My Apple Watch 9 is acting weird - Is this a bug?

I’m very curious what they’ll tell you at Apple. Mine has been fine, thank God, though my iPhone 13 Pro was also going crazy at the same time! I contacted them and they did diagnostic tests. I’ve strongly recommended everyone call as they must fix this.

Mine just started doing this. Jumping around from app to app, then started a “walk” I couldn’t shut off, changed the watch face and when I tried to unlock it, it entered random numbers. Then locked me out. It’s a series 9 purchased on Cyber Monday 2023. 🤬

My watch did the exact same thing yesterday. Called 911 and all my SOS contacts. Screen flashing and going berserk. I made an appt at the Apple Store this morning. The associate acted like he had no idea what I was talking about and that there was nothing they could do bc I didn’t have evidence of the problem. When I said I was scared to wear the watch, he acted like it was no big deal and said “why”…. Ummm bc I just told you it called 911! Not a good experience with Apple on this one at all. This is a 9 bought at the Apple Store last Fall, up to date on software. He said I could not trade or return it, ran no diagnostic test. Feels like a scam when a few months in, an expensive watch has this issue and the manufacturer won’t acknowledge it.

My Ultra II purchased in December, did the same thing tonight. I never had trouble before. Earlier in the day it dialed a number (not the last number I called). I tried to enter my password and couldn't, the screen went a bit crazy and then it seemed to work okay.

Tonight, it again dialed the number it had dialed earlier and then tried to enter 77777 for the password. The screen was unresponsive and appeared to be going crazy. The siren went off (thankfully not super loud) and wouldn't stop. I couldn't do anything and it kept telling me to try the password in 5 min, 10 min, 15 minutes...all the while the siren was going off.

Finally, someone told me how to do a hard reboot and it seems fixed. Concerned...

Just happened to me on April 3. No 911 call thankfully. I did the hard reboot and have it on a charger. I'm now waiting for the hour delay that the watch trying to put in 900 wrong pass codes got me to see if it is working normal again. I know I am not up to 10.4 yet so that will be the first thing I do if it is working. I did notice that when I tried to go to the watch app on the phone the phone no longer saw the watch so I'm not sure if it unpaired itself or not. This is a series 9 less than 4 months old.

I'm back. I took my Watch Series 9 into the Apple Store yesterday and the tech at the Genius Bar couldn't get it to reset, either, in order to install the 10.4 software. The store manager said she should send it in to Apple so that they could ensure the hardware was working properly. So, drop off on April 2, it's scheduled to be returned by mail on April 9. She said if they can't fix it, they'll replace it with a new one. I have Apple Care, so no charge.

My Apple Watch Ultra 9 brand new bought February 2024 is having a siezure and I have clue why. It kept putting passwords on its own and locked my out for like 20 minutes. Did a hard reset and still nothing. Any suggestions ?

My watch won’t stop demanding a passcode. After it was going crazy it said I had to wait an hour to put in the passcode. When an hour was up my watch buzzed and went to put in the passcode and now it tells me I have to wait 8 hours to put in the passcode. Ila hard restart won’t make this stop. Do I let the battery die, then recharge it or do I charge it and see if it lets me put in the passcode. Unfortunately I don’t think after 8 hours it will allow me to put in my passcode. The time may just keep going up exponentially. I thought my watch was up to date with updates.

hey, I’m sorry to hear about your Apple Watch. Nine acting acting weird mine did the exact same thing yesterday and the day before yesterday and here’s what I said sorry here’s what I did after you know, struggling with all of the issues that you went through I did a major reset hard reset the first time you did not fix it second time did not fix it third time I had to wait I don’t know for like 20 minutes to be able to 25 minutes and still did the whole random password entering thing and then I did a hard reset again but this time I plugged it on the charger so I did the hard reset and immediately put it on the charger and that seems to have fixed the issue the second point is this if you submerge your watch in water if you do like swim regularly like I do, I think you should also make sure that you eject the residues of the water consistently. I hope that helps has.

My Ultra Just did the same thing. It was like someone took over my watch in the middle of a critical meeting. As I tried to stop it it locked me out. As soon as the lockout time was over, it started again. And Again, and again. Now I am locked out for 3 hours and I had a chance to come read something on it. I have tried the reset, I guess I will find out in 3 more hours. Very frustrating and somewhat embarrassing in the middle of a meeting I was leading.

This happened to me today with my series 9 I got for Valentine’s Day 2024. I attempted to turn it off during the episode and it ended up calling 911. Twice. My emergency contacts were notified via text and if that isn’t embarrassing enough, it called and texted MY BOSS three times. Once I took the watch off it went to the Lock Screen and it was disabled for 1 minute because of the incorrect passcodes it continued to enter. I think that’s when I finally got it to stop. I turned it off for a few hours after that. I am scared this is going to happen again. Hoping Apple will acknowledge the issue and fix it!

I did a hard reboot by pressing the crown and power button together then once the screen went dark I immediately placed the watch on its charger. For me it wouldn’t get past the wrong passcode screen asking me to wait 8 hours. Prior to this it was one hour. It never allowed me the opportunity to put my passcode in. I was at the gym and prior to that when the watch went crazy I was at work. Someone in this forum replied and explained to hard reboot. They also said to wipe abs reset the watch as if it was bee but I would need information from it to get it back. The post was long and you may find it in here. I did not wipe the phone and start from scratch (I was not sure if what I needed to get the watch watch back) but I did upload to the newest versions available for the phone, watch and iPad. Also the next day the watch seemed fine. I still uploaded the newest version later the next day. All day prior to before uploading the watch was fine.

This exact same thing happened to me yesterday with my Ultra 2. And to boot, I was attending a play when it happened. Among the many crazy things it was doing, it had my phone ring the audible locator jingle, which I couldn’t stop. I was horrified!

I’ve done the hard reboot which stops the watch doing haywire things. However, any time I look down at the watch, rather than the normal face appearing, it has some random app open, most often the compass.

I have automatic software updates turned on on both my watch and iPhone, but when I just checked today, they both hadn’t actually updated. So I’m doing the updates and hope the crazy behavior is now a thing of the past.

My series 9 did this today. (Sat 6/4/2024 Australia).

Went crazy opening apps, clicking emojis in messenger apps etc.

It rang 000 (emergency number in Australia… very embarrassing, I was able to talk and say I wasn’t in trouble luckily), then it messaged and called my husband.

It started making all kinds of noises.

Phone and Siri could not shut it down.

It started adding passcodes and blocked itself 1 min… then 3 mins… I was nervous it would lock itself and me out! It got faster and faster.

Hard reboot on watch wouldn’t work but I finally had luck wiping it completely from my watch app on my phone.

I had to set it all up again.

Watch was purchased in Nov 23 directly from Apple Aust. Website.

Same type of experience, with the Ultra. At night time, it just decided to jump between apps, showed a black screen with a message with emojis; then it seemed to lock itself out as it said 'wait one hour for passkey input' (or something). Like it was hacked. I did a reboot and we will see what happens. Next time I'll get a screen shot of the alien message.