Apple Watch Series 7 owners are suffering more charging problems just two months after earlier issues were eliminated. Some owners report that fast charging is broken after installing the latest watchOS 8.5 update.
Faster charging is one of Apple Watch Series 7’s biggest selling points. Top-ups are supposed to be around 33% quicker than on previous models — but only if you’re using the right charging accessories.
watchOS 8.5 breaks fast charging
Apple Watch Series 7 has been plagued by its fair share of bugs since making its delayed debut last October. Following early app glitches, many users discovered the device would not charge when using third-party accessories.
Apple fixed all that with subsequent software updates. Both watchOS 8.1.1 and watchOS 8.4 promised to eliminate the charging woes, and they did … for a while. But watchOS 8.5, which rolled out earlier this month, adds more.
Apple Watch 7 won’t fast charge
“I noticed since I updated my Series 7 to 8.5, fast charging is no longer working,” wrote one Reddit user. Others in the same thread report the same problem, and the complaints are also popping up on Apple’s own forum.
Apple Watch Series 7 “used to charge very fast and now is very very very slow (about 5% in one hour),” wrote another user, who uses a Belkin Boost Charge Pro. Apple’s official charger is also affected.
“Well mine seems to be charging about half as fast as it was prior to update,” another user said. “The night before the update I got 40% in 15min. After updating to 8.5 I got 40% in about 30min.”
The problem doesn’t appear to have hit earlier Apple Watch models.
No real fix
Sadly, a reset doesn’t fix the issue, so we’ll have to wait for Apple to roll out another watchOS update. Some say repeatedly removing and then replacing Apple Watch on its charger gets fast charging to work again, but not always.
We’ve asked Apple whether it is aware of the bug and we’ll update this post if we get a response.
