Apple Watch Ultra locking while on wrist

Try a restart

Restart your Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK)

I spoke to another Apple support rep. Their engineers are aware of the issue, and are going to address it in a future OS release.

Well, it looks like I might finally have an answer to why my Apple Watch constantly locks. I DO have wrist tattoos, and this is the first time I've heard of that being problematic.

Here guys Apple really care about us after weeks this is the answer for the problem.

“Wrist detection on Apple Watch can affect reliable readings if there is a tattoo on the wrist or other changes to the skin. So a temporary workaround to this would of course be to use it on another wrist”

Trinitystehno wrote:

What does having tattoos have to do w it? Because my watch started doing the same thing right after getting my forearm and wrist tattooed. I took it off for two weeks while my tattoo healed and when I put it back on, it’s been locking itself, pausing my workouts, and not receiving notifications

The ink in the tattoo blocks the sensors. This is an issue that has been known since Apple Watches (and similar devices such as FitBits) have been in existence. See this article for some additional information:

https://www.theverge.com/23567992/wearable-tech-tattoos-fitness-tracking-how-to

My first guess is that it's too loose on your wrist. The second possiblity is that you're wearing it to close to your hand and when you flex your wrist, it moves. Or both. I wear my watch to bed and, sometimes find it locked in the morning because of how I move around at night.

You might consider trying to wear it on your other wrist. It would certainly take some getting used to but, it's possible it would do the trick.

I just bought one a week ago and it always does this to me. I had no idea that tattoos could affect the operation of the wrist detection - had I known that, I wouldn't have purchased the watch. BUT, it is VERY irritating as I want to use the watch with my apple pay and having to turn off the passcode feature kind of defeats a lot of the purpose of the watch itself.

I have this issue after I updated to watchOS 9.6. There were no physical damage to the watch though.it popped up all of a sudden one day after the recent O.S. Update. Initially, the watch remained locked when I entered the passcode prompt while wrist but the frequency of prompts increased gradually and now the watch is unusable with passcode on. I've tried all the possible fixes mentioned online and in apple forum.

Now my watch doesn't track heart rate, stops tracking while doing a workout, no sleep data, literally nothing is tracked these days. I have already turned off passcode as a work around for this problem and I've already compromised with my security. On top of all this, I've lost most of the features of the apple watch already. 

Yes my ultra watch was locking up every 10

seconds! So aggravating! Apple Store sent it off 3 times and it came back within 48hrs saying “couldn’t duplicate issue” although the Apple Store clerk could easily duplicate it!! I had to demand a new watch since it was 6 months old! So far new watch has no issues.

Well went to Apple. They’re no help. One person says it’s not tattoos as the sensors read vitals not skin and another said the ink in tattoos is the problem as the new technology is more sensitive. Really can’t believe Apples inconsistency on this and I can’t believe they’d make a watch that would be hindered in such a way by a tattoo. How many trainers have sleeves. This is incredibly frustrating when you consider the money spent on these devices.

RayFinkle32 wrote:

Yes my ultra watch has worked just fine. Got a tattoo on that same arm to include the wrist and now it’s locking me out it seems like every 30 seconds. It’s getting aggravating.

Tattoos are a known issue and have been since the first Apple Watch. Other devices (e.g. Fitbits) have the same problem. The watch's sensors use color to detect things like heart rate and to enable wrist detection. Consider wearing the watch on your other wist.

The fact is the ultra 2 does NOT work with tattoos. Period. Apple just chooses to ignore it. Wearing it super tight helps a little but I have to slide it to a perfect spot above a certain part of the ink or it’s a no go. Too many times it locks in a workout and it pusses me off. For all that **** money and they keep blowing me off. Never buying that again. I might just go to another brand for my workout watches anyway.

I must have missed you have tattoos? And Apple specifically suggests the sensors may not work as intended with tattoos. I'm not sure any manufacturer has a watch with sensors, which works reliably with tattoos. That's not Apple's fault you chose to tattoo where you wear a watch which is designed to work with sensors which use light (IR) to do their job.

The older generation sensor on the SE are less sensitive. The newer sensors are more accurate and not as easy to trick. The answer is remove the tattoos or wear on the other wrist if possible. Apple can’t change the Laws of Physics to fix an issue the user created. There was nothing ever to solve. It only makes sense that tattoos would block light.😀

Fix what software for what? Apple will tell you the way you’re wearing your Watch is incorrect and will affect accuracy of readings. The Watch is to be worn above the wrist bone, towards the elbow, not the hand.

Wearing your Apple Watch - Apple Support