Apple Watch spontaneously rebooted

[tireddev]

Today while I was at the gym, my Apple Watch Series 9 running watchOS 10.0.2 spontaneously rebooted itself. I looked down at to start a workout and saw the white Apple logo instead of the watch face. I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like this. It's the first time it has happened to me since I started wearing an Apple Watch in 2016 or so.

It's especially weird to me since I had just read about iPhone's spontaneously rebooting, which also happened to me a few nights ago. I'm wondering if there's some common OS code in the latest releases for these devices that could explain this undesirable behavior.

 

[jz0309]

Today while I was at the gym, my Apple Watch Series 9 running watchOS 10.0.2 spontaneously rebooted itself. I looked down at to start a workout and saw the white Apple logo instead of the watch face. I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like this. It's the first time it has happened to me since I started wearing an Apple Watch in 2016 or so.

It's especially weird to me since I had just read about iPhone's spontaneously rebooting, which also happened to me a few nights ago. I'm wondering if there's some common OS code in the latest releases for these devices that could explain this undesirable behavior.

Haven’t read anything about this here.

Is it possible that you accidentally pushed crown and side button for a few sec that would force a reboot?

Also, 10.0.3 has been out for I think a couple weeks, you should update

 

[tireddev]

There's a small possibility the two buttons were depressed simultaneously without my realizing it. If I remember correctly from previous major releases of watchOS, I would also have needed to interact with the UI to initiate a shutdown, and I definitely did not do that.

I haven't been prompted to update to 10.0.3, so I didn't realize there is yet another 10.0.x version available. In fact, now that I check in the Watch app on my iPhone, it says my watch is up to date at 10.0.2.

 

[jz0309]

There's a small possibility the two buttons were depressed simultaneously without my realizing it. If I remember correctly from previous major releases of watchOS, I would also have needed to interact with the UI to initiate a shutdown, and I definitely did not do that.

I haven't been prompted to update to 10.0.3, so I didn't realize there is yet another 10.0.x version available. In fact, now that I check in the Watch app on my iPhone, it says my watch is up to date at 10.0.2.

No interaction necessary when pressing crown and side button and I don’t remember there ever was one.

And sorry, my mistake, 10.0.2 is the latest, can’t keep up with those updates

I also suggest, for the next update, to initiate it from the watch and not the watch app on the phone, much faster. Settings, general, software update

 

[Apple_Robert]

Try wearing the crown facing towards your body. A lot less likely to trigger that way. I wear mine that way all the time.

 

[smirking]

I need more sleep... or maybe meds. I read this thread title as "Apple Watch Spontaneously Exploded."

Wait, what? This'll be entertaining...

 

[jdb8167]

Today while I was at the gym, my Apple Watch Series 9 running watchOS 10.0.2 spontaneously rebooted itself. I looked down at to start a workout and saw the white Apple logo instead of the watch face. I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like this. It's the first time it has happened to me since I started wearing an Apple Watch in 2016 or so.

Probably a kernel panic. If you are automatically sending analytics to Apple they probably pay special attention to kernel panics and will prioritize a fix.

 

[Richard10250]

FWIW, I just experienced what I believe is an uncommanded reboot after using the stop watch app. Like the original post above I looked down to check the time and all that was there was the white apple logo.

I guess it is possible I somehow pressed and held the two buttons, but performing an intentional reboot just now and observing how long and how hard the buttons need to be pressed leads me to believe that an unintentional commanded event is unlikely.

I went into the watch app on my phone to check the diagnostic log for any error messages, but I was greeted by a message that advised no log data was available. Strange. I rechecked the diagnostic log after my intentional forced reboot and found two log entries. The first is a reset counter message and the second was apparently referring to my intentional forced reset.

I guess I will wait and see if it happens again.

Watch Ultra 2 - MREG3LL/A
Watch OS version 10.0.2
Iphone 13 Pro Max
Iphone OS version 17.0.3

 

[xraydoc]

FWIW, I just experienced what I believe is an uncommanded reboot after using the stop watch app. Like the original post above I looked down to check the time and all that was there was the white apple logo.

I guess it is possible I somehow pressed and held the two buttons, but performing an intentional reboot just now and observing how long and how hard the buttons need to be pressed leads me to believe that an unintentional commanded event is unlikely.

I went into the watch app on my phone to check the diagnostic log for any error messages, but I was greeted by a message that advised no log data was available. Strange. I rechecked the diagnostic log after my intentional forced reboot and found two log entries. The first is a reset counter message and the second was apparently referring to my intentional forced reset.

I guess I will wait and see if it happens again.

Watch Ultra 2 - MREG3LL/A
Watch OS version 10.0.2
Iphone 13 Pro Max
Iphone OS version 17.0.3

I wouldn't be surprised if watchOS 10.0.2 crashed and rebooted/respringboarded. So many bugs.

 

[M33-1]

I’m imagining being 100 ft underwater using this as a dive computer and seeing the white Apple logo.

 

[PegasusTenma]

My Ultra 2 just randomly rebooted as well now!

 

[skeptech]

Open Watch app on your iPhone, to go "General - Diagnostic Logs"

See if there's a "panic" reported there.

I've seen a number of spontaneous reboots on both an Ultra 2 & Series 7 - there's something going on: either serious (unrecoverable) hardware fault (in both watches? This strikes me as unlikely), or software bug(s) - conditions that the Apple software engineers didn't handle correctly, or didn't think to handle. Speaking as a many-decade Unix kernel hacker (systems programmer) myself, operating system kernels aren't supposed to panic - that's a bad thing.

Right now, given the large changes from WatchOS 9 to WatchOS 10 (widgets everywhere now - probably a large code reorganization to make that happen)), I'd say wait for 10.1 to see if the problem is handled by Apple. Odds are that with 100s of millions of Apple Watches out there, they're getting lots of reports, and hopefully will have this problem nailed down soon (though I'd prefer it got corrected sooner with a minor patch release). Apple pushed out a 10.1 Release Candidate (RC) yesterday (Tue Oct 17), so I don't think we have long to wait.

Also, there's this: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/17/apple-watch-series-9-ultra-2-display-flicker-issue/ - I've seen that on the Ultra 2 also.

 

[PegasusTenma]

Open Watch app on your iPhone, to go "General - Diagnostic Logs"

See if there's a "panic" reported there.

I've seen a number of spontaneous reboots on both an Ultra 2 & Series 7 - there's something going on: either serious (unrecoverable) hardware fault (in both watches? This strikes me as unlikely), or software bug(s) - conditions that the Apple software engineers didn't handle correctly, or didn't think to handle. Speaking as a many-decade Unix kernel hacker (systems programmer) myself, operating system kernels aren't supposed to panic - that's a bad thing.

Right now, given the large changes from WatchOS 9 to WatchOS 10 (widgets everywhere now - probably a large code reorganization to make that happen)), I'd say wait for 10.1 to see if the problem is handled by Apple. Odds are that with 100s of millions of Apple Watches out there, they're getting lots of reports, and hopefully will have this problem nailed down soon (though I'd prefer it got corrected sooner with a minor patch release). Apple pushed out a 10.1 Release Candidate (RC) yesterday (Tue Oct 17), so I don't think we have long to wait.

Also, there's this: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/17/apple-watch-series-9-ultra-2-display-flicker-issue/ - I've seen that on the Ultra 2 also.

Yes, it was a panic! So do you reckon is software and no hardware caused?

 

[skeptech]

Yes, it was a panic! So do you reckon is software and no hardware caused?

First rule of computer misbehavior for software engineers: it's your code (software) at fault, not the hardware. Yelling that the hardware is faulty at first blush of a problem is a sign of gross (and undeserved) arrogance: "it can't be my code - I'm perfect!"

That isn't to say there's no faulty hardware - I spent time working in a semiconductor chip design company (after decades of relatively pure software jobs) and I got … an "education" let's call it, and I am amazed sometimes that anything works. There are on the order of 10s of billions of transistors in an Apple Watch SoC - how does anyone meaningfully state that they've tested 100% of the circuit paths through that? I mean, the combinatorics alone ...

Now add software on top ...

On balance of probabilities, among them being that a number of other people here on Mac Rumors are reporting the same behavior, I'd bet that it's software. The panic log will tell Apple's WatchOS engineers where to start looking, and hopefully the preponderance of reports will characterize the circumstances around which the bug (panic) manifests such that it can be quickly identified and squashed. Hopefully it's not a Heisenbug, especially an intermittent one - those are the worst.

Fortunately, we have two things going for all of us:

1. last I saw reported, Apple has shipped over 200 million Apple Watches since introduction in 2015. That's a whole lot of test cases going on all the time, every day, world-wide. Granted, not all of them are running WatchOS 10, but I bet 10s of millions are.
2. Apple put automated collection of these fault reports right into their system software - unless this bug is incredibly rare, they know about it already, and are hopefully working hard on a proper fix.

If it is a hardware bug, Apple will have to work around it in software (been here, done that myself - one of the banes that systems programmers suffer is "don't worry about that hardware bug - we'll fix it in software"), or ... [shudder] they'll recall/replace the hardware, which would be very, very costly.

 

[ginjeff]

My Series 9 has been doing this since I got it on day one, and both before and after the 10.0.2 update. This is my fourth Apple Watch and I've never had this problem before. I started a thread on reddit about this. One guy got a replacement at the Apple store but hasn't reported back if it works better.

 

[jz0309]

My Series 9 has been doing this since I got it on day one, and both before and after the 10.0.2 update. This is my fourth Apple Watch and I've never had this problem before. I started a thread on reddit about this. One guy got a replacement at the Apple store but hasn't reported back if it works better.

Why haven’t you returned it yet if it started at day 1?

 

[Howard2k]

I’m imagining being 100 ft underwater using this as a dive computer and seeing the white Apple logo.

You'd still know how to use manual tables or have a secondary device, surely?

 

[cwanja]

My Series 9 has been doing this since I got it on day one, and both before and after the 10.0.2 update. This is my fourth Apple Watch and I've never had this problem before. I started a thread on reddit about this. One guy got a replacement at the Apple store but hasn't reported back if it works better.

Having the same issue. Noticed it a few days ago and then last night when I was putting my child down, the Apple logo lit up the crib.

 

[akidokraja]

Today while I was at the gym, my Apple Watch Series 9 running watchOS 10.0.2 spontaneously rebooted itself. I looked down at to start a workout and saw the white Apple logo instead of the watch face. I'm wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like this. It's the first time it has happened to me since I started wearing an Apple Watch in 2016 or so.

It's especially weird to me since I had just read about iPhone's spontaneously rebooting, which also happened to me a few nights ago. I'm wondering if there's some common OS code in the latest releases for these devices that could explain this undesirable behavior.

Me too, few days ago. Two reboots one after the other.