Green lightning bolt with picture of charger while on charger. What does this mean?

Try restarting (or, if that doesn't help, force restarting) your watch:

- Restart Apple Watch: Press and hold the side button until you see the Power Off slider; Drag the slider to turn off completely; Afterwards, press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo.

- Force restart: press and hold both the side button and Digital Crown for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo

Check also that:

• All plastic wrapping has been removed from both ends and both sides of the charging cable (check very closely, especially on the concave / curved white section that attaches to the back of your watch).
• There is no debris on the back of your Apple Watch, the adapter or the magnet.
• The charging head is directly aligned with the back of the watch and is touching it fully (some stands / charging stations might hinder this).
• You are using only the genuine Apple Magnetic Charging Cable.
• When plugging into mains power:
  • You are using a genuine Apple USB Power Adapter.
  • Besides the adapter that is supplied with the watch, the cable can also be used with a 5W (iPhone) or 12W (iPad) Apple USB Power Adapter - test also with these if you have them.
• When charging via USB, ensure that:
  • You use a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port.
  • The computer remains on and awake.
  • The cable is plugged directly into the computer (not into, for example, an external keyboard).
• If your Apple Watch is out of battery power, you may need to wait for a few minutes before the green lightning bolt appears (confirming that charging has started).

Check battery power and charge your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you have followed these steps (including trying again to restart or force restart your watch after any further charging) and are still having problems:

Contact Apple Support with a view to having your watch and/or power accessories checked and, if necessary, replaced under warranty:

https://www.apple.com/support/watch/contact/

Or make a Genius Bar reservation at your nearest Apple Retail Store:

US: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

UK: http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/geniusbar/

For other countries, visit: http://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/

This happened to my watch as well. I looked and tried everything that is suggested on here as well as other sites. I took it into the Apple Store and had a tech look at it even. He said they could send it in to have it looked at but the fee was $200 because it wasn't still under warranty. I can get a new watch for that price so there was no way I was doing that. Basically you're out of luck unless it's still under warranty. I'm going to take it into a bad Apple Store and see if they can provide any better help. But if not there is simply no fix to the problem and Apple has left us once again with no real help.

I have the exact same thing and my watch was just out of warranty. $200 to even look at it. Crazy. Apple taking advantage of the people who keep buying their product. A watch this expensive should not go bad in a year. The genius bar would not even look at it. They said sending it in was the only option (Tampa Genius Bar)

A little tired of no accountability. Love the products functionality (when they work)...

Hi ,did you find a solution to your charging problem?

My watch is doing the same as yours. I haven't used my watch in months and I put it on charge hours ago but still the green charging symbol with cord is still flashing!

It doesn't respond to any button pushing. So I can't reboot it or anything.

I was hoping you found a solution.

Did your Apple Watch get too hot? If Apple Watch cannot regulate the internal temperature, it will stop charging, until it has had an opportunity to cool down again. I had this happen a few times while in the tropics. Then it helped to keep the watch in an air conditioned room and wait an hour before trying to charge the watch.

See: Keep Apple Watch within acceptable operating temperatures - Apple Support

Follow the instructions here, including contacting Apple Support (mail-in service may be available, if required), making a Genius Bar reservation or visiting an Apple Authorised Service Provider if necessary:

If your Apple Watch won't charge or it won't turn on - Apple Support

Sarahsmile76 wrote:

Same exact situation that I have.

Follow the same instructions here, including contacting Apple Support (mail-in service may be available, if required), making a Genius Bar reservation or visiting an Apple Authorised Service Provider if necessary:

If your Apple Watch won't charge or it won't turn on - Apple Support

Same exact situation that I have.

It means your watch has no power left - it is a similar indicator as what your iPhone displays when it is totally out of a battery charge - ie the cable with a lightening adapter

just charge the watch

😁 I hope so too, Jonathan!

It is pity that discussions do not get locked automatically, if they are a year old. The new Question-Answer layout is making it hard to spot easily that the most recent reply is more than a year older than the original post.

Have you found a solution to this? I am having the same issue. It doesn't matter how long I let the watch charge for AND the charger was a replacement. Also doesn't matter how long I hold the two side buttons down for ... I could do it for 30 minutes and the thing wont respond. Pretty frustrated myself as I only used the watch for a few months before the issue occurred.

Same exact situation that I have. Watch flashes when charging with green lightning bolt image. If I hold the bottom button for 5 seconds the icon stops flashing. Either case the phone wont charge. Took to apple store and the story there is the same. They said, they dont have any technicians in store and have to take the watch for 6 to 8 days and cannot estimate how much it will cost. Disappointing with apple service . If it costs $200 to have a look, then I might go and buy new. Guys If you dont have warranty, dont even go to apple store, just do your self a favor and through the phone in the bin, thats where it belongs.

I have to agree, after speaking with two different genius bars (just to see if I received the same response) my 1 year 6 month old watch has to have a battery replaced at the tune of $200, it is laughable. It says $60 but when you click in it is $200. You have to pay to send it in. There is no support on these crappy watches. I liked the watch though so I bought a reconditioned newer (version 2) model on ebay for $110. Jokes is on apple. They have always screwed their current and faithful customers, if their product was not so awesome then I would love to dump them, but I cannot say that I will because I do love the integration between all the products. They are just not a customer centric company. Several years ago, my husband bought me an iPad (early edition) they told him at the apple store that it would be at least a year before a new model came out, it was exactly 6 weeks before it did and they sold it as "newer, faster, better & cheaper) nice...so with that, no respect for the company but before you spend $200 to get the watch fixed, just replace it with a factory reconditioned one for less then half the price. My watch came packaged appropriately and looks perfectly new. I have had it for about 3-4 weeks and it works great. 42mm, sport, white band, silver face, apple box, plug/charger, serial number on box.

I would hope that the OP has since resolved the issue, which arose over a month ago 🙂

Hi

Make an appointment at Apple store or contact Support.apple.com.

Cheers

Brian