My Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been acting sporadic

That’s what I did. Erase all settings and content but keep cellular plan. I restored from backup and all seems fine now. I did notice the latest update was waiting to be installed 🤷

Update:

I placed it on the charger and updated the software to 10.3.1. That fixed the bug. Not sure what caused it, but glad I did not have to hard reset.

Press the round button to reboot then upgrade iPhone and watch to latest OS.

Yes it is software. Yes OS10.4 fixed it

I have had literally the exact same issue just now on my 9. It even called the emergency services a couple of times. Eventually managed to force restart the watch. Seems to be okay now after a restart and I’m installing the latest watchOS 10.3.1 on it but fingers crossed.

I have just had the same issue just happened out of the blue! Thankfully came onto this site and found solution, had to re pair watch. Was about to set off to Apple shop 100 mile round trip so thanks for the help!

OS 10.3 had a bug. By not updating you have perpetuated the problem for too long.

Update your phone to iOS17.5 then your watch to OS10.5

Mine also went crazy and behave crazy. I was worried it was hacked as the watch on its own trying the password continuously every 1 minute. could not do anything.? Not sure what went wrong. I reset using the iPhone again and unpaired it.

Exactly what Trusthsayer says. You will need to do a reset as the phantom touch will enter in number on the unlock so you can't get in if the power reset doesn't work. I had to do a reset and am now back on the watch with the latest OS version.

My Ultra2 woke me after 2AM GMT, 9th April 2024. Multiple timer haptic alerts, jumping between screens and apps, and many watch made numeric passkey attempts. I too thought that it was an attempt to access phone/ watch data and remote access. Kept trying to get to the power off screen but with so many uninitiated screens and notifications of incorrect passkey attempts timers going, this was really difficult to get to. The numerous times that I managed to get to the power off screen, the power off button in the top right hand corner was 60-70% unresponsive. The few times I managed to get to the power off slider button on the following screen, it too was unresponsive. One of my main concerns, apart from stopping a precieved hacking attempt, was that the watch would multiple call the emergency services and/ or activate the siren on its own. Not a good scenario that early in the morning. I had around 55% battery when this started, so was concerned that this would not resolve until the battery died. I’d turned off the router WiFi, and mobile data and Bluetooth from the iPhone. Eventually managed to get the power off slider button to work to power off the Watch Ultra2 after 3AM, so well over an hour of lost sleep and unrequested middle of the night adrenaline input. Wonder what my sleep pattern looks like in the health app? This is my first Apple Watch and my first issue with the Ultra2, but it’s a big one. I’ve had Apple phones for years, they’ve all been trouble free, apart from some screen freezing on the iPhone 13. I have AppleCare + and called them first thing this morning. They said it sounded more hardware related so am taking the watch back this afternoon to an Apple Store. We’ll see what they have to say.

You’re welcome! Thanks for feeding back. Make sure you update to latest OS. Upvote and Downvote arrows are provided for your consideration

My ultra 2 also went crazy today. I do not think moisture or exercise was the source as far as I know, although maybe my having paused a workout contributed to it? Was just standing around waiting to pick up kid from school. The Digital Crown seems normal, but like the other posts, it will sometimes flick around to different apps, and does not really seem to respond to my touch anymore. Also tries entering wrong pass codes. I've tried restarting it, and after the "wait X more minutes" I think I've finally got it back to normal. Frustrating!

My Apple Watch 9 did this before my sleep focus (alarm) turned off to wake me this morning. I was already awake and tried to turn off the alarm on my watch when it started flipping out between apps then the watch was entering in random passwords. Finally I turned it off (pushing crown and side button) to restart it. When it came back on (I put it on the charger), it seems fine. Now I am waiting for the recent update to finish.

I read something about the "always on" feature potentially causing this problem. All I know it I have had 3 other AWs over the years and they never did this craziness. Apple needs to fix this issue.

This has happened to me twice now. Once last year right after buying the ultra 2, and once just now. I was just sitting here and all of a sudden saw a notification on my phone that I could type on my iPhone to dictate on my watch. I looked at my watch and it started freaking out clicking and swiping. I took it off my wrist and it started repeatedly trying passcodes. I got it to stop by putting it on the charger. This definitely seems like a hack. Come on now Apple I really don’t wanna start being paranoid about my data being leaked. My keychain has my passwords for literally everything

Brianscrapple wrote:

I tried that like ten times If the power button would come on it would disappear before I could press it or I pressed it while it was in the screen and it did nothing. Sometimes it would go to the slide to power off button but it wouldn't slide at all and then disappear! As I said I let it sit in my drawer until the watch battery died sometime today.

If you tried the standard reset a I describe it on the charger and it failed so many times, then I still suspect the hardware.

Apple Watch is not, and should never, be regarded as a medical device. If you have serious blood oxygen issues you should not rely on this watch, it was never accurate to better than 2% either way. It’s a non-medical indicator for normal people to suspect they may have a problem to be investigated, not a medical monitor for diagnosed people.