Do you constantly worry about your Apple Watch dying when you’re out and about? I totally get it – few things are more annoying than losing access to your notifications and apps just when you need them most.
But don’t stress! Your watch has a couple of handy battery-saving tools to keep it powered on longer in a pinch. Let me walk you through exactly how to use Power Reserve and the newer Low Power mode to extend battery life like a pro.
An Overview of Keeping Your Watch Running When Battery Gets Low
First, let’s quickly cover the basics of how the Power Reserve and Low Power modes work on Apple Watch:
Power Reserve – Automatically kicks in around 10% battery left. It severely limits functionality to only showing the time. This allows basic operability for days when battery is critical.
Low Power Mode – Manually activated from Control Center. It reduces select features like heart rate monitoring but keeps the watch mostly functional. Great for moderate battery conservation.
Both help maximize remaining battery life temporarily by sacrificing certain capabilities. Power Reserve is more extreme, while Low Power aims to balance preservation with usability.
But simply knowing how to turn these modes on isn’t enough…it’s crucial to also understand how to turn them off so you can easily reaccess all features when desired.
So let’s dive deeper into the specifics of each mode, when you might want to deactivate it, and how to toggle it on/off…
Power Reserve Mode: Your Watch’s Last Resort for Staying Alive
Think of Power Reserve as your watch’s emergency back-up generator when battery gets dangerously low. It prevents a complete shutdown by turning off everything other than displaying the current time.
By keeping only the essentials running in this ultra-low power state, your watch can stay operable and continue showing the time accurately for up to 2 days on reserve battery.
So what exactly turns off when Power Reserve activates? Pretty much everything besides the watch face itself:
Features Disabled
- Notifications
- Apps
- Messages
- Activity tracking
- Heart rate
- Music
- Phone calls
- Integration with iPhone
Functionality Limited To
- Telling the time
That’s right – no apps, no alerts, no health tracking, no payments, no notifications. Just keeping the little battery power left laser focused on showing you the time.
Here’s a breakdown:
| Category | Normal Mode | Power Reserve Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Notifications | Yes | No |
| App Usage | Yes | No |
| Activity Tracking | Yes | No |
| Heart Rate Monitoring | Yes | No |
| Messages | Yes | No |
| Music Playback | Yes | No |
| Wallet/Payments | Yes | No |
| iPhone Connectivity | Yes | No |
| Timekeeping | Yes | Yes |
As you can see, Power Reserve strips away everything not related to timekeeping. This allows the watch to show the time accurately for an extended period before the battery fully drains.
But sometimes you may want to exit Power Reserve early and regain full functionality…so let’s talk about how to properly turn it off.
Turning Off Power Reserve: Regaining Full Access on Low Battery
If your watch battery is getting dangerously low, Power Reserve will automatically activate to prevent immediate shutdown. This can be super helpful for ensuring you don’t lose basic timekeeping capabilities.
But occasionally you may want to exit Power Reserve manually before charging back up.
Why would you want to turn it off if battery is almost empty? Here are some examples:
- You need to access an important app or notification that requires full functionality
- You want to use features like notifications, messages, or activity tracking before charging
- Testing watch behavior with low battery (though not recommended!)
When Power Reserve first activates, try not to panic about the limited functionality – just remember it’s there to keep your watch alive as long as possible!
But if you do need to regain access to all features prior to charging, turning it off is easy. Here’s how:
Step 1: Press and Hold Side Button
Flick your wrist or tap the screen to wake your watch from Power Reserve. You should see the watch face displaying the time.
Then hold down firmly on the side button below the Digital Crown until you see the Apple logo appear.
Quick tip: The side button feels similar to a standard iPhone home button. Use your thumb for the best leverage when pressing.
Keep holding as the Apple logo fades back to black.
Step 2: Wait for Full Restart
Continue pressing the side button down until the Apple logo reappears and your watch face loads again, indicating it has fully restarted.
This turns off Power Reserve and reenables full functionality! 🎉
Important Note: In some cases if battery is completely depleted, you’ll need to charge to ~10% before the watch will power back on after this reset.
And that’s all there is to it! Hold for restart, wait for reboot, and Power Reserve will be deactivated, restoring normal operability.
The “Best Of Both Worlds” Option: Low Power Mode
With WatchOS 9, Apple finally gave us a sort of best-of-both-worlds option between full battery draining functionality and Power Reserve’s barebones timekeeping-only mode.
Introducing Low Power Mode – designed to scale back certain battery-draining features while keeping your watch pretty fully usable until you can charge back up.
Think of Low Power as a nice compromise between full functionality and Power Reserve‘s limitations:
- It doesn’t completely eliminate apps, notifications, health tracking, etc.
- But it does reduce performance of some battery-intensive features.
You have control over when Low Power activates. Toggle it on/off manually via Control Center based on your usage needs.
By temporarily decreasing background refresh/processing of select power-hungry functions, Low Power Mode can extend your watch‘s battery by several hours in a pinch:
Examples of Slowed/Reduced Functions:
- Delayed notification delivery
- Less frequent heart rate checks
- No automatic workout detection
- Slowed app refresh
- Muted visual effects
Generally performance and usage remains similar to normal…just a bit slower to conserve precious battery reserves!
Think of it like traveling on one engine instead of two on a Boeing 737. You still get there on time…just have to throttle back on speed while one engine’s out of commission recharging. 😉
But when should you use Low Power vs. Power Reserve? Here are some guidelines:
Good for Low Power Mode:
- Need access to most/all features before next charge
- Okay with occasional minor slowdowns
- Want to preview battery saving capability
Better for Power Reserve:
- Won‘t be able to charge for many hours/days
- Only need basic timekeeping capability
- Must maximize every minute of battery time
Hopefully that gives you a better sense of when to employ each strategy!
Turning on Low Power Mode to Conserve Battery
Ready to kick Low Power Mode into gear and scale back battery drain? Here’s how to activate it:
Step 1: Swipe Up for Control Center
Start from your watch face, then swipe up from the bottom edge to access Control Center.
This is where you manage all quick settings like battery life.
Step 2: Tap Battery Percentage
Find and tap the yellow battery icon at the top showing your current percentage charge remaining.
This will open the battery menu.
Step 3: Toggle On Low Power Mode
Slide the switch to the right enable Low Power. It will turn yellow when activated.
Tap Proceed, then you’re all set! The battery icon will also become yellow throughout your watchOS indicating the mode is live.
Battery saving features will start auto-activating in the background!
To turn Low Power Mode off, simply swipe up and toggle the switch left to return to normal battery usage and full functionality.
Wrap Up
As you can see, mastering these battery conservation modes is crucial for keeping your Apple Watch powered on longer when away from chargers.
Hopefully this guide gave you a better grasp of optimizing Power Reserve and Low Power when battery gets low. Quick recap:
- Power Reserve limits function to only timekeeping – holds out for days.
- Low Power Mode reduces some features but keeps full operability – adds hours.
Knowing how and when to turn these modes both on and off will ensure you’re never left without your trusty watch in a pinch!
Let me know if you have any other Apple Watch battery questions. Happy to help explain further tips and tricks for maximizing usage per charge.
