How to Restart an Apple Watch

Aaron Donald October 18, 2021

If your Apple Watch’s performance is lagging or its screen is suddenly frozen, the easiest way to fix it is by restarting it. While you can’t restart your Apple Watch using your paired iPhone, you can try restarting both your Apple Watch and your iPhone to establish a better connection between the two. If neither of these solutions seems to be working, your only other option is to force restart it.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can restart and force restart your Apple Watch to try to achieve better and faster performance from the device.

How to Restart the Apple Watch Directly on the Screen

The only way to restart this Apple device is on the watch itself. What’s more, this method is very simple, and it will only take a couple of minutes. To restart your Apple Watch, this is what you need to do:

Press and hold the side button of your Apple Watch.
Wait for the slider to appear on the screen.
You’ll see three options: “Power off,” “Medical ID,” and “Emergency SOS.”
Swipe the “Power off” slider to the right.
Wait a few moments.
Hold the side button until the Apple Watch turns on.

As you can see, you restart an Apple Watch in much the same way you’d restart an iPhone. When you turn it back on, everything should be working normally. Keep in mind that you can’t restart the device while it is charging. Therefore, if you want to restart it, you’ll need to remove it from the charger.

How to Force Restart the Apple Watch When Frozen

If this still didn’t solve the lagging issue, or if your Apple Watch won’t turn off, your only remaining option is to force restart it, also called a hard reset.

Keep in mind you shouldn’t force restart this device while its operating system is being updated. Doing this will interrupt the OS update and cause issues with your Apple Watch when you turn it back on. However, when this Apple device is frozen, you have no choice but to force restart it.

If you’re interested in how this device is force restarted, do the following:

Hold and press the two buttons on the watch at the same time.
Wait for five to 15 seconds to pass.
When the screen lights up, release the two buttons.
Wait a minute or two.
Hold and press the side button until you see the black screen again.

Even though force restarting an Apple Watch can solve various issues, it should only be used as a last resort. If you’re charging your Apple Watch, you won’t be able to force restart your Apple Watch.

Reboot and You Are Good to Go

Knowing how to restart your Apple Watch can be quite handy when it’s lagging, frozen, or when there’s an app that causes frequent crashes. Even though you can’t restart your Apple Watch from your iPhone, there are other things you can do to make sure the connection between these two devices is strong. Once you restart your Apple Watch and your iPhone, both devices should be performing much faster.

Have you ever restarted your Apple Watch? Why did you have to restart it? Let us know in the comments section below.