Common Smartwatch Problems and Fixes

Dec 10, 2021

Smartwatches have become a part of many people's daily lives, but just as with smartphones, the tech that you love can also cause you headaches. Here are the most common smartwatch problems and how to fix them:

##MISSING IMAGE##

Problem 1: Battery Drain

Smartwatch batteries tend to drain quickly. Your smartwatch can also drain your smartphone's battery if you have the two devices linked. This is because your smartwatch will be relying on your phone's much larger memory to help it work.

The Fix: Go into your watch's settings and disable any apps you don't use. Dim the brightness on your smartwatch and turn off any features you don't need. Your watch's battery life will last longer with fewer things running in the background. If you still need extra juice, you can get a battery extension pack or simply pick up more chargers to carry with you throughout the day.

##MISSING IMAGE##

Problem 2: Sketchy Voice Control

Your watch refuses to listen to you. It's worse than your last significant other. Sometimes it hears a word wrong, and sometimes it doesn't understand at all. Voice control problems are among the most common complaints about every smartwatch brand, and it can be very frustrating.

The Fix: Unfortunately, this is one of the least fixable problems that smartwatch users experience. We recommend experimenting with different voice tones and volumes and keeping background noise to a minimum. If you've already tried every tone of voice (and every 4-letter word) without success, then you will probably have to operate the watch manually in most situations. To make this easier, most watches will allow you to set up shortcut message replies (Like "saw ur msg, get back to you later") that you can tap to send. This can allow you to reply to texts quickly without using voice control.

##MISSING IMAGE##

Problem 3: Touch Screen Problems

Some smartwatch users experience touchscreen problems after dropping their watch or exposing it to water (even on supposedly water-resistant devices.) Others report having these problems straight out of the box.

The Fix: If your smartwatch first started having touch screen issues after water exposure or a fall, take it to a phone repair store and have it looked at by a professional. If that is not the case, you can try some things at home.

Check that the screen is clean and free of dust. Consider the temperature where you are trying to use the watch. Sometimes if the device gets too cold or too hot, the touchscreen can be glitchy. Cold fingers often don't work well on touch screens, so warm up and then try again. If the problem started happening after you installed a new app, uninstall the app, restart the watch, and see if the problem is fixed.

##MISSING IMAGE##

Problem 4: Lost Data

You got a new phone, but even though you backed up your data, you lost your progress on your fitness app.

The Fix: You have to first unpair your apple watch from your old iPhone, then back up your data and reconfigure your watch to work with your new phone. If you skip the unpairing step, your data could be lost. If you have already lost your data, a phone repair professional might be able to recover it for you.

REQUEST WATCH REPAIR