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Level 1

24 points

Serious issue with wrist detection, stand time and unlock (not tattoo related)

I own the 42mm stainless steel Apple Watch.

While everything was fine on its first day of usage, things started to go wrong on day two. I noticed the following problems and believe, all of them might be related to one root cause: Apple Watech no longer recognizes it's on my wrist:

- Passcode unlock while on my wrist does not work. The Watch keeps locking.

- Stand time is consistently reported as zero, though I stand a lot.

- When starting a no goal walk in Workout app, the clock pauses after a few seconds, though I keep moving.

- Notifications get reported by the haptic engine only occasionally and in general, notifications seem unreliable.

I have seen numerous threads here and elsewhere, reporting either a single of the above problems or even multiple like in my case. In almost all cases, wirst detection seems to have stopped working.

I'd like to add that I don't have any tattoos and can report that the problem sticks when my Watch is worn by my wife or friends. This might hint at a hardware level (sensor) problem.

While I understand it's very early in the product live cycle, I'd appreciate if Apple could comment with clear steps to troubleshoot. Resetting, repairing, switching off and on, does not resolve the prohlem.

I hope that somebody from Apple jumps in and helps tracking down the root cause.

Meanwhile, if you experience ANY of the above problems, could you check whether you also see the other ones I've reported. I'd lIke to find out whether my theory of failing wrist detection as the root cause for ALL of the above might make sense. Please report as a response to this post. Thanks!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on May 3, 2015 1:07 PM

36 replies

Jan 25, 2016 5:35 AM in response to BeSharp

Hey,

I am having identical issues on the Sport 38mm and have tried ever software reset repair I can. The technical guys want to reinstall the WatchOS but I am worried that if it is a hardware issue I must ask for new device as this one is seriously faulty.

I will try to update once I have had the technical session but will show them this tread.

Jan 25, 2016 6:08 AM in response to Mike FromSA

If you can may an appointment at apple store .

Cheers

Brian

Adwiz

Level 1

60 points

Jan 25, 2016 12:25 PM in response to likeafox24

I thought I'd chime in here rather than start a new thread. I've had the 42mm stainless for just over a month and twice now my wrist detection has also failed. Yesterday it didn't work from first thing in the morning until I put it back on this morning, when wrist detection mysteriously started working again. All day it didn't work at all, even after two reboots of the watch. Tapping worked fine but wrist detection didn't work at all, no matter how I raised my wrist. Even violent wrist movement had no effect. I turned off wrist detection, rebooted the watch, turned wrist detection back on and rebooted again and it still didn't solve the problem. But when I put the watch on this morning it worked just as normal. Very strange and makes me extremely nervous because it suggests a hardware problem with the accelerometer. Unfortunately I can't see how they could ever reproduce the problem since it's obviously a very random thing. But I don't want to end up at the warranty expiration only to have this become an ongoing issue. Have made a genius bar appointment and will see what they say about it.

Mr.Hyy

Level 1

4 points

Jun 9, 2016 11:15 AM in response to BeSharp

I live in Italy and i have the same exact problem here but they don't want to do anything!! When i took it for the first time at my local Apple Store they sent it for a check by their technicians. They did a diagnostic test but they couldn't find anything wrong so they sent it back and refused a repair. Went back the same day at the Apple Store for another Genius Bar appointment and the guy told me to wait for a software update because they can't do anything about it. This problem is ******* me off because i've already updated x2 times my firmware and the problem happened to be in all three versions. Now i found out that if i turn off the locking code and turn on wrist detection i don't get any notifications, that means the watch can't detect my wrist and if i turn off wrist detection i sometimes get notifications on my watch even though i am not wearing it! Very disappointed here with the support and very unlucky since i don't live in America or England i can't link in any way the Italians technicians in this post, they won't understand a word or even take some time to translate in order to assists a random guy. Stuck here with a broken expensive watch still in warranty and can't do anything, help! What should i do? Should i return the watch and buy a new one? I didn't even bought it at the Apple Store..

Sep 28, 2016 2:11 PM in response to likeafox24

Hi,

I got an Apple Watch about a month ago (here in Brazil), and have been dealing with this issue for the last 3 or 4 days. Several restores later, I decided to try something today: completely turning off the Hear Rate Sensor, in the privacy settings (on the phone Watch app: Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Heart Rate). BTW, I'm running OS 3.0. For the last few hours, Wrist Detection has been playing nicely.

After checking a weird looking log on the Health app (Heart Rate readings registered in the last few days seem to be too "neutral/bland", starting around the time the Wrist Detection issue started bugging me), my suspicion is that there is some kind of "short circuit" that turns off Wrist Detection when the Heart Rate sensor tries to perform one of its regular readings throughout the day - not manually triggered/during workouts. It seems the defective watches can only have either the Heart Rate sensor or the Wrist Detection feature turned on, not both at the same time.

Please, give it a try and let me know if you can replicate this. I'm going to try and have my watch replaced anyway, but being the nerd that I am, I would LOVE to understand what the issue is (and maybe help people who are out of warranty and might want to decide whether to keep it instead of selling it cheaper online).

Dec 22, 2016 12:22 AM in response to Helbert Pina

interesting! i tried turning off the HR sensor, but wrist detection still not work.

i checked out my hr sensor readings, the old readings long ago when the wrist detection function works, the HR reading will record every few minutes.

now the wrist detection no longer works, the HR reading wont record automatically.

only when i use some other exercise app (like under armor record)

BTW

tried every method, restart, restore, update to watchOS3.1, update iOS 10...

Serious issue with wrist detection, stand time and unlock (not tattoo related)