What you need to know
- Galaxy Watch owners across a few generations claim their device's battery is draining rapidly after March's update.
- The culprit appears to be Google's Play Services, as screenshots show it consuming large portions of user's batteries.
- The Galaxy Watch 7 experienced a severe battery drain issue in the past, which required Samsung to roll out a patch.
Galaxy Watch users started reporting a strange issue plaguing the device's battery life, and the cause might surprise you.
Users on the Galaxy Watch subreddit voiced issues following the March security update for Samsung's wearables (via Android Authority). The original report, which didn't state the affected model, claims their device's battery has become "significantly worse than before." The user provided a screenshot, putting the culprit (Google's Play Services) on blast. After questioning why Play Services is taking so much battery, others chimed in reporting similar occurrences.
One user's report from a Galaxy Watch 6 Classic standpoint says Play Services has eaten 89% of their battery. Their post says that they've purchased the model "a few weeks ago, and this is the state it is in now." Another user with a Watch 6 Classic says they've encountered this problem, but only after connecting to a non-Samsung phone. More importantly, the issue does not occur while they're sleeping with the watch in DND.
Not everyone is having this battery drain problem. Some users with a Watch 6 Classic say they've encountered no issues, while others with a Watch 7, 8 Classic, and, strangely, a Galaxy S25 Ultra say otherwise. The running suggestion is for users to restart their watch if they're experiencing this battery drain issue. Users say doing so seemingly gets Play Services back to normal, though it might return. However, the alternative is to wait for Samsung to patch this; however, there's no telling when that could be.
The battery has been through it
The Galaxy Watch 7 struggled with a brain issue during its debut year that users in South Korea were quick to report. After running through its setup, users said the Watch 7 ran through its battery at roughly 10% per hour. This is quite heavy, especially if you're not doing much with it, like enabling its AOD. Others said that after fully charging it before bed, they'd wake up to a watch with 30% to 40% remaining.
These issues quickly spread overseas, and folks on Reddit said they were left with 8% of their battery left after minimal use. Samsuing was able to resolve those issues with a patch, but it took a little while before it was rolled out.
Android Central's Take
There's probably nothing more annoying than having to toss your device on the charger multiple times a day. That gets even worse when you know you're not doing much on it. Then the question becomes, "where's all my battery going?" In this case, people have found the issue, though I'm not experiencing any issues with my Galaxy S25 Ultra. I did spot one user saying they've had this issue on their Watch 6 Classis since December, and none of Samsung's fixes have offered aid.
