Find out what to do if your Apple Watch locks automatically at frequent intervals and you’re forced to enter its four-digit passcode repeatedly, even though you didn’t take the wearable off your wrist.
Unlike the iPhone, the Apple Watch doesn’t lock automatically when its screen goes off. You can raise your wrist at any time to access the watch face or get inside the apps, without needing to type in your watch passcode.
However, if wrist detection is off or because of glitches and watchOS bugs, your Apple Watch may lock automatically every time the screen goes off. It may also auto-lock when you put your wrist down or randomly after a few minutes, even though you never removed the watch from your wrist.
If this happens to you, try the following solutions to resolve the issue. This will help you get back to using your Apple Watch normally, without the device getting locked and leaving you frustrated.
Turn on Wrist Detection
The Wrist Detection feature is responsible for figuring out whether your Apple Watch is on your wrist. And when your watch can detect this, it doesn’t auto-lock the device, even if the screen dims off. Enable Wrist Detection if you’re facing repeated random device locks.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone or the Settings app on Apple Watch and tap Passcode.
- Turn on Wrist Detection.
- If it was already enabled, turn it off, wait for 15 seconds, and turn it back on.
Now, put your wrist down, wait a few seconds, and then wake up the watch screen. Hopefully, your watch hasn’t auto-locked, and you won’t need to enter its passcode, as long as you’re wearing it.
Set the right watch orientation
You can wear your Apple Watch in whichever hand you feel comfortable. When you set up a new or erased watch, it asks for your preference. However, if you later change to a different side, follow these steps so that this change reflects on the software level.
- Go to the Watch app and tap General, followed by Watch Orientation.
- Select either the left or right wrist where you wear your Apple Watch. You can also pick a side for your Digital Crown.
While this setting isn’t directly related to auto-lock, configuring it correctly should help ensure the right experience.
Restart your Apple Watch
Temporary glitches in the system can be yet another reason why you need to enter the device passcode frequently. Simply restart your Apple Watch, enter your passcode once, and then it shouldn’t bother you for as long as you’re wearing it.
Install any pending updates
If your Apple Watch isn’t running the latest version of watchOS, install the newest update. You can do this from the watch Settings or by using the companion app on iPhone. In case this problem is happening because of bugs in the current version of watchOS, updating to a new version will fix things.
Turn Unlock with iPhone on and off
If the problem continues, go to the iPhone Watch app > Passcode and toggle “Unlock with iPhone” off and back on.
Toggle Always On display off and back on
If you’ve Always On enabled for your Apple Watch, go to the Watch app > Display & Brightness > Always On and turn it off. Then, restart your Apple Watch, and re-enable Always On.
Erase your watch and set it up again
In case the above solutions haven’t helped, unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone (which will erase it completely) and set it up again. If the passcode problem was caused by a major software issue, this should take care of it.
If not, wait for a new watchOS update or get your Apple Watch inspected at an Apple Store for hardware problems. Now, I think it’s highly unlikely that the passcode annoyance is happening due to hardware issues, but if erasing and setting it up again didn’t help, you should get it checked by an Apple staff member.
About removing the Apple Watch passcode…
Finally, if the problem remains unsolved, you can go to the Passcode section of the iPhone Watch app and tap “Turn Passcode Off.” But do this only as a last resort, because removing the passcode not only lets anybody see your messages, notes, and other watch data, but it also means you won’t be able to use your watch for Apple Pay, receive sign-in codes, and such. We’ve talked a lot more about it here: Why you should be using a passcode on your Apple Watch
Which solution worked for you in fixing this issue? Sound off in the comments section below.