Bricked Apple Watch

I’ve got an Apple Watch 3 which all of a sudden stopped working a couple months ago. It could’ve been based on an update, I don’t know. All I know is that it doesn’t work.


If it has power it will stay on the Apple logo until it eventually goes black and then cycles back to the Apple logo again. Eventually if it is not on the charger the constant recycling will simply make it run out of power before too long.


We have tried all the solutions we have found here and online, the latest being FieryJack’s solution of holding down the crown in the side button until the Apple logo comes back, followed by holding the side button for 20 seconds. It didn’t work. It’s still just cycles between trying to boot up, and failing to boot up.


I have tried on pairing it with the phone and pretty much every solution based around the phone, and it doesn’t work. The phone is in seeing the watch, and the watch, clearly isn’t seeing the phone.


Is there not a simple solution to factory restoring this thing so we can start over? I don’t take kindly to having to pay to fix operating system issues when they are basically embedded functions.


Apple Watch

Posted on Aug 5, 2022 06:12 PM

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Posted on Aug 6, 2022 12:55 AM

Hay WrenchedInRPV,


I’ve had the same thing happened to me.

Are you connected to a reliable network? Are you in a different country than your home one because that can mess up the connection from your phone to watch And if it has a red “!” Try out this If your Apple Watch shows an iPhone and a watch or a red “!” - Apple Support And you also describe a Apple logo turning in and off, that is called a boot loop and this link could solve it https://appletoolbox.com/apple-watch-stuck-in-boot-loop/ and if your Apple Watch only shows the time in green color with a red charging logo (not while charging green if so) that is called power reserve (its used to reserve power) then use this link https://www.laptopmag.com/news/how-to-turn-off-power-reserve-on-apple-watch


if non of this worked then your best bet is to take it to a Apple store we’re the employees can do the rest :)


hopefully this helped,

have a good day





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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 6, 2022 12:55 AM in response to WrenchedInRPV

Hay WrenchedInRPV,


I’ve had the same thing happened to me.

Are you connected to a reliable network? Are you in a different country than your home one because that can mess up the connection from your phone to watch And if it has a red “!” Try out this If your Apple Watch shows an iPhone and a watch or a red “!” - Apple Support And you also describe a Apple logo turning in and off, that is called a boot loop and this link could solve it https://appletoolbox.com/apple-watch-stuck-in-boot-loop/ and if your Apple Watch only shows the time in green color with a red charging logo (not while charging green if so) that is called power reserve (its used to reserve power) then use this link https://www.laptopmag.com/news/how-to-turn-off-power-reserve-on-apple-watch


if non of this worked then your best bet is to take it to a Apple store we’re the employees can do the rest :)


hopefully this helped,

have a good day





Aug 6, 2022 01:10 AM in response to WrenchedInRPV

Oh I updated my response maybe you don’t have it here



Hay WrenchedInRPV,


I’ve had the same thing happened to me.

Are you connected to a reliable network? Are you in a different country than your home one because that can mess up the connection from your phone to watch And if it has a red “!” Try out this If your Apple Watch shows an iPhone and a watch or a red “!” - Apple Support And you also describe a Apple logo turning in and off, that is called a boot loop and this link could solve it https://appletoolbox.com/apple-watch-stuck-in-boot-loop/ and if your Apple Watch only shows the time in green color with a red charging logo (not while charging green if so) that is called power reserve (its used to reserve power) then use this link https://www.laptopmag.com/news/how-to-turn-off-power-reserve-on-apple-watch


if non of this worked then your best bet is to take it to a Apple store we’re the employees can do the rest :)


hopefully this helped,

have a good day

Aug 6, 2022 12:58 AM in response to chelp23

Hi Chelp23,


This is the maneuver I read from FieryJack. Unfortunately, it doesn't help in my case.


While the press of the two buttons will do what seems to be the reboot to the Apple logo, pressing the side button for 20 seconds (or longer) does nothing...the green check button never appears....it just continues in its same reboot loop.


From a software development perspective, I'd think that Apple would either want to know what is going on to be sure that this doesn't happen in future updates, or to their customers accidentally; or they know what's going on and don't have a fix, which means they either have a faulty design or broke a customer's watch.


I'm certainly hoping there's a solution here.

Aug 6, 2022 01:18 AM in response to chelp23

Hi Chelp23,


Network is great. No problems. Same country. No red "!" just the boot loop.


Tried the solution from appletoolbox.com, and again, the phone doesn't pair up with the watch, or vice versa, so we're not able to have one do anything to affect the other. The phone knows there was a watch attached at one point, but trying to do anything from the watch app just times it out, gives an error message and does nothing further.


For the other ideas, all I get is a boot loop, so none of those other things have any effect.


The only interesting detail other than the boot loop is that once the watch does run out of power, putting it back on the charger does give the charging signal and the correct time....but when it gets enough juice, it just goes back into boot loop.


I'm not quite too keen on paying a company to fix a device it broke, so we'll see what the Apple Store employee says...I don't have much faith.

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Bricked Apple Watch

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