The Silent Drain
By default, the Apple Watch attempts to keep all of your applications instantly ready to use. It achieves this via a feature called “Background App Refresh.” Even when your watch screen is completely off, the operating system allows installed apps (like weather, news, or fitness trackers) to quietly wake up, utilize the watch’s Wi-Fi or cellular connection, download fresh data, and go back to sleep. While this ensures that your apps load instantly when you tap them, it is the single largest source of background battery drain on the device. If your watch is struggling to make it to the end of the day, you must disable this automated polling.
How to Turn Off Background App Refresh
You can permanently revoke background network access for all applications via the General settings.
- Open the Settings app directly on your Apple Watch (the grey gear icon).
- Scroll down the main list and tap on General.
- Scroll down and tap on Background App Refresh.
- Look at the very top of the screen for the master toggle switch labeled Background App Refresh.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
On-Demand Loading Only
The change is absolute and instantaneous. The Apple Watch will completely sever background network access for every third-party application on the device. Your apps will still function perfectly; however, they will remain completely frozen in memory until the exact moment you physically tap them on the screen. The data will take an extra second to load, but your watch’s standby battery life will increase dramatically.