I have checked the setting and display always on is selected on, theatre mode is off, I’ve restarted the phone, watch etc and the always on display still dims after a few seconds.
I see others have posted and had similar problems with this, is this a known possible software / hardware fault?
Apple Watch Series 6, watchOS 7
This is exactly what worked for my 6. I have tattoos and the wrist detection being on was not registering the watch being on my wrist, as usual. What this does is turn the screen off because the watch doesn’t think your wearing it and it’s saving battery. Turn this off and it works perfectly, Always On.
I have the exact same problem with series 6.
when unpair and reset The Watch it stays 2-3 days and goes back to black screen. When touch the display only the time would show.
i reset The Watch several times now. A real pain.
Well after finally getting a wonderful woman in Apple support on the phone my watch is now “always on”!!!!
I’d like to tell you all that we did to fix this but I honestly can’t remember it all. It included her accessing my phone to move an arrow around on my screen to direct me to check various settings on the phone itself and the Watch app. I believe it also included a “unpair/pair” of the watch/phone. And BTW we did all of this to both my watch/phone AND my wife’s and both now work great!
Both watches are now always on ... and the time updates so that it doesn’t “jump” minutes to the correct time after being “asleep” when it went black.
There is only one small issue for me but it’s a case of “working as designed”. The face goes black if the watch is not on my wrist - looking to save power if the watch senses it’s not on skin. As someone that uses my MacBook a lot, I often find that the watch (any watch) gets in the way. I like to take it off and “stand” it on my desk to glance at the time. I can’t do that now, I’ll have to get accustomed to looking for the time on my computer screen.
Since she did her magic,
Go to hobby lobby and buy a pack of clear epoxy stickers or order these off amazon. They solved this issue 90% of the time for me.
Same issue here. I tried everything (update watchOS to 7.1 and iOS to 14.2, deactivate/wait/activate again, unpair, initialize the device) but this it's still happening. In my case, sometimes the always-on display works fine, then randomly stop working.
Frustrating issue with apple 6 watch where the display turns off (total black screen, not dim) then when you go into passcode you can turn off wrist detection and it works fine but lose the sleep, heart rate as well as blood oxygen when you do this. I had the SE and paid more for always on and it seems that i got ripped off. Apple can you help with this?! Yes i have rebooted shut off and done all the necessary troubleshooting aids that have been mentioned here. Apple??!!!!!
I was looking for an answer to this problem and tried a few of the ideas others put forward but none worked.
With a little more googling it turns out there is a setting called Theatre mode which turns the always on off when activated... it’s in the control centre... https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/watch/apd06bc15da1/7.0/watchos/7.0#apd1974ec876
Hope this helps others!
Theater mode off worked for me!!
Same here with the screen going black but I’ve also noticed that on occasion when the screen is dim, the displayed time does not update. I’ll glance down at the watch and I see 6:05 but it’s really 6:18 (example). Only when I pick up my wrist does the time display update to be correct.
Can you be a bit more clear on this? I don’t quite understand. I bought mine and it started doing it immediately, right after setting it up. After the first ten min it just stopped being on. I reset it and it still did it immediately. Going in tomorrow and they better fix it.
I have exchanged watches two times now. And guess what, always on display NOT working. I’m sick and tired of Apple right now. I’m the one that has to go and drive an hour total to exchange the dang watch bc it’s not working as advertised. And they’re looking at me like I’m the problem. Mind you this is brand new out of the package not working!!!! Fix this, Apple!!
My always on featured has worked since I got my watch at Xmas. As of this week I can’t get it to work. I’ve tried all the various tricks online to make it work. I’m am so disgusted that we paid this much for something that just doesn’t do what it advertises.
With the wrist detection off you lose some of the health app usage as well. You have no more blood oxygen or heart rate checks. Apple needs to get this figured out. I paid extra for the 6 to have the always on as well as the blood oxygen app. Frustrating to say the least. Any help on this issue from apple yet?
First I can tell you that there are people at Apple that can help you fix this problem. I know because I got lucky and connected with one.
Because the process is somewhat lengthy and confusing, I can’t provide you all the steps
What I can tell you is there are 3 components to the fix. 1) The watch. 2) Your iPhone. 3) The Watch app on that phone. Each of the 3 required specific settings and reboots of each device.
Good luck!
Brand new series 6 owner here and mine turns black too. This is SO annoying! I bought it to track my health and stay on. Disabling wrist detection removes some health tracking.
Apple, Figure this out already!!!
THERE IS A FIX FOR THIS. Some Apple support folks do know how to help you.
it involves settings in 3 things. 1) the watch settings. 2) the iPhone settings. 3) the WATCH app on the iPhone.
Some setting changes require a reboot of watch or iPhone.
It's fixable ... if you can get all 3 to line up.
I got lucky, got someone at Apple that knew what to do.
Apple Watch series 6 always on display not working!
