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

For everyone that responds trying to downplay play this “bug” it isn’t helping. While I can understand a bug where an app crashes, or something that used to work doesn’t anymore. But to have your watch go crazy to the point where it texts people on its own, is just flat out unacceptable. The worst part is that it is illegal to call 911 and 90% of this “bug” has resulted in the watch calling 911. Mine did that and I had some explaining to do to the 911 dispatcher. She didn’t really seem to buy the “my watch dialed on its own” story. Apple needs to look into this. I’ve owned apple

products for years, have the entire Apple echo system. This is just the worst issue I’ve ever seen. Not cool.

I also had similar problems last night. it was a bit scary. luckily no emergency number was called. latest update installed, hard reset performed, icloud password and privacy settings reset performed. I hope Apple has an explanation for this issue or is conducting an investigation into this behavior.

3/15/2024

Just as described above my watch was acting crazy as if someone is trying to hack. I just hard reboot as recommended seems to have worked.

I have had my Apple Watch Series 9 since early November 2023, and this has now happened twice to me. Previously I had my Series 2 for almost 8 years, with no problems at all other than the battery and being unable to update the software, due to how old it was. I am deeply disappointed with this glitch but pleased to see I am not the only one. Apple @Apple I hope you fix this, or do a re-call on these Watches.

I have commented a couple of times, same exact issue a few weeks ago. I truly feel EVERYONE that had this issue NEEDS to contact Apple. Yes, they’re going to do a diagnostic test, but if they hear from enough people perhaps they’ll look into this. Thank God it hasn’t happened again, but I fear it will. It’s extremely scary when you can’t control your watch. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Same problem - particularly concerning as it attempts to call emergency services! very dangerous

It should be APPLE POLICY to immediately post on streams like this to clarify:

(a) They are aware of the problem.

(b) Explain what the issue is.

(c) What a temporary solution is (if any)

(d) When a permanent solution will be available.

Thoroughly disappointed in Apples deafening silence on support issues.

OMG! You're the only other person whose story started off just like mine! Mine also started with my watch vibrating from a timer that had gone off that I didn't set. I tried to turn it off but it wouldn't let me. Mine was unlocked which was the main difference here. No one talks about the timer thing happening to them. The timer thing must mean that the watch was glitching out many minutes before you even notice because if it was setting all of those timers, who knows what else it was doing under your sleeve! I also had to hard reset mine and I didn't realize I could do it by holding down the crown and side button until trying for over a minute. I originally tried to hold down just side button to open the menu where it just shows SOS or power off button. I managed to open it but the screen was unresponsive so it wouldn't click the power button. I got so scared thinking my watch was a goner at first because I didn't know it had the option to perform a hard reset. I'm so thankful that Apple incorporated this option as it helps you when you really need it. I was worried I would have to wait for it to die!

My Apple Watch went crazy like that today. It was like it was possessed or hacked- opening and closing apps, deleting notifications, opening Apple Pay (that was particularly concerning), entering passcode numbers incessantly. Causing music to play loudly. It finally ended up calling 911 and when I apologized to the operator and explained it was my Apple Watch, she was so nice and acted as if she was familiar with the problem. I was finally able to do a hard reset but it wasn’t at all easy- I had to try multiple times - it did help to put it on the charger for a while first. After I did the reset, it notified me there was an update available. Also hours before this happened I had updated my iPhone to 17.4.1 and had not restarted my watch after that so that might have been part of the issue. It was a very stressful experience. Why hasn’t Apple fixed this?

Rumour has it that this can affect watches other than U2 and S9.

So continue doing a forced restart and wait for the next update, although 10.4 was supposed to be the fix.

Forced Restart. Hold in Crown and Side button together til Apple Logo appears then release.

Put Apple Watch on its charger.

Press and hold the side button until you see the screen with the power button in the upper-right corner, then let go of the side button. If your Apple Watch has an earlier version of watchOS, you see the Power Off slider instead of the power button.

Press and hold the Digital Crown until you see the red Reset button.

Tap Reset, then tap Reset again to confirm. 

After Apple Watch unpairs completely, you can pair again. Remember that you'll need the Apple ID and password that were used to set up the watch. Set up as New Watch.

update to os 10.4

Same here. Ultra 2 developed a mind of its own, had a hissy fit and tried to play with every app it could find. Found this thread and did a hard reset. All ok now. What on earth happened there?!

Hello everyone, just came across this thread on 2/2/2024. Mine started with me clicking the button on the side to see battery level and suddenly I see passcode entering on its own, apps opening and switching, entries I never made happening on the watch. I started off with wiping the underside with a clean soft cloth. Next I took off the protective cover and band which got me down to just the watch itself. The behavior continued which brought me to support. I will try putting it on the charger and see what happens. Really starting to get tired of paying Apple money and getting subpar software.

This happened to me also with my Ultra. In the middle of the night it started multiple timers as it switched back and forth running different apps. I also took it off to stop it accessing apps and got locked out for hours. Luckily no 911 call. By morning it had drained itself and went in to power save mode. I powered it off, and restarted it and put it on the charger. I’m still locked out. I had a series 2 for many years, never had anything like this.

Me too! This is the second time this has happened to me in the past 6 months. This time the timer started, I tried to stop it and screen went crazy, flashing really fast. I tried pressing the crown. Then siren sound and it called 911. There was no way to cancel it. I told the operator my watch went crazy. She replied….no problem. After calling 911, I pressed the crown and the phone acted normal. I did a reboot anyway.

By the way, this was at 2:15am. I had just returned from restroom. Now I am wide awake.

I just saw there is a watch update so I am installing that now. I’ll reboot again after the update as a previous poster recommended. Hopefully after that I can go back to sleep. I’ll call Apple Support Monday.

This just happened to me today. My watch went completely berserk. I was in the kitchen reading the mail, had my watch on but wasn’t touching it at all. It sent SOS alerts to my emergency contacts, sounded the emergency alarm, was zooming through/opening all of my apps, wouldn’t respond to touch (I tried to stop the emergency call), and then my screen locked and the passcode screen was literally entering/punching numbers in on its own. I thought my watches had been hacked and taken over remotely. I was able to get a few seconds of the passcode screen/numbers being entered but outside of that, I was too distracted to capture more of the issue because I was trying to stop my watch from calling emergency services and sending SOS messages.