The new Apple Watch update came and a number of Apple Watch Series 7 owners are having problems with charging after updating to the latest watchOS 8.3 software. According to reports on the MacRumors forums, Reddit, and the Apple support communities.
Apple Watch update: What is wrong with watchOS 8.3?
Many of the complaints are related to third-party Apple Watch chargers. These devices no longer work to charge their Apple Watches. From Reddit:
“Updated my watch last night to 8.3, set it on my 3rd party charger this morning, came back after an hour and it had gained maybe 2%?
Tried the same thing with my spouse’s watch and her 3rd party charger with the same result.
Put them on the official charger, zoom, done charging in no time. Argh!”
Restarting the Apple Watch can sometimes help jump-start charging, but it doesn’t seem to be a permanent solution for most people with the charging issues recurring.
Some users are having issues charging with Apple Watch charging pucks, and still, others are seeing very slow charging speeds or the Apple Watch battery draining while on the charger. From the MacRumors forums:
“Charging problems are more often with watchOS 8.3. It has become ridiculous, it charges around 2% in 10 minutes. What is this? The new ultra slow charging exclusively for Watch Series 7 or what.
This is everything but not the advertised fast charging.”
There have been complaints about the new Apple Watch Series 7 not charging properly since the device came out in early September. Apple initially responded by releasing a watchOS update that was supposed to address the issue.
Some Apple Watch owners who updated watchOS 8.3 continue to experience problems, even after the company issued a fix for the update. It’s not clear if Apple has a solution in the works for those affected by the problem, but it’s likely that a future update will resolve the issue.
There are a handful of complaints about this with the Apple Watch Series 6, but most are about the Series 7.
