New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on August 7, 2023) follows:
Apple Watch Ultra owners are witnessing a severe battery drain issue after installing the watchOS 9.6 update.
Back in July, Apple released the v9.6 update for watchOS that addresses multiple bugs as well as security vulnerabilities in the Apple Neural Engine, Find My, Kernel, libxpc, and WebKit components.
These vulnerabilities allowed arbitrary code execution, denial-of-service, information disclosure, and privilege escalation.

Apple Watch Ultra severe battery drain
However, users observe (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) that their smartwatch’s battery hardly lasts for a day after installing the patch.
As per the claims, their Apple Watch Ultra would earlier last for at least 2 to 2.5 days on a single charge, and sometimes even up to 3 days with moderate usage.
And this is, without a doubt, quite worrying. People contend that even after fully charging their smartwatch at night, the gadget’s battery level depletes to 67% within a span of eight hours.

And this too happens when one has just put the watch on their wrist. Although the battery health is unaffected.
Interestingly, those who have recently purchased the watch and updated the firmware are experiencing the same problem as well.
Individuals claim that Apple support was unable to identify the issue even after running the hardware diagnostics.
Is anyone else noticing a massive reduction in battery life the last 2 days or so. My 1month old AW Ultra went from 2-2.5 days on a charge to maybe a day. I haven’t changed any settings or changed behaviours.
Source
I’m sitting at 6% after only 23 hours. A 3 hour run with 1 hour of podcast streaming, but nothing else that should have drained it. Battery health still shows 100%. Not impressed…
Source
Users have tried common troubleshooting steps like restarting, unpairing, repairing, and factory resetting their watches, but without any success.
Potential workaround
Meanwhile, you can try upgrading to the watchOS 10 beta for a potential fix.

In the meantime, we will keep an eye on this issue and update you accordingly.
Update 1 (October 27, 2023)
05:36 pm (IST): Recent reports indicate that a notable number of Apple Watch users are experiencing abnormal battery drains even after installing the watchOS 10.1 upgrade. Additionally, people are also facing challenges when trying to charge their gadgets due to overheating.
It should be noted that this problem is not confined to a specific Apple Watch model, and is impacting a variety of devices.
Note: You can check out more such stories in the Apple Section of our website.
Featured image source: Apple Watch Ultra
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