Google has begun rolling out a software fix for a battery drain problem affecting a small number of Pixel Watch owners. It follows reports that some devices were struggling to have enough power to last a full day.

The issue emerged in late October and affected multiple generations of Google’s smartwatches. Some users were reporting a sudden and significant reduction in battery life despite little change in how they used their devices.

In some cases, devices that previously managed close to two days of use were running out of power within half that time.

Google has now confirmed that a fix is being made and the rollout is expected to reach affected users over the coming days.

The company is not issuing a major Wear OS firmware update to address the problem. Instead, the fix is being delivered through updates to applications installed on the watch.

Google has instructed users to manually check for app updates through the Google Play Store directly on their smartwatch.

To do this, owners should press the crown on their Pixel Watch, open the Play Store, select Manage apps and then choose Update all.

The approach suggests that the battery problem may have been linked to an app or background software process rather than a hardware fault. However,  the specific cause has not been revealed.

Reports of the problem appeared across several Pixel Watch generations, including the Pixel Watch 2, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch 4, suggesting the issue was not isolated to a single hardware model.

Many owners were particularly frustrated as they reported they had not changed their usage patterns or downloaded new apps.

Google previously acknowledged the problem and said it was investigating reports from affected customers.

For Pixel Watch owners, the good news is that resolving the issue should not require replacing the device or performing a factory reset.

However, with the fix being distributed in stages, some users may not immediately see the required updates. Google recommends checking again if no updates are available initially.

Owners should also monitor their watch battery performance once the updates have been installed, to determine whether normal operating life has returned.