If your Pixel Watch has been dying by evening, update its apps. Google says the repair for the drain is going out now, and it arrives as app updates, not as a new version of the watch software.
Affected watches were lasting about 12 hours despite sitting mostly idle.
The drain hit several Pixel Watch generations at once over the past week. Because so many models were affected together, the likely cause was a misbehaving app or background service, not a hardware fault, and Google’s choice of an app update points the same way.
Here is how you can fix it
In a statement to Android Authority, Google said the fix “has begun rolling-out and will be complete over the next couple of days”. To pull it in sooner, press the crown on the watch, open the Play Store app, tap Manage apps and then Update all. Google describes the problem as affecting “a small number of Pixel Watch users”.
The statement does not say which app caused the drain. If your watch was draining fast, it is worth watching which apps get updated and whether battery life returns to its earlier level afterwards, since one of those updates is presumably the cause.
Google had acknowledged the drain on 30 October and said a fix was on the way. Because the update is staged, some watches will see it later than others. If the battery still falls quickly after updating every app, Google has not said what to do next, and it has not named the affected models.
