stopwatch on wrist raise after update to watchos 4

Hi

It is normal for any session-based app to be shown upon raising your wrist whilst that app still has an active session in progress - and it is not possible to change this.

If you would prefer to have an option to disable this behaviour, then you can submit a feature request to Apple here:

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

Try un-pairing and re-pairing the watch to your phone. It worked for me, though not with a Series 3 watch.

Here's a workaround: if the stopwatch is running, stop and reset it so it's "dead". Then change the wake setting on the Watch app to "only when in session". Worked for me.

Un-pairing then re-pairing (restoring from backup that had just been made during un-pairing) doesn't help. After the restore I did this:

1) switch watch face to siri

2) open stopwatch, start it

3) return to Siri face, confirm that the stopwatch is running (as it's now the first card on the Siri face)

4) place hand over watch to put the screen to sleep

5) wait a bit, then raise wrist

The Siri face SHOULD show, but instead it goes right back to the stopwatch app.

6) stop the stopwatch

7) place hand over watch to put the screen to sleep

8) wait a bit, then raise wrist

At this point, since the stopwatch is not actually counting up, the watch acts as expected and shows the Siri face (or whatever face I happen to have active as my current watch face).

This must be a bug; the point of the Siri face is to be able to raise wrist and see the various cards, including stopwatch status.

I've moved to another stopwatch app in the meantime.

Perhaps un-pairing then paring as a new watch may fix this, but I want all my existing data and config.

You would think, but it’s actually a bug or just major lack of attention to detail on Apple’s part. Here’s why:

- the Setting doesn’t work - you can select to only show you the active app (ie, the stopwatch) within 2 min. That doesn’t work. You can wait 10 min and wake the watch and it will still show you the running stopwatch, not the watch face or last app

- the watch faces with the chronometer don’t stay on the watch face display either! So you see the stopwatch on the watch face when you start it. But when you wake the screen again, it’s dispalying the stopwatch app! This is such a massive miss it’s incredible for Apple.

I’ve sold my Apple Watch and switched as a result of this. When a company stops listening to its customers, it’s a bad sign.

Agreed. Wrist raise is changed from the iPhone. It doesn’t matter though, it’s a bug that Apple has admitted to. Why it’s taking months to fix is inexcusable. As is the fact that it was a bug introduced in iOS 4. 3 worked fine.

For me, when you unpair, a fresh backup is made, so it's watchOS 4. Re-pairing didn't take nearly as long as the original upgrade did, but the reinstall of all the apps took a while.

I’ve had the same issue since watchOS 4. Every time I have a stopwatch running, the wake screen always returns to the stopwatch app, no matter how long I’ve had the watch idle.

I just got my series 3 LTE and paired the new watch to my iPhone and restored the most recent backup of my series 2. Same behavior. I’ve also tried unpairing and repairing. No good.

This can‘t be expected behavior. Even if I have a watch face with a stopwatch complication, or Siri face with stopwatch status enabled, the behavior is the same. This absolutely did not happen with watchOS 3. I use the stopwatch on a daily basis for hours at a time so I’m very very familiar with the watchOS 3 behavior.

Does anyone one have any other suggestions? Has this been reported to Apple as a bug yet?

I’ve had to use a third party stopwatch app for now, but this is not optimal because the app doesn’t have a complication.

You hit the nail on the head with this post. Prior to the update, I run the stopwatch for all hours in the week that I am punched in at work. It keeps a running tally of my hours at 8 +/- hours per shift, (I can always see how much overtime I have banked). I have been doing this for at least 1 year on my Apple Watch original. Now, with this "feature", my face opening to the stopwatch every time I raise my wrist has inadvertently reset the stopwatch to zero, (or at best pushed the lap button), on some occasions unbeknownst to me, (seems to occur when I am not even intending to look at my watch. This also makes the Siri face useless to me. Truly wish Siri face would not bring stopwatch or countdown timer to the forefront of its list. I have stopped using the stopwatch for this, and just set an 8 hour timer every day and loosely keep track. Might try setting a 40 hour timer at week start and do it that way...but it is nice to have the 8 hour elapse buzzer tell me that I can go home if I want.

I reset the watch, and paired it as new (not restoring from backup).

It did not help; the stopwatch (when running) always appears when I lift my wrist, regardless of which watch face I have shown, what complications it has, or how long my wrist has been down (far past the 'within 2 minutes of last use' setting I have enabled for 'last app').

An aside note: resetting the watch as new did fix a few other problems I had, such as phantom alarms going off no matter how many times I cleared them, or that my activity coaching alerts never came up.

So, resetting the watch as new does fix some oddities, but this particular issue appears to be deliberate or a bug that's not fixable even with a clean reset.

It’s not a feature request, it’s definitely a bug. Apple confirmed that they know the bug exists. I submitted it via my developer account.

It‘s really disappointing they introduced this bug with OS 4; and that it’s been several months and it’s still not fixed.

This is so irritating. the best I can come up with is to set it to "Within 2 minutes of last use" instead of "While in Session", and then make sure I don't look at it for two minutes. Obnoxious!