Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work, why?

[miblev]

Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I wear my apple watch to bed. I use the silent haptic alarm to wake me every morning. I continue to use a back up alarm clock. Sometimes, I wake to the back up alarm clock and when I look at my watch, the alarm is on the screen (with the options to snooze or dismiss), but there are no haptic touches. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

Welcome to iMore! Make sure you have Haptic Strength turned set to the maximum in Watch app > Sounds & Haptics

If you've already done that or you're still having issues I recommend contacting Apple Support or taking your watch into an Apple Store. It should still be under warranty. My first Apple Watch had the same issue and I had it exchanged.

 

[Snoweagle]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I've no problems with mine, you may wish to bring it for checking if the above mentioned setting still does not work.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I wear my apple watch to bed. I use the silent haptic alarm to wake me every morning. I continue to use a back up alarm clock. Sometimes, I wake to the back up alarm clock and when I look at my watch, the alarm is on the screen (with the options to snooze or dismiss), but there are no haptic touches. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Is it possible that you're simply not feeling the haptic feedback due to you sleeping so soundly?

 

[miblev]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I thought of that, but wouldn't the vibrations continue until I woke up 5 minutes later via my backup alarm? I note that when I do wake up, the alarm screen is on the watch.

 

[miblev]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

Thanks, Haptic Strength has been turned up since day one. I contacted Apple Support and they ran diagnostics with no issues. They had me restart both my phone and watch. I have a case number so I will try it for a few days and see if that fixes it. Interesting to see you had the same problem. Was it in the context of the alarm or other alerts? I haven't had any issues besides missing the alarms on occasion.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

Thanks, Haptic Strength has been turned up since day one. I contacted Apple Support and they ran diagnostics with no issues. They had me restart both my phone and watch. I have a case number so I will try it for a few days and see if that fixes it. Interesting to see you had the same problem. Was it in the context of the alarm or other alerts? I haven't had any issues besides missing the alarms on occasion.

My problem was zero haptic feedback at times, or it was very faint and kind of loud. This would occur with any type of notification, although I didn't test the alarm as I use my iPhone for that purpose and don't wear my watch to bed. I brought it to an Apple Store and just asked for a replacement since I was still within the 14-day return period. Current watch is much better.

 

[robertk328]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I've had mine get "stuck" once where it didn't work one day a few weeks ago.

Called Apple, got a case number, and it started working again. I toggled the prominent feedback on the watch itself vs in the app to get it going and it has been fine since. When you change it on the watch it actually provides the feedback but doesn't in the app (prominent toggle). I have apple care plus so I'm not worried about it but if it continues I would take it in.

 

[erky]

I have this exact same problem. For a long while, my watch alarms worked fine on silent, just using the haptic taps to wake me up. But then one day in the last few weeks or so (perhaps around the release of watchOS 2.1, though I can?t be sure), the taps stopped working, or rather, the alarm would tap me once on the wrist and that was it. It would not continue tapping like it used to until I snoozed or dismissed it. I have tried recurring, non-recurring, with snooze on/off, set manually, set via Siri? I can?t get them to behave like they used to.

Not sure if it helps to know that someone else out there is having the same problem or not. I have no idea how to resolve it.

 

[syed_muz]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

It might be the battery power level effecting

 

[erky]

So for the last two nights, I have tried turning off Prominent Haptics, and otherwise leaving my alarms and other watch settings untouched, and the alarm has gone off at the right time and continues to tap me on my wrist until I dismiss it or snooze. I’ll try a few other approaches, but it does seem that there is something to disabling Prominent Haptics.

 

[miblev]

Is the vibration strong enough to wake you without the Prominent Haptics?

 

[farvardinzad]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

You need to activate the Prominent Hepitc feature under Sounds & Haptics.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

It might be the battery power level effecting

Apple lithium batteries (and pretty much all lithium batteries for that matter) aren't designed that way. They're either alive or dead. So if the battery is at 1% haptics should work just as well as if it were at 100%.

 

[erky]

Is the vibration strong enough to wake you without the Prominent Haptics?

Yeah, it is. It’s the same as the vibration you get when a timer goes off in silent mode.

So I’ve been playing with this more and I don’t think the issue is related to prominent haptic(s). I’ve had the alarm exhibit the same erroneous behavior — not continuing to tap my wrist until I snoozed or dismissed it — with prominent on and off.

Miblev, do you do any of the following?

1. Change your watch face overnight?
2. Use Sleep++?
3. Put your watch into airplane mode overnight?

 

[NinerJet9]

Re: Apple watch silent haptic alarms do not always work

I have the same issue w my AW not sending a prominent feedback but yet the alarm has gone off because it's asking me to snooze or dismiss the alarm. This is happened to me a couple of times and to the point, I will wear my MS Band on nights that's I absolutely need to rely on my silent alarm to get up early in the morning. I always have my haptic feedback to the max, aw in silent mode and sometimes Sleep++ in airplane mode.

 

[miblev]

erky, I do all of those things. By the way, Apple Care instructed me to make a Genius Appointment, which I did. They said they had to send it off for repair and if they couldn't repair it they would give me a new watch. I dropped it off last Saturday, and my new one was waiting for me at the store on Wednesday. New one worked fine this morning but we'll see...

I believe the problem is in the alarm function, since I had no other issues with the haptic.

 

[miblev]

Update: the alarm on my new watch worked fine the first two nights. However, this morning it didn't vibrate and when I woke up, the alarm screen was on my watch. I think Apple has a software glitch.

 

[iPGnr1]

Hello there!


Having exactly the same annoying problem! :/ Have you found a solution yet? As I understood you got it replaced and then got the problem back on the new one, right?

 

[erky]

I think it’s a software issue as well. Either something to do with Sleep++ or the OS (or both). I have repeatably been able to make the alarm work properly so long as I don’t also use Sleep++. Changing the watch face and airplane mode seem to have no effect.