Watch OS 27 Broke Gestures

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Level 1

6 points

Watch OS 27 Broke Gestures

I recently updated to Watch OS 27 and gesture control is completely broken. I can't activate or use it all. I've already restarted my watch twice with no change. Is there a solution to this? This seems like a huge oversight for a "stable" release. Single Tap, Double Tap, Single Clench and Double Clench, none of it registers on my watch or does anything. I might as well not be doing gestures at all. I use these to control my smart home so losing this feature is a big dip in functionality for me.

Apple Watch Series 11

Posted on Sep 18, 2026 9:39 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

IdrisSeabright

Community+ 2026

Level 10

199,611 points

Sep 18, 2026 11:21 AM in response to kmeyer1212

Did you check to make sure that Assistive Touch is still enabled in the Watch App>Accessibility>Assistive Touch?

Use AssistiveTouch on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 2

kmeyer1212 Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 22, 2026 8:45 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

That is a good catch- I did have it on when it was initially working but it looks like it was disabled again somehow. Once enabled, it started working again. I do want to note- I gave it a few days for testing. Almost every day, my watch seems to re-disable Assistive Touch for some reason. So each time, I need to go in and re-enable it and it seems to work again until it gets disabled again. I'm still trying to determine root cause. Thanks for the reply!

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Answer 3

Sep 22, 2026 8:51 AM in response to kmeyer1212

That's weird. Have you tried unpairing and re-pairing the watch?

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Answer 4

kmeyer1212 Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 30, 2026 1:59 PM in response to kmeyer1212

It's been about a week- It was working after re-pairing for a day or so, now every morning, I get a notification that gestures must be turned off in order for assistive touch to work. I click confirm on that notification and then everything works. It's little annoying that this happens each morning but at least it works I guess. I've updated to watchOS 27.0.1 and I'm still seeing the same behavior. I'm mainly posting here so that it gets visibility and hopefully addressed in an update.

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Answer 5

Oct 6, 2026 12:46 PM in response to kmeyer1212

kmeyer1212 wrote:

I'm mainly posting here so that it gets visibility and hopefully addressed in an update.

Apple doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions. I you want Apple to see it, use the feedback page:

Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 6

Sep 25, 2026 8:25 AM in response to kmeyer1212

kmeyer1212 wrote:

I was hoping I could avoid that, but did it and it's been working the last few days. Hopefully it's resolved now. Thanks for the help!

Honestly, unpairing and re-pairing really doesn't take very long most times. I'm glad it seems to have resolved your issue.

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Answer 7

kmeyer1212 Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 25, 2026 8:14 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

I was hoping I could avoid that, but did it and it's been working the last few days. Hopefully it's resolved now. Thanks for the help!

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