My Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been acting sporadic

My U2 ultra also went nuts today at about noon my time in Utah. It’s bouncing around going from one app to the other and now it’s telling me I can’t do anything to it because I don’t know the password because it says I keep putting in the wrong password and it goes up and up, in the time it makes me wait before I can put it in the proper password if it even knows what the password is if I’m correct or if it thinks I’m nuts. Why did I have the note on one of your replies that says your two should be fine does that mean after I’ve gone to the procedure that shouldn’t have happened in the first place or it’s fine and I shouldn’t have had this problem, which doesn’t help me in the least bit, please answer this. I think I’m paying money for this tech-support so it’s better if you call me.

So my phone said I needed the new update but the watch showed it as being up to date. After playing with it for over an hour-turning on and off, pairing and unpairing it finally said that it was up to date on both. Not sure why the auto update never works. No more issues today.

I was able to fix mine by first restarting the watch by holding the two button on the right side of the case in until the Apple logo appears. Then it made me wait 5 minutes to input my passcode. After doing so it seemed ok, but I did notice that I had not updated my watch from 10.3 to 10.4. In order to do so I had to update my iPhone's software. then I was able to update the watch to 10.4. Everything seems to be rosy now. Hope this helps.

My watch did this twice. Reboot it. Press and hold the crown button and side button beside it for 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears. Apple has addressed this issue with a software update as well. Update to version 10.4. You may need to update your phone OS as well to update the watch OS

I have had a similar problem. You would think that Apple could send users an alert that this issue is occurring with a link on how to remediate the problem... especially since it seems to be happening quite a lot. I have had a problem with count down timers popping up over and over. It only happens when I am physically working on something and I thought it was the back of my hand hitting a button... Apparently not. This last time after I deleted 2 dozen or so timers the passcode issue started and eventually put my Ultra 2 into 15 min of timeout. I was concerned about the problem and came here. After reading through the comments I decided to delete the watch and reset to factory setting and start all over again using the Watch App on my iPhone. This took quite a while, as updates to phone and watch were needed... but in the end it seems to be working fine now. This is super frustrating though and disappointing that Apple knows there is a problem and does little to let it's customers know it may happen or how to fix it.

I had a really strange experience on the evening of April 1, 2024. While I was at the office, my watch started acting up in the weirdest way! It was jumping from app to app, setting countdown timers, going off with alarms, and even using random numbers as a passkey multiple times until it required a 60-minute wait to unlock. I thought my watch had been hacked because it wouldn't even let me turn it off. I attempted a hard reset by holding down the dial and side button for 10 seconds, but it just restarted immediately. It was a very unsettling experience.

I’ve had exactly the same problem with my Ultra2. It is a bug that Apple have acknowledged in IOS 10.3. You just need to place your watch on the charger and upgrade the software to 10.4. You don’t need to reinstall or unpair. Once upgraded, if you’ve been locked out of your phone, just wait until the period ends, re-enter your password and it will then operate as normal. This has worked for me (on April 2, 2024).

This just happened to me and I am 10.3.1. I wish I had seen the don't take the watch off note before I started trying to troubleshoot this issue. I am locked out for 1 hour since it wouldn't let me put in a specific number for the passcode. Resetting it now just to be able to update the version to 10.4. Not a great experience.

I had the same issue I was at a friends house and all of a sudden my I watch ultra two turned into the exorcist. I thought somebody was remotely controlling my hand. I was finally able to turn the watch off and turn it on again and I did the latest update, so far so good. I talked with Apple support and they said maybe it was a way for them to tell us we have to update our software on our products. 🤔🤔

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 UW2 freaked like this tonight. Started a ton of timers, looked like someone was trying to guess passcode, opened a bunch of apps and then locked itself (and me) out. Managed to re-boot and then had to wait until the lock timeout passed. After that, re-booted again and so far, seems ok. What the heck happened???

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!

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.

Good evening,

On Friday, April 12, 2024, at approximately 5:15 pm, my Apple Ultra watch started having convulsions. It started rapidly blinking in and out, flashing off and on, and not responding to any of my commands. The call I was on, "witch" was life threatening because one of my officers was just in a major accident, disconnected me from the call. It's been well over an hour now and its trying to input a password. I can't stop it! If memory serves me correctly, it started a 5 mins and started counting down. I took it off to attempt to input the correct code and it stepped on the gas looking for another code. Now I have to wait 15 mins. 30 mins. Every time "it" puts in the wrong code, it adds more time and starts counting down. Now its at a full 60 mins. I've attempted several solutions given by the community but to no avail. I'll wait until the battery dies then try. If it persist, I'll have NO CHOICE but to go to the Apple store. I don't have time for this. I literally just became an Apple customer in January.

I had the same problem with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 today. Thanks to the information in this forum, I was able to hard-reboot and recover, but how can I trust it won't happen again in the future!? 

I am very disappointed by Apple, bugs like this shouldn't be happening. Where is the QA in this company? Why push such ****** code to production as a tested update!?

Someone must get fired for this!!!