Apple Watch Ultra locking while on wrist

I have this issue after I updated to watchOS 9.6. There were no physical damage to the watch though.it popped up all of a sudden one day after the recent O.S. Update. Initially, the watch remained locked when I entered the passcode prompt while wrist but the frequency of prompts increased gradually and now the watch is unusable with passcode on. I've tried all the possible fixes mentioned online and in apple forum.

Now my watch doesn't track heart rate, stops tracking while doing a workout, no sleep data, literally nothing is tracked these days. I have already turned off passcode as a work around for this problem and I've already compromised with my security. On top of all this, I've lost most of the features of the apple watch already. 

I have a Watch SE and everything has always worked perfectly. I had a Watch Ultra 2 delivered this morning, took the perfectly-working SE off my wrist, put the Ultra 2 on it, and immediately encounter this automatic locking bug.

How does a cheap and old watch outperform a near £1000 new watch, Apple? This is embarrassing…

Bougie_Bohemian wrote:

My I watch ultra locks when no one is touching it and it’s docked on it’s charging station? This time it locked itself so much it telling me to reset on my iPhone, but 99% of the time it just locks itself, and then adds more minutes.

Yes, when your watch is on it's charger, it is designed to lock the screen. This is normal behavior.

I just bought one a week ago and it always does this to me. I had no idea that tattoos could affect the operation of the wrist detection - had I known that, I wouldn't have purchased the watch. BUT, it is VERY irritating as I want to use the watch with my apple pay and having to turn off the passcode feature kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of the watch itself.

It shouldn’t be tattoos bc I’ve had many Apple Watches and the same tats for years and I just opened and set up my new ultra. Went from one to the other. Series 7 or something. In literally had both on my wrist and only the ultra locked. It’s incessant. Actually unusable. I’m livid. You can’t workout keep data ect. I’ve had some watches disconnect during heavy workouts sweat ect. But I’ve sat still and this thing just locks. I also noticed my display is set to always on but it doesn’t stay on. I reset turned functions on and of and nothing. This is definitely software as I can’t imagine all these brand new devices are defective hardware. HELLO APPLE SUPPORT DONT YOU SEE THIS IS LEGITIMATE ISSUE.

Yes my ultra watch has worked just fine. Got a tattoo on that same arm to include the wrist and now it’s locking me out it seems like every 30 seconds. It’s getting aggravating.

I’ve had the same problem. I’ve also gone to Apple multiple times and was told the watch is working fine. Funny thing is I’ve owned 3 other Apple Watches and haven’t had this problem. I guess that’s the answer when they can figure something out.

Trinitystehno wrote:

What does having tattoos have to do w it? Because my watch started doing the same thing right after getting my forearm and wrist tattooed. I took it off for two weeks while my tattoo healed and when I put it back on, it’s been locking itself, pausing my workouts, and not receiving notifications

The ink in the tattoo blocks the sensors. This is an issue that has been known since Apple Watches (and similar devices such as FitBits) have been in existence. See this article for some additional information:

https://www.theverge.com/23567992/wearable-tech-tattoos-fitness-tracking-how-to

I've had my watch at least 1.5 years and it just started doing this about one month ago out of no where. I haven't taken it in to get looked at yet but am planning on it so hopefully there will be a fix coming out soon. I reset it, turned the wrist detection on and off, etc. And it is still doing it constantly throughout the day.

I think it's the new software..... "enhanced feature" they say. Yet my husband and son both have the new Ultra and they aren't experiencing this. I have tried everything. Including a different watch band. nothing helps

no Tattoos.... my previous watch never had this issue. Only when I upgraded to Series8. And after 10 days of trying to figure it all out... visiting the Apple Store... they ended up replacing it. The new one does the same.... I'm just tired of fighting it.

It’s not your tattoos. There is some sort of issue here as I bought a series 8 today. I took off my series 6 (which has been running perfectly). Put on the 8 and it’s been doing it to me since.

absolutley infuriating and with the amount of comments on here they can’t all be defective units. It’s either a design flaw of a software issue I think.

what’s even more shocking is it seems apple must be aware but don’t offer any fix.

out of interest do you have the display set to always on? That seems to have *possibly fixed it*. I switched the setting 10 mins ago and so far it hasn’t locked at all… given the fact is was locking every 20 seconds or so before I think that may be a solution. Just means you’ll have to put up with shorter battery life!!

A. Rose wrote:

Posting again to make sure you see this. I have a new Ultra, no tats, and had the exact same situation that most of you have described.

I don't have this problem. I'm very happy you found a solution to your problem. However, it won't fix the issue for people with heavy tattooing. You've just made my point that there is more than one root cause for this problem.

Yes my ultra watch was locking up every 10

seconds! So aggravating! Apple Store sent it off 3 times and it came back within 48hrs saying “couldn’t duplicate issue” although the Apple Store clerk could easily duplicate it!! I had to demand a new watch since it was 6 months old! So far new watch has no issues.