Apple Watch Ultra locking while on wrist

I had the same problem with an Apple Watch 9 that I just bough. After I read all the support pages, tightened the strap, cleaned the sensors on the back, made sure the wrist sensor was on etc etc it still didn't solve the problem. The watch locked after 10 seconds while on my wrist.

The occurred to me the issue was not with the watch. The issue was with the iPhone (11) that the watch is synched to. I phones have different personalised modes of us - work / personal / driving / sleep. For some reason the iPhone was in sleep mode during the day and this was causing the Apple Watch to lock after 10 seconds as it would do during the night. On the locked phone check if you're on sleep mode. if so hold down the mode button at the bottom of the screen and select personal or work. I did this and immediately the Apple Watch was unlocked while on my wrist and the problem was solved. Hope this helps.

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. The steps in this article resolved my screen locking issue 14 days ago and I have been very satisfied since.

https://screenrant.com/apple-watch-keeps-locking-fixed-solutions-settings-cleaning-explained/

If an Apple Watch is locking unexpectedly, then the most likely issue is the current settings. Specifically, the Wrist Detection feature might not be turned on or working as it should. To check this, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap 'Passcode,' and find the 'Wrist Detection' option at the bottom of the page. If the toggle is turned off, tap it to enable Wrist Detection. If Wrist Detection is already enabled, turn the feature off and back on again (mine was already enabled - cycling through disabled, and back to enabled was the magic ticket for me!).

It was touch & go for a little while there, but I love my Ultra now. Good luck

Hey, I am new to the apple watch ultra after making the leap from garmin now that there is a competitive alternative that also syncs with my apple universe (not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing!) I have very skinny wrists and also have tattoos so I was already combatting this issue with my garmin, my heart rate would never track unless I wore my watch on the underside of my wrist which has a bit more meat on it. I have gotten around this by having the garmin HRM pro to track my heart rate instead. I found with the apple watch ultra I was having major issues while running due to the 'wrist detection' feature. My runs would pause all the time and the watch would lock, initially I turned passcode off completely but that also leave you vulnerable if you lose your watch and disables the apple pay feature. I now keep my passcode on and have turned off 'wrist detection' (settings, passcode, scroll to the bottom and see wrist detection). Having wrist detection off disables features like sleep tracking and 'double tap' and fall detection alert but it is the best solution I have found so far. I do like to track my sleep so right before I go to bed I turn on wrist detection and then turn it off again when I get out of bed.

With the watch on your wrist swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center. Is the Lock icon on (Blue)? If yes, tap it to turn it off.

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!!

UPDATE: I have been wearing the band a little more on the loose side for the last two weeks and it hasn’t been locked in the morning. I think what was happening to me was my arm and hand would get into a position where my hand would push on both the side buttons and force a hard reset. Just a guess at this point but since I moved my band one notch looser it hasn’t locked overnight.

Issue was persisting for me even on this most recent OS release, watchOS 9.3.1. What seemingly worked for me was disabling 'Wake on Wrist Raise'. Afterward, the display would remain unlocked until I removed it from my wrist. Might not work for everyone, but I'd recommend giving it a shot.

well, all it took was about 17 phone calls and having the techs ask me to reboot my watch about 5 X. I then had to send it in for "diagnostics". Of course, they came back saying everything was fine.

I am now happy to report I think it's fixed. The ultimate fix seemed to be having Apple give me a new watch. I honestly think I just had a bad apple. Went on my first ride this morning and this was the first time it didn't brick up after 30-45 minutes. Time will tell.

Whether or not you wear the watch while sleeping is not the point. I was simply using that as an example of how it can happen.

If the watch is leaving marks on your arm, it is, in fact, too tight. The back of the watch is convex and will press into your arm. It has nothing to do with the sensors themselves.

I suspect that when you flex your wrist, it's moving the watch out of contact with your arm enough to lock it. Unless and until you can find a way to stop that, you'll continue to have this problem. Unfortunately, your individual anatomy and how you move are not things that Apple can solve.

Best of luck.

I have two Apple Watches, a series 6 and a newer series 7. Both locked up on my wrist. So I began troubleshooting and tried all I had seen online. Nothing helped. Then all of a sudden as I was going to bed I had both watches on and both locked up simultaneously! It was 11:00 PM my bedtime. I removed the Focus setups I had on my iPhone (both watches were paired with one iPhone) reset both watches and the next night they didn't lock up. Neither watch has locked up since. Problem solved. If anyone reads this and you are using Focus you might try my fix. Good Luck.

I have small tattoos on my wrist that my Watch SE had zero problems with, ever. My Ultra 2 only works if I wear it slightly forward, away from the small tattoo mark. Strange how an SE can deal with dark skin, but an Ultra 2 cannot.

Alright guys I have figured out what the problem is. At least for me.

I have the Ultra2 and had the exact same problem. First I thought it was because of my tattoo which many reported is a problem but it actually is the way you wear the watch on your wrist. It has to sit below the wrist bone so closer towards your hand and this has fixed the issue for me. However Apple still has to fix the software to solve that problem.

I have a sleeve tattoo on my left arm that affects the Apple Watch Ultra 2 so I wear it on my right arm. You can also turn passcode ON and wrist detection OFF. This will allow you to use Apple Pay but you won’t be able to use the double tap feature or get sleep data. It will just say time in bed. This is not unique to apple, my Garmin sensors also struggled with my tattoo but the Garmin is more a fitness watch then a smart watch. The garmin didn’t have Garmin pay or a passcode so it didn’t lock. I just used a HRM during exercise (which I also do with apple) so I could get accurate data.

I just had this issue crop up on my series 7. I found that on the control panel (which you get to by swiping up from the bottom of the watch) there is a setting for when you are wearing the watch to track sleep (represented by a half-moon icon) that somehow got turned on. Turning it off fixed the issue for me.

Thank you so much for the tip - worked for me too! My series 6 started locking on my wrist after an update. I’ve never had this issue before and none of the suggestions in this (nor several other discussion threads on the topic) helped, including unpaid and reset. However, turning off “wake on wrist raise” fixed it!!! Ridiculous solution, but whatever works 😀

Thanks again!