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My Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been acting sporadic

My watch went crazy today, flicking between different screens, typing its own texts, I couldn’t stop it or turn it off, had to just wait for battery to go flat to stop.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Feb 1, 2024 4:56 AM

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Posted on Feb 2, 2024 8:20 AM

I have the same issue! The watch went crazy, hopping from app to app. I took it off from my wrist and it looks like some one is trying to guess the password - trying different number combinations.

I’m not able to restart it. It looks like I have to wait until it runs out of battery.

119 replies

Feb 5, 2024 2:06 AM in response to Appleheadtommy

Same thing happened to me with the same watch (Ultra 2) and probably the same day. It was this Friday, the 2nd of February 2024 in between 20:30 and 21:00 (8:30 and 9:00PM) Central European Time (CET). The watch went crazy writing strange code and jumping from app to app. Took the watch off and it started entering pass codes (like someone trying to guess my passcode) until it got me a delay of 5 minutes. I turned it off. When on again I reset the watch with my phone. I then updated the Watch OS to the latest and also my phone iOS (Phone is 14 pro max). I was not doing any exercise or anything so moisture was not the problem. I was just sitting in front of my TV. Do you have more information about this?

Feb 18, 2024 6:51 AM in response to Gomba

This was a recent update bug.

If a forced restart does not fix it then reset the watch like this…


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.





Feb 2, 2024 3:35 PM in response to maarja888

My Ultra 2 was doing the same thing, jumping between apps, starting and stopping workouts and when I took the watch off my wrist it started entering pass codes on its own until it timed out for one minute then five minutes.

I put the watch on the charger while it was timed out and when I went to check it a few minutes later it was fine.

The watch went crazy while I was playing pickleball and sweating and I think the moisture on my wrist may have caused it to short out because once it was off my wrist and dry again it was fine.

Not very ultra if moisture caused the problem.

Mar 5, 2024 2:41 PM in response to montisrt

This was a recent update bug.

If a forced restart does not fix it then reset the watch like this…


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.

Feb 5, 2024 8:16 PM in response to Needhelpapplewatch222

Mine just woke me up out of a dead sleep at 5am (CET) buzzing like crazy (in Sleep Focus) and by the time I got my glasses on, I couldn't see what the **** it was notifying me about, but I also couldn't get the screen to respond to any attempts to tap on it, and it was going nuts jumping from app to app, like someone else was messing with it.


This is by far the weirdest Apple experience I have had.

Mar 20, 2024 6:13 PM in response to Needhelpapplewatch222

Ultra 2 49mm watch was possessed... straight up exorcist vibe. Obviously was locked out due to incorrect passwords and couldn't do anything on watch

Found this post and did the unpair (input Apple ID password), and then did the pair setup including restoring from backup worked. Hopefully for now.


Still have warranty service as I just bought this a couple months ago so wondering if this a physical issue with the watch that needs to be repaired?


Mar 30, 2024 5:33 PM in response to mikenjan1975

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 OS10.4

Feb 2, 2024 4:31 AM in response to Needhelpapplewatch222

My Ultra 2 was bouncing all over from app to app this morning. I finally shut it down and restarted it. It’s was back to semi-normal but I discovered that there were maybe 30 instances of timers running. I must have done something overnight sleeping pressing the side button or something. After the restart and closing all of the running timers, it seems to be normal.

Apr 1, 2024 9:30 AM in response to rockhuff

watchOS 10.4 includes new features, improvements and bug fixes, including:

  • Tap to Show Full Notification setting now allows you to double-tap to expand the notification
  • Using Apple Pay with Confirm with AssistiveTouch will require a passcode for additional security and will not support double-clicking the side button
  • Resolves an issue that causes some users to experience false touches on the display
  • Fixes an issue that prevents contacts from syncing to Apple Watch for some users

For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: Apple security releases - Apple Support


My Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been acting sporadic

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