7 Simple Ways to Fix an Apple Watch That Doesn’t Swipe
If you’re an Apple Watch user, you know that there’s no shortage of things to love about the device. But even the best products can have their flaws, and the Apple Watch is no exception.
On Apple Watch, you should be able to swipe your finger up or down on the touch screen to access the Notifications Center (swipe down) and Control Center (swipe up). But a not-so-uncommon issue reported by Apple Watch users is a complete freeze of that feature.
What can you do if your Apple Watch won’t swipe down for notifications? And what if your Apple Watch doesn’t respond when you swipe up to access settings shortcuts? Luckily, there are a few ways to fix this issue.
You Can’t Swipe With wet Fingers
To swipe up or down on your Apple Watch, the touch screen needs to detect your finger’s movements. Make sure your finger and the surface of the Apple Watch screen are not wet or oily. Try swiping at different speeds.
Make sure that your watch is on your wrist and that you have entered the passcode to unlock it.
Restart Your Apple Watch
We tend to restart our iPhones every now and then but forget to do the same with our Apple watches. Restarting your watch is a good way to fix a swipe down and swipe up problem on Apple Watch.
- Press down the haptic side button for 2 seconds.
- Drag the ‘Power off’ slider to the right.
- Wait about 30 seconds.
- Restart the watch by pressing and holding the haptic side button until the Apple logo appears.
Unpair Apple Watch from Your iPhone and Pair it Again
If your Apple Watch won’t swipe down, there could be a problem with the synchronization of notifications between your iPhone and your watch.
Try to unpair the phone and pair it again. In doing so, check that you haven’t paired multiple iPhones to your Apple Watch. If you have, determine which iPhone needs to be paired and unpair the other one(s).
- Open the Watch app on the iPhone.
- In the ‘My Watch’ tab (generally the default tab), tap on ‘All Watches’ at the very top of the screen.
- Tap on the “i” button of the watch you want to unpair.
- Tap on the ‘Unpair Apple Watch’ button.
- Go back to the ‘All Watches’ page.
- Tap on ‘Add Watch’.
- Follow steps to pair the iPhone again.
When you pair the iPhone and watch again, make sure your pair it as new. Do not pair it using a backup.
Force a Restart of Apple Watch
If Apple Watch isn’t responding at all, you may force a restart. If you’ve already been able to restart your watch using ‘Fix 2: Restart your Apple Watch’, this step is unlikely to fix an Apple Watch Can’t Swipe Down issue.
- Press and hold both the side button and digital crown for ten seconds.
- Release the button and crown when the Apple logo appears.
- You may want to put your watch on its charger whilst it restarts.
Free up Memory Space on Your Apple Watch
Check if your Apple Watch is close to its maximum storage capacity and if so, free up memory space.
- Click on the digital crown, scroll down, and tap on ‘Settings’.
- Tap on ‘General’.
- Tap on ‘Storage’.
- If your storage is close to capacity, identify potential savings from the list provided (the list is in decreasing order of disk space used, so the largest savings will come from elements at the top of the list).
- Follow the required steps to free up storage on Apple Watch.
Reset Your Apple Watch
If nothing works, you may try erasing all the content and settings on your Apple Watch.
- Click on the digital crown, scroll down, and tap on ‘Settings’.
- Tap on ‘General’.
- Tap on ‘Reset’.
- Tap on the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ button and enter your passcode accordingly.
Contact Your Local Apple Store or Apple’s Online Support Center
If you’ve tried all of the above fixes and your Apple Watch still doesn’t swipe up or down, your issue could be hardware related. Contact your local Apple store or reach out to Apple’s customer services online. If your Apple Watch is still covered by the warranty, and the issue is caused by a manufacturing defect, they are likely to solve your issue for free.
Conclusion
There are a few potential solutions if you can’t swipe down or up on your Apple Watch. Hopefully one of the above fixes solved your problem. Please help a fellow Apple Watch user by letting us know which solution worked in the comments below.
Read this related article on How to Easily Free up Space on Your Apple Watch.
