Originally published at: watchOS 7.0.2 Address Battery Life, ECG Bugs - TidBITS
Apple has released watchOS 7.0.2 to fix a bug that caused the battery to drain more quickly than it should and another that prevented access to the ECG app even in supported regions.
hopefully it does fix the blank workout data issue.
that support article is quite a sledgehammer of a solution, and certainly does take awhile (even if restoring from a local backup instead) - and, at least for me, even after all that, did not fix the problem. 
AND it causes other side effects; like:
- another involved procedure, to get the Apple Watch to be able to once again unlock my Mac
- various other Watch or phone -tied procedures needing to be reset (ex: MFA)
I haven’t seen any mention of whether this fixes the Watch 3 problems. Mine hasn’t rebooted itself for a while, but it still can’t unlock my MBP16 - trying to turn on that function yields an error message “can’t communicate with watch”.
David
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This update fixed a problem with Overcast. The watch app wasn’t working on my Apple Watch 4. This morning, after the watchOS update, Overcast works perfectly.
7.0.2 has introduced a very annoying auto-dimming on my series 5!
Bad for my aging eyes in dim light. I need all I can get.
I’ve had no problems with battery drain, before or after.
There seems to be no way to disable it. I’ve tried everything.
Once more, Apple seems to be under the mistaken idea they own my device.
I paid a lot of money for this, it’s MY hardware!
I’ve submitted feedback to Apple.
I’ve had more issues with WatchOS 7 and 7.0.2, than I’ve ever had in my life! My Apple Watch series 4, will lock itself unexpectedly, reboot without warning, and turn itself off! Many times I’ve lifted my arm to check the time, and my watch is completely off, with no explanation. Holding the button for what seems like an eon, the watch will turn itself back on, and work perfectly until it doesn’t!
No idea what your problems might stem from. My Series 4 has none of those problems whatsoever, but did have increased battery drain with 7.0.1.
Don’t know what’s going on here. Also have a Series 4. Had no problems with watchOS 7, had problems with the OverCast watch complication with 7.01, and all fine with 7.02.
Have you tried unpairing the watch from the iPhone and then pairing again? I have not read of your problems but this seems to be the fix for other issues.
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My Watch 3 has started rebooting itself again. I wonder if Apple realizes there are problems. Lots of complaints about this behavior on the Apple Support Forum.
David
FYI, there is a 7.0.3 update for only the S3 that is supposed to fix the rebooting problem. Try looking for an update.
In my experience, unpairing a watch is a “Nuke and pave” option similar to “just wipe your disk and reinstall the macOS”
Apple insisted on deleting everything on the watch and reinstalling it all. Plus there were several failed attempts before it unpaired. Many hours wasted.
This should be like toggling airplane mode or wifi on/off. It is NOT.
I would personally never recommend unpairing unless it is a last resort.
ymmv
The S5 has always had automatic dimming based on ambient light which you cannot disable, probably to save battery life with the designed always on display. If the watch is doing something it wasn’t before, I wonder if you have hardware failure with the ambient light sensor on the watch? The brightness on my S5 is not working any differently with watchOS 7 from watchOS 6, or I haven’t noticed anything different. But some people have been complaining about the lack of an option to turn off that dimming since it was released.
See for example Disabling auto brightness : AppleWatch
I applied the update last night. Too soon to see if the unexpected restarts are fixed. The Watch 3 still can’t unlock my MBP16 - the same “Can’t communicate with watch” error message. For some reason it also says the iPhone must be unlocked. I have tried that too and it doesn’t help. I know the only option now is to unpair the watch and reload everything. It’s not worth the trouble, so I am not going to do that. In my experience, these things sometimes just start working again if you wait for a while - even with no software updates, so I will wait.
David
Got an email from Apple regarding the Mac unlock failure that says:
There are changes in the latest Apple Watch Beta update, build watchOS 7.1 Beta 4, that may have resolved this issue.
So, I am keeping my fingers crossed. They are four Betas down, so maybe it will move to production soon.
David
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