Watch goes to compass mode. What gives?

See the white circle on the Wayfinder face and tap the white circle. That takes it out the mode and doesn't go back to the mode again, unless you touch there. Also, unless you really need to see Longitude/Latitude or Elevation, open the Watch app on your iPhone and My Watch (bottom left), tap the face and choose None for Bezel and it will never happen.

I was having the same issue with my new Ultra. Went to setting > general > return to clock and the scrolled down to compass. From there, I scrolled down to the “when in session” section and toggled “return to app” to the off Position. Seems to have worked.

Settings/general/return to clock and select always.

Settings/general/return to clock/compass and turn off "when in session" return to app.

Hello,

This happened to me today on Apple Watch Ultra using the Wayfinder face. It would for some reason automatically switch over to the compass/level application in 7-10 seconds. No matter what I did - changing the face or powering the watch off/on - the problem was constantly reoccurring.

When I looked in the open activities, The watch would not let me close out the Compass app for some reason or another which led me to believe there’s some sort of bug in the code potentially. But after tinkering around, I think I figured out a cause/solution. I think it has to do with the level application that’s directly tied to the compass application. For me, it was in the bottom center of my Wayfinder dial. From there, I went to my iPhone, opened the Apple watch application and changed that bottom dial on the current Wayfinder watch face to battery percentage. And voila; after doing this, I was able to successfully close the Compass application from being an open activity and the watch face stayed on all the time!

Here is a picture of my watch face now with no issues. I hope this helps.

It's in the Watch App on your iPhone. Not iPhone Settings.

Open the Watch App on your iPhone

Tap - My Watch (lower left corner of the screen)

Tap - General

Scan down the page till you see Return to Clock

Didn’t work for me on my new ultra. I finally did a reset of Watch as new and all is good now. Frustrating!

This is the only thing that worked for me too - had to go that extra step. Once I did that I then had to go back to the watch and remove Compass from the Dock which took two times before it would leave. There must have been something on the Compass App that preferenced it I think.

Thank-you, I was having the same issue on a new Series 8 just purchased yesterday and to say the least it was getting on my nerves to see the compass persistently returning to the watch face. I have been searching posts and options for hours until I found this post. Thanks again!!!

Thank-you, I was having the same issue on a new Series 8 just purchased yesterday and to say the least it was getting on my nerves to see the compass persistently returning to the watch face. I have been searching posts and options for hours until I found this post. Thanks again!!!

This didn’t work me either on an Ultra. Only started happening yesterday after months of working fine. Changed setting as described but every time I put my wrist down it goes back to the compass screen. Any other thoughts?

Those settings/general/return to clock must be at some specific version of OSX or iOS.

Which one are you referring to, and what are the other comparable choices for, e.g., my OSX 10.13 or the latest iOs which don't offer those specific Settings choices?

Apple often makes changes to the choices with each new operating system, I've noticed. Same thing happens with Apple Mail, which is ofteninconsistent across release versions.

Thanks, was having the same issue on my new Ultra, this fixed it

Same, fixed on ultra.. question is does this gimp the compass app in anyway?

This works.