If you are a tech freak, an Apple Watch must be one of your top-notch wearable gadgets to date.
Talking about the features and benefits of the Apple Watch, you can almost have an entire computer right on your wrist. But what if your Apple Watch won’t turn on anymore? What if you suddenly get nothing but a black screen?
If you don’t know, the Apple Watch users reached more than a 100 million mark globally in 2020. With that, many of the users complained that the Apple Watch won’t turn on.
If you are facing the same problem, this guide will help you fix the Apple Watch turn-on issues.
Table of Contents
Why Your Apple Watch Won’t Turn On?
There is no issue when you charge your Apple Watch at all. But after removing the charging cable from the Apple Watch, it goes dead. However, some cases reported that there’s a light behind the screen curtain.
So, if you are worried that your Apple Watch is not turning on without any specific reason, follow this method:
Press and Hold Both Buttons Till the Apple Logo Appears
- First of all, connect the charger to your Apple Watch.
- Now press and hold the Digital Crown/Home Button and the side button. You have to hold both buttons for 20 seconds.
- Once the Apple logo appears, release the buttons and wait.
The logo shows that your Apple Watch is responding again, and it’s not gone completely dead.
When your Apple Watch turns on, this means that the hard reset method is working fine.
After a minute, you will see that your Apple Watch is working normally. Now enter the passcode and check whether all the features of your Apple Watch are working fine.
However, there are chances that the force restart might not work for you. It’s because of the variation in the Apple Watch models, charging cable, or the iOS.
Therefore, it’s better to try other methods before contacting taking your Apple Watch to the Apple store.
Tap Your Apple Watch Screen from All Sides
If your Apple Watch won’t turn and is showing a black screen even in the charging mode, start tapping your Apple Watch.
- Disconnect the charger from the Apple Watch.
- Start tapping aggressively on the front, back, and side of the Apple Watch.
- Charge Apple Watch again.
- Now press and hold both side buttons for about 15 seconds until the Apple logo appears. The forced reboot will turn on your Apple Watch.
When you aggressively tap your Apple Watch from all sides, it fixes the inside connectivity issues.
However, it’s recommended to first Watch out for hard objects like metal and glass nearby. You can suddenly drop the Apple Watch, and it might hit on a hard surface.
Check Charging Cable
Still, having problems? Read on to fix Apple Watch.
As the charging cable of your Apple Watch is important, sometimes the very cable needs to be fixed first. That’s right. Just like any other charging device, your Apple Watch also has a charger with a cable.
When your Apple Watch runs out of battery, you have to connect it to the magnetic cable to give it some juice. However, if the cable is damaged or has any other issues, your Apple Watch will not get recharged.
Therefore, make sure that the magnetic charging cable is working properly.
You can run some trials to check the performance of the charging cable of your Apple Watch.
- First, use different charging outlets like an adapter or the computer’s USB port. If it’s not turning on the Apple Watch, the cable might be faulty. Therefore, try a different charging cable.
- If changing the charging cable works for you, then you can replace it from the Apple store right away. Moreover, do check whether AppleCare+ covers your Apple Watch. That will give you a free replacement.
Now, if your Apple Watch is giving notification sounds and receiving calls, but the screen is blank, try the following methods.
How to Fix an Unresponsive Apple Watch?
If your Apple Watch is blank, but you can still hear notification sounds, the issue might be one of the unique features of the Apple Watch, i.e., VoiceOver and Screen Curtain.
Check the VoiceOver and Screen Curtain Features
The Screen Curtain feature allows your Apple Watch to go dark and become accessible only by VoiceOver. Therefore, your Apple Watch will look powered off even though it’s still working only by voice control.
Moreover, it’s logical that if the Screen Curtain feature is turned on, the VoiceOver feature must also be turned as well.
To check these features, follow these steps:
- On your iPhone, go to the Watch app > My Watch.
- Go to General > Accessibility > VoiceOver.
- Tap VoiceOver to turn it off. In the VoiceOver menu, you will also find the Screen Curtain option.
- Turn off Screen Curtain as well from the same settings.
When you update the above settings, it will automatically turn on the VoiceOver feature whenever Screen Curtain is enabled.
Although these features are bothersome, according to some Apple Watch users, they provide good benefits. One of the advantages of using these features is that you can access your data in public places.
Assume that you want to check your bank account’s details in a waiting area. When you enable the VoiceOver feature, your Apple Watch will look like it’s off. But you can navigate the Apple Watch only by your voice and get the required information.
Pair the Apple Watch with Your iPhone Again
If your Apple Watch is not responding or misbehaving, you can re-pair it with your iPhone.
All you have to do is to erase the Apple Watch from your iPhone. When you do that, there’s a big chance that all other connectivity issues might get resolved as well.
But first, check the battery life of your Apple Watch. If your Apple Watch has a low battery, you might not successfully pair it with your iPhone. Therefore, make sure your Apple Watch has enough battery to work properly.
The recommended battery percentage is above 20% to use or fix Apple Watch issues.
So, start charging your Apple Watch until it crosses 20%-25%. Now force the Apple Watch to turn on and wait until the Apple logo appears. Now you are ready to erase the Apple Watch from your iPhone.
- Go to the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to General.
- Swipe down to the end of the page and find the Reset option.
- Tap Reset and then tap Reset All Content and Settings.
After doing that, you are ready to pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone once again.
This method clears out all the software bugs that hinder the functionality of your Apple Watch. Moreover, when you pair the Apple Watch again, it will work like a fresh start. So make sure to fix the Apple Watch by this method before applying any other risky technique.
What to Do if Your Apple Watch Won’t Force Restart?
Consider this as a bigger problem because there are cases in which the Apple Watch won’t even force a restart. So now, what are you going to do?
If your Apple Watch is not showing any response on force reboot, it’s probably due to the software malfunction rather than a hardware issue. Moreover, the “software crashed” makes your Apple Watch go freeze.
Now, there are four reasons why the force restart is not working on your Apple Watch.
- Your Watch has frozen and gone complete unresponsive
- Your Watch is in Power Reserve mode
- Battery life is ended, and it’s not recharging anymore
- Hardware issues
So, first of all, let’s check if a hard reset fixes the issue.
Hard Reset Apple Watch
It’s not necessarily mean that when your Watch doesn’t show any response on force reboot, the hard reset doesn’t also work. You can hard reset your Watch by following these steps:
- First, press and hold the Digital Crown and the side buttons together.
- After some time, you will see the Apple logo at the center of the screen.
After doing that, you have to again set up your Apple Watch. Moreover, you will have to pair it with your phone and see whether it’s operable or not.
If the above method couldn’t solve the issue, check the power reserve mode on your Apple Watch.
Power Reserve Mode
The power reserve mode is a key feature that prolongs the battery of your Watch.
When you enable that mode, your Apple Watch’s screen only shows the current time and disables all other functions to preserve the battery. That way, you can have your Watch working even at 5% and below.
Now, to turn off power reserve mode, hold the side button until you see the Apple logo. That way, you will reboot the Watch and turn off the power reserve feature.
Check the Magnetic Charger
The magnetic charger of your Watch might misbehave due to electronic malfunctioning. If not this, the magnetic port at the back of your Apple Watch can also stop working properly.
Therefore, it’s better to check the working of the magnetic charger before buying the Apple Watch.
Now, we are left with hardware problems.
Fix Apple Watch Hardware Issues
Technically speaking, the Apple Watches work electronically. But, unfortunately, only the Apple hardware specialists can work on that. So it’s better to contact Apple support if your Watch is facing hardware issues.
Moreover, if your Apple Watch is covered by the AppleCare+, avail of that option right away and avoid paying the service charges. Besides, the AppleCare+ plan also offers free repair and replacement in a particular timeline.
Apart from this, you can also go for the software update on your Apple Watch.
Your Watch uses WatchOS, and you can update it from your phone. So make sure once your Watch is back in working mode, update its OS at once to avoid any future technical glitches.
Conclusion
Your Apple Watch won’t turn on because of several reasons. First, you can run trials that will reveal whether your Watch has software or hardware issues. Moreover, you can change the relevant settings from the Apple Watch app.
However, it’s recommended to always contact Apple customer support if you face hardware issues.
