Apple Watch Series 7: watchOS 8.5 update breaks fast charging

The Apple Watch Series 7 is the victim of a bug with fast charging. After installing the watchOS 8.5 update, some smartwatches take hours to recover a full battery charge. This is not the first bug caused by an update deployed by Apple.

The Apple Watch Series 7, the latest connected watch from the Californian manufacturer, is particularly shy in terms of new features. Among the key features of the smartwatch are fast charging. Thanks to this technology (and a compatible 5W USB-C power adapter), the watch’s battery can be fully charged in 68 minutes.

This is significantly faster than previous iterations, which took up to 90 minutes. For go from 0 to 80% battery, just wait for 45 minutes. Unfortunately, it seems that installing the watchOS 8.5 update, the latest version of the watch’s operating system, does not interfere with the functioning of the recharge.

Related: Apple Watch Series 7 vs Apple Watch Series 6 – what’s really new? Which one to choose ?

A charging bug affects the Apple Watch Series 7

According to numerous testimonials that have appeared on social networks, in particular on Reddit, watchOS 8.5 has considerably extended Series 7 cooldown. “Mine seems to load about half as fast as before the update. The day before the update, I got 40% in 15 minutes. After updating to 8.5 I got 40% in about 30 minutes”, testifies a user on Reddit. “It was much faster before the watchOS 8.5″ update, summarizes another user, ensuring that the autonomy is also at half mast.

In some cases, fast charging suddenly refuses to work on certain specific supportssuch as the Belkin 3-in-1 BoostCharge Pro bases in particular. “After updating Apple Watch 7 to watchOS 8.5, it stopped fast charging with Belkin’s BoostCharge PRO. It used to load really fast and now it’s very, very slow (around 5% in an hour).” can we read the official Apple support forums.

To correct the situation, and recover optimal charging performance, some users have restarted the smartwatch. In vain. After the restart, the charging bugs were still evident. Apple has not officially communicated on the existence of a failure. We imagine that the firm should deploy a fix as soon as possible.

Note that this isn’t the first time the Apple Watch Series 7 has had a charging issue. In December, installing the watchOS 8.3 update prevented charging with third-party accessories, including chargers from certified brands, such as Belkin. Apple had slipped a patch into the next version of the firmware.