Rarely, an Apple Watch Series 8 touch screen stops working or becomes unresponsive to touch. It’s obvious when this happens, you’ll touch the screen and nothing happens, swipes will be ignored, taps don’t do anything, and other touch on the screen doesn’t register any behavior. It’s clearly annoying if the Apple Watch Series 8 screen is no longer working and not responding to touch, and it’s not subtle.
Your watch touchscreen is its defining feature. In fact, an Apple Watch is essentially useless without a working touchscreen, so if it fails to respond to your touch, it’s a problem you need to solve — immediately.
The good news, though, is that unless there’s a fatal hardware problem that requires a trip to an Apple store to get the entire Watch repaired or replaced, you may be able to get up and running again with a few simple fixes.
Why Is My Apple Watch Series 8 Touch Screen not working?
- Your fingers are dirty or covered: If you’re wearing gloves or your fingers are covered in some other way, your Apple Watch might not be able to recognize your touch.
The Apple Watch screen is dirty: If your Apple Watch screen is oily, dirty or wet, this can also affect its responsiveness. - A screen protector is affecting use: If you’ve applied a new screen protector to your Apple Watch, it may not be fitted correctly.
- Your Apple Watch has frozen: If your Apple Watch has frozen, it won’t be able to respond to your touch.
Ways to fix Apple Watch Series 8 Touch Screen not working issue
If your Apple Watch Series 8 touchscreen is not working, try each of these troubleshooting tips. Hopefully, one of these will get you up and running. If not, it’s likely you have a hardware problem that may only be fixable by contacting Apple customer service to repair or replace your Watch.
Not all of these tips will apply to your situation. If you come across one that isn’t relevant to your needs, skip to the next tip.
1. Clean Your Screen, And Your Fingers
The first thing you’ll want to do is to clean off your Apple Watch screen, as well as your fingers. If you have a thick third party screen protector on the Apple Watch, you’ll want to remove it as you troubleshoot this as well.
Give your Apple Watch screen a good look in bright direct lighting and tilt it around a bit to reveal any obvious gunk, oil, residues, liquids, moistures, dried crust or food, or anything else that may be interfering in the screen. In the sunnier weather, sunscreen is another common thing that can get on a screen and make the Apple Watch Series 8 touch screen unresponsive or erroneously responsive. You’ll want to make sure the Apple Watch screen is clean and clear of anything that can interfere with the ability to detect touch properly. Wiping it down with a soft cotton cloth is often sufficient to remove anything from the Apple Watch displays touch screen, but you may need to use a slightly damp (and I do mean slightly, never enough moisture to drip) cloth to wipe the screen free.
As for your fingers, just make sure they’re clean and dry. Wash your hands or your fingers if in doubt and if you have a bunch of gunk on them. Unusually dry skin or callouses generally don’t matter and should not cause any issue with the touch screen, though if your hands are wet that may cause issues.
Just make sure the screen is clean, and that your hands are clean and dry.
2. Force-restart the watch
In most cases, restarting the watch will fix this problem. But the usual restarting method won’t work because, after holding down the side button, you need to be able to swipe across the display where it says POWER OFF.
So we’ll do a force-restart instead. To do this, press and hold the side button and the Digital Crown for around 10 seconds – keep holding until you see the Apple logo.
When the watch is powered on again, see if the touchscreen is working properly.
3. Close certain apps on the Apple Watch
If the issue seems to be restricted to one app, avoid using it or find an alternative. There may be an issue with the app rather than your Apple Watch.
4. Update your Apple Watch
If your Apple Watch hasn’t been updated in a while, it can help to update watchOS. Do this via the Watch app on your iPhone to see if it corrects the issue.
5. Resync your Apple Watch
Try unpairing your Apple Watch from your iPhone then repairing it again.
Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone. From the My Watch tab, tap your watch at the top, then on the next screen tap the lower-case i on the right. Now hit Unpair Apple Watch.
6. Is the Apple Watch Series 8 Touch Screen Cracked? Is the Apple Watch Touch Screen Damaged? Was the Watch damaged or dropped?
This is probably obvious from the get-go, but if the Apple Watch Series 8 touch screen is cracked it can become unresponsive, partially unresponsive, or just not work at all. Likewise if the Apple Watch is damaged, it may not work at all, or the touch screen may not work reliably.
If an Apple Watch has been dropped, it’s also possible that internal components came loose, which may cause the touch screen to not be working.
If the Watch has obvious visible damage and the Apple Watch touch screen is not working, the damage is likely to be the cause. In such a situation, take the Watch to an authorized Apple repair center or an Apple store and have them give it a look.
7. Contact Apple customer support
If you still have no luck getting the touchscreen to respond, it’s almost certain that you have a hardware problem with your Apple Watch and it needs professional help. Contact Apple’s customer support to see if it is eligible for repair or replacement.
FAQs
How do I factory reset an Apple Watch if the touch screen isn’t working?
Use your iPhone to unpair your Apple Watch. This step also erases the watch and restores it to factory settings. To reset your Apple Watch with your iPhone, open the Watch app and select the device from My Watch. Then tap the information icon > Unpair Apple Watch.
How do I calibrate the touch screen on an Apple Watch?
If you experience issues with how your Apple Watch’s touchscreen responds to touch inputs, you can adjust the sensitivity. On your watch, go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch Accommodations. From there, you can choose to personalize the touch screen’s response to touches based on a specific duration or disable multiple touches.
Fixed Apple Watch Series 8 not touchscreen not working problem
So, that wraps up this detailed troubleshooting guide about fixing Apple Watch Series 8 touchscreen not working issue. Hopefully, your Apple Watch is responding to swipes and taps again. Apple Watch Series 8 is faced with several annoying issues including the rapid battery drain problem, the inability to install apps and charge the Apple Watch. Let me know your experience of using Apple Watch Series 8 and whether or not the above fixes have worked for you..
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