Series 6 Reboot loop of Death

[B1llyG]

I have a series 6 with OS 7.0.1 that is stuck in a continuous bootcycle, completely bricking the watch.
Not sure if this issue has been posted elsewhere. I searched the forum and read through a couple of threads but didn’t find this particular issue so assume it’s new or uncommon.

It started a few days ago with an occasional spontaneous reboot and now the watch infinitely restarts. I tried decoupling (phone 11 with OS 14.0.2), completely removing the watch from my iCloud account, fully draining watch battery and recharge after 1 day. Unfortunately nothing helped to resolve the issue. Reached out the Apple support, they had no clue (not even the “senior” advisor) and now I need to return the watch to Apple so they can reset it.

Unfortunately, I traded my series 3 in for the series 6. On my series 3 I was running OS 7.x.x, which was also unstable, spontaneously rebooting every couple of days but at least not bricking the watch.

Have others had this issue with series 6 and been able to fix it themselves?

 

[jdb8167]

I’ve heard of it with the Series 3 but nothing later other than yours. Might be a hardware failure. Rare but it happens.

 

[tarheel34]

Series 6 Cellular here. Mine is doing the same exact thing. It started as a few random reboots, and now it's doing it every time I interact with the watch basically. the only thing I can get it to do is show the Now Playing screen if I'm already listening to something when it reboots, but as soon as I try to do anything else, it reboots

 

[imfoster]

Series 6 Cellular here, too. I can wear the watch from about 7 AM to 3 PM, when it starts rebooting non-stop. I have already returned one for doing the exact same thing. 7.0.2.

 

[twieser]

Same thing here. My series 6 cellular started randomly rebooting about 3 times a day to permanently stuck in a reboot loop. Apple is sending me a new one to replace it.

 

[hipnetic]

I got my Series 6 Stainless Steel Cellular model last week and just hit this problem today. The watch face shows, but when I tilt my wrist to look at it, it changes to the Apple logo and appears to do a reboot. After reboot, same thing. Any solutions not requiring me to bring it to an Apple store?

 

[twieser]

I got my Series 6 Stainless Steel Cellular model last week and just hit this problem today. The watch face shows, but when I tilt my wrist to look at it, it changes to the Apple logo and appears to do a reboot. After reboot, same thing. Any solutions not requiring me to bring it to an Apple store?

I had the same exact problem. Apple replaced the watch I bought in October with another brand new one-but you will have to make an appointment with the Apple store and go in.

 

[hipnetic]

I had the same exact problem. Apple replaced the watch I bought in October with another brand new one-but you will have to make an appointment with the Apple store and go in.

So you really think it's a hardware problem? It sure feels like more of a software issue. FWIW, I put it on my charger and charged it up to 100% and then I *think* it was working OK for a little while, but now it's doing it again.

 

[twieser]

I could speculate all day on the problem but after being without my watch for a week as I tried to troubleshoot the darn thing, Apple simply replaced it the day I went into the Apple store. Case closed.

 

[jz0309]

So you really think it's a hardware problem? It sure feels like more of a software issue. FWIW, I put it on my charger and charged it up to 100% and then I *think* it was working OK for a little while, but now it's doing it again.

did you update watchOS prior to this occurring? did you install an app that might have caused this behavior?
if this would happen to me, I'd be on the phone with apple and get a replacement. esp since the watch is "useless" right now

 

[hipnetic]

did you update watchOS prior to this occurring? did you install an app that might have caused this behavior?
if this would happen to me, I'd be on the phone with apple and get a replacement. esp since the watch is "useless" right now

I'm pretty sure I opted not to auto-install all of my apps, and I don't think I had even manually installed any. I think about the only thing I did was to change the watch face a couple of times on day 1. It then seemed to work OK for about a week before I hit this issue today. I don't remember specifically choosing to update the OS, but my iPhone's Watch app reports that I'm up-to-date with watchOS 7.1.

So I found that if I took the watch off of my wrist and plugged it into the charger, I could interact with it more without it rebooting. I did a hard reset and re-paired the watch to my iPhone as a new watch. Oddly enough, as part of the setup, the app stated that my watch needed an update (my phone had earlier in the day indicated that my watch's OS was up-to-date).

Anyway, the Watch is working again without reboots. So, again, I'm pretty confident that this issue is software, not hardware, related.