How To Improve Apple Watch Battery Life Running watchOS 3

watch OS 3 MAY Impact Battery Life, But Update Anyway

If you haven’t yet updated your Apple Watch top watchOS 3, you really should. It’s easy (although time-consuming) –here’s how to do it– and it turns your first generation Apple Watch into a much better smartwatch.

However, some people have reported their Apple Watch battery life suffers after watchOS 3. Not everyone seems to have noticed a difference, but user forums have many posts complaining about the issue. Not everyone who’s affected sees a big hit, but with battery life that’s already a sore point, shaving even an hour off can be annoying. 

Fortunately, there are measures you can take to minimize the additional drain on your battery. I saw a slight dip in the week after updating to watchOS 3, but by tweaking settings I was able to return to about the same battery life as before. 

Here are tips on how you can boost your Apple Watch battery life when running watchOS 3

1.  Check my basic list of tips for improving Apple Watch battery life. These are still applicable under watchOS 3 and can make a big difference in how often you need to recharge your smartwatch.

2.  Remove apps you don’t need from the Dock. The Dock is one of the great new features of watchOS 3. The problem is that apps in the dock continue running in the background –that’s why they launch seven times faster than before. Great for performance, but having apps constantly running drains the battery. Try culling the apps in the Dock, leaving only the ones you actually call upon frequently (you can still launch those apps when needed using the traditional method).

Remove apps from the Dock to save battery life in watchOS 3 (Credit: screen capture by Brad Moon)

You can remove apps from the Dock directly from your Apple Watch. Swipe up on the app from the Dock and click the Remove button. Or, from the Watch app on your iPhone, select Dock, tap Edit and hit the “-“ button beside an app, which will then move it to the Do Not Include section.

3.  Turn off Background App Refresh. Apps running processes in the background consume battery power. You can control this on an individual app basis using the Watch app on your iPhone. Select General, then Background App Refresh. You can then toggle the feature on or off for each app. Apple notes that even if you turn off the feature for an app, but use a watch face complication that accesses that app, it will continue to refresh in the background regardless of the setting.

4.  Turn off Emergency SOS. Having your Apple Watch dial your emergency contact at the push of a button is a nice safety feature, but it can impact battery life. If you choose to disable it in favor of gaining some time between charges, it’s controlled via the Watch app on your iPhone. Select General, then Emergency SOS and toggling off the Hold to Auto Call feature.

This combination of settings tweaks can get your Apple Watch back to watchOS2 level battery life. If you have any other battery life tips, be sure to leave them in the comments.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradmoon/2016/09/28/how-to-improve-apple-watch-battery-life-running-watchos-3/#6ff7885f35e9