Why does my Apple Watch keep locking?

Key Highlights
  • Apple Watch is designed to lock itself automatically when it’s removed from your wrist for safety and security reasons.
  • But sometimes, it also locks while still on wrist.
  • Apple Watch built-in feature “Wrist Detection” may be the reason. Here’s how you can fix this issue for good.

If you have set a lock on your Apple watch and it is annoyingly getting locked very frequently, below we have a bunch of quick fixes that might help you fix your issue.

The Apple Watch is designed in such a way that whenever you take it off your wrist it will be locked on its own. The watch uses sensors to determine whether you are wearing the watch or not.

However, sometimes these sensors don’t work properly, and the watch is locked even while you are wearing it. This becomes annoying when you quickly want to check on your notifications and the watch asks for a passcode.

Why does my Apple Watch keep locking

Security is also essential if you have Apple Pay enabled on your Watch, as without the lock anybody who gets your watch will be able to use your credit cards, which can be dangerous.

Usually, people need to unlock their Apple Watch only once, when they wear it the first time of the day, after that it should be unlocked all the time until you take it off your wrists.

However, there are some Apple Watch users who have been unlocking their watch multiple times throughout the day even though they never took it off their wrists, if you are also one of them, then you might need to try some of the below fixes.

Wrist Detection and Unlocking are Set on Your Apple Watch

The auto-lock feature of the Apple Watch works on the sensors so make sure that you have properly set and enabled the option.

  1. Go to the watch app on your iPhone while the Apple Watch is connected to your phone.
  2. On the My Watch tab, tap on the Passcode option.
    Apple Watch keep locking 2
  3. Inside the setting, make sure that you have turned on the Wrist detection if not, then you can turn it on by swiping the button to the right.
    Apple Watch keep locking 1
  4. Finally, ensure that the passcode setting is turned on and it should show the option to turn off the Passcode at the top of the screen. If not, you need to turn on the passcode on your Apple Watch, tap on the turn-on Passcode and then enter a passcode on your watch when asked.
SEE ALSO  How to Fix Headphones Not Working on Laptop

Check if you are wearing the Apple Watch correctly

The sensors of the Apple Watch are at the back of it, and it can only work properly when you are wearing the Apple Watch correctly. Make sure that the watch snuggly fits to your wrists and it isn’t loose.

If there is a gap between the watch and your skin, then the watch is a bit loose and often while running or walking the with can lose contact between your skin and the sensors, and this is when the Apple Watch locks itself.

Don’t wear it too tightly, but make sure it is not loose as well.

We also get reports from several Apple Watch users that the watch locks itself if they wear it too far up the arm. This isn’t any official statement from Apple, but many people have reported this incident, so make sure you aren’t wearing very high up on your arms.

Clean the Back of your Apple Watch

As mentioned earlier, the Apple Watch uses sensors to detect whether the user is wearing it or not, and these sensors are also used to measure the body vitals. So, cleaning the sensors regularly can help improve the accuracy of measuring the vitals and it also helps the sensors to work correctly.

Dirty sensors can fail to detect whether you are wearing the watch or not, so make sure to clean it regularly.

You can clean the sensors of your Apple Watch using a microfiber cloth.

Restarting can Always Help

If all of the above-mentioned fixes don’t fix your problems, then you might need to restart your Apple Watch as well as your iPhone. Sometimes a bug can also cause this issue, and restarting your Watch and phone from time to time can restore its peak performance.

SEE ALSO  (Fixed) Touch Screen Not Working on Android Devices Problem

Get Your Apple Watch serviced

if even restarting didn’t fix your problem, then getting your Apple Watch serviced at an authorized Apple service centre is the best bet you are left with.

If the Watch has some faulty sensors and is in warranty, then Apple should fix the issue for free, worst case, they might replace your Apple Watch with a new one. So, if you feel that your watch is malfunctioning, then visiting the service centre is a good option.

Leave a Comment