How do I stop the screen locks when using my watch?

By slj, 26 August, 2020

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

Hi.
I have used an Apple Watch series 2 for very long time, and today I just got a new Apple Watch series 5.
I have an issue which happens on both watches, and I'm wandering if I'm doing something wrong, or if there is a setting which I have to change.
When using the watch, even when navigating the screen, the screen suddenly locks and makes the screen lock click. That even happens a few seconds after I have swiped to the next icon, or made other gestures on the screen. Then I have to unlock the watch again to continue using it.
I find this very frustrating. I have looked in the settings, and I've set the lock time to 70 seconds on the watch face, but that doesn't solve my issue.
Are you experiencing the same issue? Do you have any ideas on what to try to solve this?
Deleting all data from the watches and setting them up from scratch does not solve the issue.

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Comments

By nohansa nuh on Monday, August 24, 2020 - 12:26

I have A same problem,
mayby triggring the sensore for procsimity.

By slj on Thursday, September 24, 2020 - 12:26

In reply to by nohansa nuh

Hi.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who are having this issue. Yeah it might be the sensor which get tricked, I'm not sure. I have warm hands most of the time. i'm not sure if that can tricker the sensor or not.

By Matthew Whitaker on Thursday, September 24, 2020 - 12:26

I have the same issue here as well.

By DPinWI on Thursday, September 24, 2020 - 12:26

I find it locks faster and often when I don't want it to when my wrist is not raised. I hold my wrist and thereby the watch as if I am looking at it and it stays unlocked more predictably.

By Stoo on Saturday, September 24, 2022 - 12:26

Hi, just got my Watch and having the same problem.

It does seem to not lock quite as quickly if my wrist is raised, but all the settings like "raise to wake" and "raise to speak" are turned off.
I assumed that this would also turn off any detection of the wrist position effecting the screen locking.

It's very annoying and if anyone has a solution please do tell!!

By Roxann Pollard on Saturday, September 24, 2022 - 12:26

Not certain this is the solution, but I have noticed that if I have my wrist tilted at too much of an angle, the proximity sensor is triggered, and the screen will lock. I don't think this is connected to Watch OS9, but rather just a sensor issue. So I try to keep my wrist more on the flat or watch facing the cealing, when in use. I don't think about it much, meaning that I don't have to be extremely careful, when interacting with the watch, to ensure that my wrist is indeed facing upward, but just try to keep a bit of awareness that I don't allow too much angle to happen.

The other reason why I believe this is a sensor related issue is, if you wake up the watch and thendrop your arm rapidly downward, this will also trigger the lock screen. I believe this is an intentional activity of the sensor.

I also have my sleep time set to the max of 70 seconds.

HTH

By Lily Rose on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

I have an applewatch series 3, and this has been happening to me ever since watchOS6, which I was on actually just a few weeks ago because my 8GB capacity watch didn't have enough storage space and I had to reset it to get it up to watchOS 8 point something, and if I hold my hand too low down, when I wake it up it will always seem to lock faster, so I have to hold my arm at a very odd angle that my wrist is nice and high up so that it won't exhibit this behavior. Thank you, for the tips, maybe I'm doing something wrong. I'll try that.

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

Sane issue. Series 7.

By Lily Rose on Monday, October 24, 2022 - 12:26

I'm starting to think this is by design, because the Applewatch is probably meant for you to just pick it up and glance at the time or your activity data or something, then put it back down and it just shut off so as not to eat up too much battery and there's no lock button. But I think there could be an update so that when you're flipping through a menu with VO, which is slower than a sighted person who just looks at there watch and tap-tap-tap-done, and we can't exactly do that, at least I can't, and it's harder with only one hand that has to be reaching across the whole time and trying to swipe-swipe-swipe, it should maybe be able to detect that you're moving your finger, and not shut it off, like on the iPhone. Not that it will help for those of us who can't even update to watch os9, but still, it will probably be a big improvement.