iOS 14 Widgets

Upon the last two iOS 14.* updates, after a phone restart, my clock widget has appeared with the clock face hands completely missing. On this latest update to iOS 14.1, I noticed that the hands had appeared but were no longer moving (frozen).

Upon googling, I stumbled across an article talking about this issue and it suggested enabling Background App Refresh. I've now done this and the issue appears to be completely resolved.

Simply navigate into Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh and toggle this to Wi-Fi only (you can probably do Wi-Fi & Mobile Data if you really want but I don't want anything chomping through my cellular data). Now, upon restarting the phone, the widgets appear to be refreshing properly and the clock widget hands are moving again.

I recommend anyone experiencing this issue to try this fix - it's worked for me.

Try setting background app refresh to the On position for the Shortcuts app AND Widgetsmith app or whatever app you used to make widgets. Make sure background app refresh is on. Then reboot your phone.

That's what I did.

This morning my apple calendar was one day behind, so I switched back to Wifi only. Then my apple calendar was up to current date. I'm new, but I hope this works. It's working for me all week so far.

I have the same issue. The problem is not solved but I found a work around.

Add a similar size world clock widget over the clock. Everyone it freezes just flick it to the world clock and flip it back to your home time.

Try again, first day I changed to WiFi only, it froze again, 2 more times. So, after a couple more reboots it now works fine. No problems the last couple of days. Hopefully, this issue will be sorted out in iOS 14.3 once and for all.

Try settings > general > date and time > toggle on and off 24 hour time

works for me. If I edit the widget and change the city to something other than my auto-detected time zone it freezes, but if I set it to New York, then toggle on and off 24 hour time, the secondhand moves and the clock functions.

definitely an uncommon oversight from apple though. Expect a fix in next update.

Worked for me immediately after reboot - switch to WiFi only is great advice. Much appreciated :)

In Settings, I just tried turning on background app refresh for my Widgetsmith clock widget that has the second hand. I'll see if it freezes the time again. Beforehand, I had to turn my phone off and then back on again, then the clock widget reset itself and began working again.

Follow ParkaMark’s advice above, just set it to WiFi only from WiFi + Cellular. Then switch off your phone for a few seconds. When you restart your phone it should be working fine. This is exactly how it worked for me.

I do not think you can vary this feature by individual app.

I have the same issue. If you reboot your phone (a few times), they probably work again.... for a while, then they will freeze again. I guess there are some bugs.

I've exhausted everything I can think of. Contact Apple Support for better help

Contact Support

If you are unable to use the link above, go to Apple support's twitter.

After I wrote a reply here, I added another small Widgetsmith widget to my home screen smart stack. Then I scrolled through my smart stack and saw my clock widget had frozen again so I rebooted my phone. I'm going to put my Wifi back on Wifi & Cellular and just reboot my phone when my widget(s) freeze and not fret about it. I can't figure out what the problem is unless it's a possible glitch or communication issue between the clock widget and the iPhone timezone feature. Sorry I couldn't assist.

DrDAB, thank you for the advice.

So I would turn on wifi only or wifi and cellular in order for the clock widget to stop freezing?

I wonder if there's an option in general to turn on wifi only for just the various widget apps so they won't malfunction if cellular data becomes unavailable? Just a thought.

After 6 years using Android, I got back to iOS since they announced great new features on iOS14 and new iPhones.

Unfortunately I am frustrated cause of this issue with widgets.

And even sadder to see cases here since September. I have already restart my phone several times it's annoying, refreshing background is set to WiFi and cellular since beginning of my setting up.

Does anyone find a hard fixing for this issue?

Hopefully next update will fix that.

Cheers,