Cannot switch Apple Watch faces after 10.0.1 update

THAROOZ wrote:

How on earth can you like it more now?? Before you could easily swipe to change face. Without causing any issue.

Yes, there was an issue. It was easy to change accidentally. I hate that.

And now you have to press and hold instead. Btw press and hold to swipe was possible even before. But to disable swiping makes it harder to change faces.

Yes, it does make it harder. That's a good thing in my opinion.

THAROOZ wrote:

I see. But would it not make sense to bring back the easy switch faces by swiping as an optional feature which could be activated or deactivated? In this case they would serve both sides.. the light and the dark ;)

Apple has a long history of being cautious, sometimes even unwilling to add lots of options. Whether it's because they don't want to clutter the interface or because they don't want to make things confusing or for some other reason is something only Apple would know.

I have a similar issue with my Apple Watch Series 7 since upgrading to watchOS 10.0. Had contacted Apple Support who could not solve it either. However, on pairing the watch with a different iPhone connected to a different iCloud account solved the issue.

Prima facie, it appears to have something to do with my Apple Watch backups on iCloud but don’t know the root cause yet or the resolution. Deleting some old Apple Watch backups from iCloud had temporarily caused some of the new watch faces to reappear and since then it has been a game of hide and seek with watch faces for me.

jtreiber wrote:

Bad design choice to eliminate slide only watch face change. Why??!?

Most likely because the users that had problems with the watch face switching accidentally, and they did not know how to put it back, calling Apple Support or visiting the Apple Store Genius bars and complaining.

While no one that was happy with the old swipe left & right did not call Apple Support, nor visit the Genius bars and tell them how happy they were with the swipe left and right interface.

The loudest voice wins. You were a member of the "Silent Majority" 🤫

Yes - this! I requested the feature be returned. Limited screen real estate and complications is a real draw back with out the ability to quickly switch faces. This feature should at least have a toggle to enable.

I have 3 watch faces that I use in different situations, and I switch between 2 of them multiple times a day. This change is irritating. I don't want to Edit my watch faces, I just want to swap between them quickly (with a swipe).

I've already submitted feedback to Apple.

I have no idea why they would remove this feature.

Yes, I understand that I don't have to edit anything.

But I don't understand why I have to press and hold to go to the edit face interface in order to switch to another face. It's an unnecessary step which increases the time spent doing this simple action by an order of magnitude (maybe more).

Updates to the OS should make things MORE convenient, not less.

I agree. We all understand the new way to switch faces. And if it was a problem for some people the option to press to change faces makes sense.

However Iv had my watch since 2018 and used multiple faces throughout the day.

like no longer being able to swipe up to access the control center this should have been an option for those who want it.

My wife returned her new Apple Watch (which only works on WatchOS 10) after realizing that she couldn't swipe left / right. She and I are not updating to WatchOS 10 because of this specific reason.

I understand Apple is trying to address the accidental swipe problem, but many others actually see this easy swipe-left/right as a nice feature. At least give users the ability to choose either option, please.

this is DUMBBBB. Apple you know better than this. Many users have faces with different complications that we use throughout the day. You know... cuz you won't let us TRULY customize the faces, we have to use a limited number and design set by Apple. Not being able to simply swipe between faces is incredibly dumb and its seriously making me think of switching to a freakin' pixel watch whenever this one dies.

I’m very frustrated with this change. I designed my watch faces to be able to switch quickly while taking care of kids, cooking, biking, working out… having to press and hold is actually unsafe for some of my uses.

So disappointing that they took the option away instead of leaving the choice.

I hate it, and this is less of a useful device for me now.

Not recommending it anymore. Not when you can’t rely on it to function as you need it to from update to update.

This seems to be typical of Apple. Give us tons of features that no one actually wants, but don’t check in before removing features we actually need. (Laptop ports, ability to control iPhone interface layout, etc)

Gelaine wrote:

I did, but that’s not guaranteed to do anything,

No, it's not. That's true.

and I’m sure they will see this too.

No, they won't. Apple doesn't read these user-to-user forums for feedback or suggestions.

If I’m going to continue using this device, it needs to change quickly.

Already shopping…

Always use the tool that best meets your needs.

faufcb wrote:

Thanks for the link, I just sent a feedback. That's a really bad change. Why add an extra step to changing the faces?

Probably because lots of people complained about accidentally changing faces.

It is extremely annoying that the swipe to change watch faces feature has been removed. I hope Apple sees all of these complaints and makes a feature in setting to allow people the option to go back to swiping.

faufcb wrote:

Well, that's the point of having faces, to begin with. They made a good functionality worse for no apparent reason, as this wouldn't affect ppl like you, who never used it, but affects who does.

I suspect that people like me, who were annoyed by the accidental changes, are probably in the majority.