watchOS Beta 10.2 bricked my Series 7

Question

Created Nov ’23

Replies 1

Boosts 0

Participants 2

Ever since updating to watchOS 10, my series 7 Watch with Cellular and no active plan has been experiencing major battery drain issues. After receiving full charge, the battery is drained completely within about 3-4 hours, which was not the case prior. There was no noticeable change with the 10.1 public update which mentioned specifically that it resolves issues with some users experiencing rapid battery loss. Being so disappointed, I submitted an issue report to Apple with the details including the fact that the battery health percentage was at 87%. (Don’t know what it was prior to the v10 update).

My frustration with the problem then led me into enabling beta updates for my watch and I proceeded to install the beta version 10.2 as I saw users in some forums stating it resolved their issues. Needless to say, after updating, the watch worked normally for a few hours, noticed it was dead, put it to charge (with a known working charger), and now it’s been several days in which it does not turn on no matter the combination of button presses or state of charging.

The only indication of life I see is that sometimes a visual of the charging puck with a red voltage symbol appears when I place it to charge. It doesn’t boot whether I leave it charging over night or just sitting there.

This is the first time I’ve been dissatisfied with an update released by Apple. Now I have to go out of my way to get it working again. Would love any suggestions before I am forced to go speak to a Genius...

Boost

Answer 1

biceptical OP

Jan ’24

Hi,

Same thing happened to me, and now my Apple Watch which is just over two years old is totally bricked.

When it started losing it's charge rapidly, I made an appointment to visit Genius bar for a battery servicing (it was showing a health of 78%), but then cancelled it at the last minute, as I thought it may be worth trying to reinstall iOS on my iPhone (this was based on some advice given in Apple and other forums). Then, 5 days later, I woke up with the watch on the charger, and it wouldn't turn on - nothing doing, tried all restart methods. So I made an appointment and went to the Genius bar, and after being made to wait almost half an hour, they took it for a check. Told me nothing doing, my only option was to pay for a like-for-like replacement at a cost of $420 SGD (about 310 USD). I was shocked by this, considering it's only slightly less than the cost an Apple Watch Series 9. I urged them to replace the battery which I was willing to pay for, and they said they can't do it if the watch doesn't start up. Crazy!

If your watch is still draining fast, you'd better get the battery serviced before it becomes a useless brick! Really feel cheated by Apple, they have lost me as a customer after 20 years of custom.

0