Apple Watch Series 2 running slower on OS 4.0

I'm disappointed in the iOS slowdown on the iPhone 6 and the Watch OS as well. I also am an all Apple ecosystem, multiple Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV. It is a great, well connected ecosystem, but the behavior with the phone is inexcusable. Apple's "solution" is also rubbish, and takes little accountability. No user would have consented to that slowdown, and calling it a feature is absurd and misdirection. It makes me resentful of Apple.

And again - I can't imagine who did QA testing for Watch OS 4 (currently running 4.2 - no better). The watch is laggy and crummy all around, every app is slow to launch. I have fully reset my Watch and iPhone to factory and no change. Clearly there is a hardware issue or a major software quality assurance issue, and I hope Apple can do something to speed these up. My wife's series 2 is only six months old, I'm so annoyed that I bought it and it now runs like it's five years old. My Pebble is faster than this thing (still have an old one laying around).

Im having exactly the same issue, Ive tried to reduce screen animations, deleted some of the apps and reduced amount of notifications in Apple Wach s2. It's still extremely slow, every app I use I have to tap twice or even wait few seconds as the watch screen freezzes. My ipHone 6 is significantly slower than my other one 7, and now Im loosing patience with Apple Watch 2. The funny thing is Ive upgreaded to from Apple Wach series 1 as it was already so slow, now its exactly teh same with 2. Im stuck now with two very slow APPLE watches!

Another one here to add to the "Apple Watch S2 is turning into nothing more than a... watch" brigade.

Went for my first run today for a few months (I know...) and launching Music and Nike+ was a real pain, with music basically freezing for a minute or so.

The run itself seemed okay, although skipping songs was a bit delayed, but post-run was really bad - the Nike+ app was incredibly laggy and the screen kept getting stuck halfway through swipes.

Feeling pretty disappointed with Apple at the moment.

I am having the same exact issue with my Apple Watch Series 2. I've reset my watch and phone, and my watch still is running like molasses. It is not responsive anymore -- I go for a run, and it takes me 3 minutes to get the running app started. Apps freeze constantly. Loading up and selecting music is a nightmare.

I can't believe my new watch is already obsolete. I'm real upset.

My workout app was also lagging badly since upgrading to 4.0 and 4.2, taking several swipes to scroll and several taps to start a workout. I changed the dock from “Recents” to “Favorites” and it is perfectly responsive again.

This is great! We all have been complaining bitterly about this and finally here is a constructive solution. I changed this setting and noticed an immediate, significant improvement. Even Siri is somewhat responsive again! Thanks for this tip.

Even better, the nature of this fix indicates that Apple still has some optimization to do in WatchOS 4 (or even just plain old bug fixes) and it's not just a limitation of our hardware that we have to live with.

I just changed the setting. I'll try it on my watch tomorrow. Doing a run and listening to music with a Series 2 Watch has been completely impossible since Watch OS4, I hope this makes a difference. Currently the run app lags so bad I have just been using my phone, which basically makes the watch useless as it doesn't even display a run started on the phone (sad, even my Pebl did that four years ago). I still think it is ridiculous to have a 400 dollar product that is one year old that barely functions. This is atrocious. I'll post an update after my run tomorrow.

It’s so disappointing that a one year old device can work so poorly. Literally, things like swiping up to see the controls takes 5 seconds. Then pressing theater mode takes another 5 seconds. And the worst part is that since the watch OS upgrade is just after the one year manufacturer warranty, we can’t even return this garbage. Apple you should be ashamed of yourselves.

So here are a few work arounds I've found to speed up the watch. Shouldn't have to do these, but they do help:

All of the following are done from the apple watch app on your phone.

1. Go to Dock and select favorites verses recent.

2. Turn off automatically install apps, only install the apps you need/use.

3. Uninstall any apps you don't need on the watch, this won't stop notifications, only watch app specific interactions.

4. Turn off background app refresh for watch apps you don't regularly go into, again won't affect notifications.

I found the sum of these really helped with performance. Hope this helps you guys out until apple releases an optimisation update.

It’s funny how we all have this problem and yet Apple will not respond to the 5 pages of concerns that are posted. No mention of “we are working the issue” or any kind of resolve. Long time customer and am starting to second guess my decision for for products I love.

Ok we shouldn’t expect them to respond, but there is a clearly a significant WatchOS design issue so I would hope they would post something proactively to their site.

Otherwise all of us will have to waste hours on the phone or going to an Apple store to go through all the same steps as with any issue:

Unpair

Reset etc etc

Tried all the things people have said and no marked improvement.

As I typed this I just opened the Workout app and tried to scroll or select a workout and it was as if I had a frozen screen

Already done...2-3 others have posted this ‘fix’ - made no difference at all.

It was the major last WatchOS update (to 4) that saw a redesign to a more complicated set up and look/feel.

Amazed how this significant flaw was not picked up in testing

Definitely this is happening to a lot of users. With watchos3 no worries, now I open workout app and it enters but the screen is frozen during 20seconds before reacting.

This complicates so much the user experience.

I’m a little concerned. I’m super promoter of the brand and I don’t understand why there’s no an official comunication from Apple about this. This clock just have one year in the market.

I’ll go to the store to ask, I need a solution from them.

Thanks

Change to Favorite under Dock setting do help a lots. Otherwise every app require at least 20-30 seconds to load.

Last Sunday I just use Nike App to record my half marathon run and it take at least half a minute to able to Start and also hang for around 10 seconds to display the progress (though it count after press "Start"), however when I press "Stop" the app just hang and quit suddenly. At first the record seems disappear and luckily after few days when I check the Nike Run App again it re-appear.

Will Apple give a reply that they will resolve the issue? Tried even the weirdest the solutions, all didn’t work. Still took 3 taps to make any run start. There’s no magic trick until Apple do some fundamental change in the WatchOS itself. For example, remove redundant functions, or remove any deliberate tricks to slow down the watch app.

I’m also facing much faster battery drain now. Normally 60% remains. Recent weeks only 30% remained sane usage.