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

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.

Mine in the middle of the crazy act. Was so afraid I was being hacked. At the moment can’t get mine to force restart. Happy to hear it’s not just me, seriously unhappy so many people with this issue. Ugh

I had the exact same experience. I thought it would be difficult to explain, and that no one would believe me, even though I have video proof. The watch started by sending text messages to one of my recent contacts. Then, later, I noticed the timer running, even though I hadn’t started a timer. It went downhill from there. Screens started changing on their own. The screen wouldn’t respond to my touches, and when I tried to hold the off button, it launched into emergency mode. It called my emergency contacts and 911. I have had two separate episodes like this about 40 days apart. After the first, Apple had me delete and reload the watch as a new watch without my prior data. That didn’t fix it because it happened again. This watch needs to go. It scared my wife the second time because I was away on a road trip by myself at the time. She got an emergency call saying I needed help. This is not helpful.

I have just had the exact same thing!! my apple watch start spazzing out and i couldn’t do anything to stop it, it called emergency services and then started messaging my emergency contacts i’ve been in an accident, when my Nan has just had a massive stroke and my parents are in the hospital with her!!! Talk about bloody timing, i’m absolutely fuming, it’s also locked itself and i can’t seem to do anything with it now. My old apple watch was perfect, never had a problem with it.

I updated mine in Jan 2024, and it has malfunctioned every day since. Contacted and spent 10+ hours with CS-Tech support. Restarts, resets, unpairing fixed it for a couple days, then back to where we started. Workout mode was super functional until the update. Now, it jumps to laps, segments and other function but won’t tell me distance at a glance. Finally, replaced it with a Garmin.

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I have been having the same issues with my watch. Texting weird things, trying to open up all my apps, calling 911, and then trying multiple passwords and locking me out of my watch for hours.

I downloaded the new software update and it still has issues. My watch was sitting on the charger and then I get a phone call from my kids stating they got an emergency sos text from me. I eventually took it off the charger and turned it off. Not sure what to do now.

jsalzer wrote:

For everyone that responds trying to downplay play this “bug” it isn’t helping.

I'm not downplaying anything; just being realistic. If something goes wrong only once, there's almost nothing you (or anyone else) can do about it. If it happens more than once, have Apple run diagnostics.

Apple doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your observations here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Lunglover wrote:

Agree 10.4 did not fix the issue. Mine just went crazy.

If 10.4 did not fix it then suspect a damaged digitiser.

Click here > Contact - Official Apple Support  or phone numbers Click here > Contact Apple for support and service - Apple 

Hold down the crown button and side button together for about 10 seconds u til you see the Apple logo. Doing that fixed mine

Os10.4 resolved the bug which appeared on series 9 and Ultra 2.

Mine is doing the same thing

Still on IS10.3? If so then yes the bug is definitely still there

Agree 10.4 did not fix the issue. Mine just went crazy.

popeye2046 wrote:

same here. after that I upgraded to iso 10.4. hopefully the bug can be fixed.

By updating to 10.4 the specific bug that gives multiple taps will have been fixied.

No.

Mine did it for the first time (as reported somewhere in this long ticket) a week or two AFTER updating to 10.4