Severe battery drain on Apple Watch SE2 after updating to watchOS 26.0 beta

I am writing to report a significant battery drain issue after updating my Apple Watch SE (2nd generation) to watchOS 26.0 beta. Since the update, my watch’s battery life has drastically decreased: it goes from 100% to 0% in just 6 hours, whereas previously, under my typical usage, a single charge would last about 1.5 days.

I have already tried the following troubleshooting steps without success: 1. Performed a fresh reset of the watch. 2. Reset my iPhone. 3. Disabled background app activity. 4. Enabled airplane mode and power saving mode. 5. Disabled Live Activities and Photo Memories

Despite these measures, the issue persists. The battery health of my watch is at 90%, so I believe this is likely related to the software update.

I am quite concerned about this situation. I have researched and noticed that similar battery drain problems were reported by beta testers of watchOS 11, and unfortunately, there appeared to be no clear resolution at that time. I rely on my Apple Watch daily, and I sincerely hope this can be addressed soon.

I would appreciate your assistance in resolving this issue, as it is significantly affecting the usability of my Apple Watch.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Beta software is notorious for unusual battery drain; I have experienced this on my iPhone with the iOS 26 beta installed. The new Liquid Glass design could be using much more battery than the previous design because of the complex shaders and graphics effects. Or, this could simply just be a bug in watchOS 26. If possible, I would recommend attempting to restore your Apple Watch to watchOS 11 unless it is absolutely necessary for development purposes.

Severe battery drain on Apple Watch SE2 after updating to watchOS 26.0 beta
 
 
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