Wrong Passcode, Try Again in X Hrs

This "wrong password try in 3 hours" thing just started this morning with my watch. I hadn't changed anything, including the watch face. I do notice there is a new update watchOS 10.3 about to emerge. I suspect that is related to this glitch. I just wish I knew how to fix it now.

Definitely a bug as I was sitting at my watch looking at it and witnessed it turn on by itself and go to 8 hrs

That too just happened to my new big Apple Watch Ultra. At first it says try again in 3 hours, then later it says 8 hours. What's the fix? I rebooted the watch and the same error condition persisted. Like others, I did not enter any code this morning afer putting the watch on my wrist.

Anyone find a solution to this I cannot use my watch for 3 days

This happens to me at least once a week. I believe it’s caused by objects touching the watch.

Maybe you put it in your pocket, or an ant stepped on it, or a fly landed on it.

Causes are different but the result is the same.

Apple should’ve implemented a way to override this lock with iPhone or whatever way they think is suitable.

No dock, here. Wasn’t even charging. Just sitting on a table where I normally leave it. It’s some sort of bug. Anyone saying it’s not shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Phil0124 wrote:

It's annoying sure, but it's not a bug. It's a physical interaction with the watch screen that causes this.

Based on a simple Google search ... there are so many instances of this happening, surely it's a bug. My watch sitting on the table, nothing or nobody around. "Try again in 3 hours". What makes you so certain it's not a bug?

This happened to me this morning. I took it off of the charger and put it on. I went to type the passcode in and fat-fingered the last digit and then it locked me out for 8 hours. Mind you, that was the first attempt at entering in the code. I am certain that I didn't fail any prior to that.

For those that this happened to, are you using any sort of charging dock/station? I'm using a Prism charging station by MDRNDOCK. I'm not saying this is the cause, but I think it's worth exploring if this is typically happening to people using different chargers than the provided Apple charging cable.

Yes it has been reported possibly due to an update and an unpair and set up as new watch always fixes it.

(It can also be caused by hardware failure.)

If you are waiting for hours or locked out then reset the watch manually

ie

Put Apple Watch on its charger.

Press and hold the side button until you see the screen with the power button in the upper-right corner, then let go of the side button. (If your Apple Watch has an earlier version of watchOS, you see the Power Off slider instead of the power button.)

Press and hold the Digital Crown until you see the red Reset button.

Tap Reset, then tap Reset again to confirm.

After Apple Watch unpairs completely, you can pair again. Remember that you'll need the Apple ID and password that were used to set up the watch. Set up as New Watch.

Apple admitted it was a bug in os10.3

From the public release notes:

watchOS 10.4 includes new features, improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Tap to Show Full Notification setting now allows you to double-tap to expand the notification
• Using Apple Pay with Confirm with AssistiveTouch will require a passcode for additional security and will not support double-clicking the side button
• Resolves an issue that causes some users to experience false touches on the display
• Fixes an issue that prevents contacts from syncing to Apple Watch for some users

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: Apple security releases - Apple Support

As page 1.

It has been reported possibly due to an update and an unpair and set up as new watch always fixes it.

(It can also be caused by hardware failure.)

If you are waiting for hours or locked out then reset the watch manually

ie

Put Apple Watch on its charger.

Press and hold the side button until you see the screen with the power button in the upper-right corner, then let go of the side button. (If your Apple Watch has an earlier version of watchOS, you see the Power Off slider instead of the power button.)

Press and hold the Digital Crown until you see the red Reset button.

Tap Reset, then tap Reset again to confirm.

After Apple Watch unpairs completely, you can pair again. Remember that you'll need the Apple ID and password that were used to set up the watch. Set up as New Watch.

How is this best reply? Heh. It’s a bug in the software, not an ant or a fly. :)

1. No, it's not. bug.
2. It has nothing to do with the watch face change at all.

If the watch kept the screen active and it was touching something that might have registered as a touch, it can try to input passcode multiple times and be wrong, which would then lock the device.

It's annoying sure, but it's not a bug. It's a physical interaction with the watch screen that causes this.

There is no way for a watch face to lock the watch because or wrong passcodes. It simply cannot happen, watch faces cannot input passcodes to cause it.

My watch did the same thing except I didn’t change a face today. I did several days ago, but it has wrong passcode and I have not put a passcode in.