How to restart the Apple Watch with WatchOS 10?

By mr grieves, 24 November, 2023

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

So I've upgraded from WatchOS 9 to 10. I've noticed that I no longer get playback options on my watch when listening to podcasts on the phone. So, obviously I need to turn it off and on again.

So on my Watch I go to Settings, General and Shut Down as before.

And... what the hell has happened here? Well, at the top there is a power button, then under that Siren and some other stuff. So I tap Power, then go up and it says Cancel, so I go back down and Power is still there. But I've now learned that this is a trap! If I go forwards I get to Siren, and back it's now saying Cancel. Forwards and there's Siren again. So no power button any more.

If you do press the power button for a second time, it will set sirens off on the watch because it's not really a power button it's the watch equivalent of a hole with spikes in it covered by twigs and leaves.

On the apple help it seems to suggest that I think you press power then have to use some kind of slider to turn off or something. But I've been swiping around trying to get the watch to shut down with no luck. I have successfully managed to sound the siren quite a few times however!

So am I missing something obvious like usual?

(I should say I think you can shut down by holding both side buttons for a bit but it goes to the same place.)

Options

Comments

By Brian Giles on Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - 19:35

I just tried this, and shut down my watch with no issues. After double tapping the power button in general>shut down, I could only find the power off slider by exploring by touch. I found it in the bottom middle of the screen. Double tapping that shut down my watch and I restarted it by holding down the side button for a few seconds.

I too use my watch to control podcast playback on my iPhone a lot. controls usually show up automatically once I start a podcast playing on my phone, but every once in a while, the podcasts app on my watch just takes me to my list of podcasts I can play from the watch directly. If I double tap the back button in the top left corner, then I can double tap the now playing button to get the remote controls for iPhone playback to show up again.

Also note that in WatchOS 10, Apple changed the now playing screen. I like it much better now. The controls for skipping back and forth and play/pause are now on the very bottom edge of the screen, making them, for me at least, much easier to find by touch.

By mr grieves on Tuesday, November 21, 2023 - 19:35

Oh, thank you - there it is! I can't believe I couldn't find it before. (Hangs head in shame) Just a slightly weird bit of UI. Not sure why Siren is under Shut Down anyway but it was certainly freaking me out.

So I had been messing with Eloquence. I don't like the voices but because so many people on here swear by them I thought I'd try it on my watch and see if I can get used to it. After starting up, Eddie was reading out my PIN code and then nothing. Just click click click. Then a brief moment where Daniel said something, then click click click. I changed the voice back to Stephanie using my phone and it's now fine. So that's the end of that experiment.

Not had a chance to try the now playing screen yet since I did that but will try later on. I hope it is better. So far I've not found any changes in watch OS 10 to be better than they were in 9.