add the new watch face to your collection. It will sync to your Apple Watch automatically.
- Open the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen to make edits to the new face.
Disable Raise to Wake
It's convenient to raise your wrist and view your Apple Watch, but this simple maneuver drains the battery. To turn off Raise to Wake, you need to access the settings app on your Apple Watch or the settings within the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Go to Settings in the Watch app.
- Tap General.
- Tap Wake Screen.
- Here you can configure the screen activation options.
- Try the option to allow the Digital Crown to wake the display. A tap works too.
Activate Theater Mode
This is particularly useful if you own an Apple Watch Series 5 or 6. Theater Mode will turn off your watch's display quickly and easily, allowing you to squeeze a lot more juice from the battery. Just swipe up to access the Control Center and tap the button with theater masks.
Lower Your Screen Brightness
Screen brightness will impact your battery life. The lower it is, the less power your screen will draw. Lower your brightness by opening the Settings app on your watch, tapping Display & Brightness, and using the slider to adjust the brightness.
Curb Notifications
Every notification sent to your watch activates the display and drains a bit of power from your battery. Curb this power drain by limiting the number of notifications forwarded to the watch. Open the Watch app on your phone and go to the My Watch tab. Tap on "Notifications" and use the options to turn notifications on or off for each app.
Turn off Mail Notifications
The Mail app is probably the worst offender when it comes to notifications and battery life. If you want to save power but still want notifications, consider disabling only the Mail app or limiting the mail app to alert you only when receiving emails from a VIP.
- You can find these settings in the Watch app for iPhone.
- Select Notifications.
- Mail.
- Tap Custom to tweak the settings.
Turn off Sound
If you still want all of your notifications, you can save a little juice by disabling audio. You will only see, but not hear a notification. Open the Apple Watch app on your phone, and select My Watch. Scroll to Sounds & Haptics and tap the Silent Mode toggle below the Alert Volume slider.
Turn on Power Reserve
Power Reserve is effective at limiting power usage by disabling all notifications and shutting down all non-essential features. It's useful when your battery is getting low, and you need to eke out as much power as possible. Turn on power reserve by swiping up on the home screen to access Control Center. Tap on the power percentage and slide the power reserve button to enable this energy-saving feature.
Use Power-Saving Mode During a Workout
Dial down the workout app by disabling the heart rate sensor during an exercise. To enable Power Saving Mode, go to the Watch app, scroll down to Workout, and tap the toggle for Power Saving Mode.
Disable Stand Reminders
The Apple Watch activity app will remind you to stand every hour. Turn off this hourly battery drain by opening the Apple Watch app on your phone, tapping the My Watch tab, then selecting Activity. Use the toggles to turn off the Stand Reminders or anything else that you don't need.
Turn on Greyscale Mode
Color consumes power. It's a bit extreme, but you can trim your energy usage by ditching color and going grayscale. On your Apple Watch, open Settings, then Accessibility. In the vision settings, use the toggle to turn on grayscale. This setting applies system-wide, so the entire interface, including apps, will be colorless.
Enable Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb
The fastest way to disable sounds and alerts is to use Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb. You can access Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb by swiping up on the clock face to open the Control Center. Then tap on the airplane icon to enable Airplane mode or the crescent moon icon for Do Not Disturb.
Force Quit an App
Sometimes an app locks up, and it can drain your battery rapidly. Force quit an app by holding down the side button until you see the power-off screen. Then release the side button and press and hold the Digital Crown to force quit the app.