Frozen apple watch

My watch (series 7) appears to be frozen. I had it on the charger for a few hours so it should be fully charged, but nothing works. I've tried resetting it, but the slider won't appear when I press the buttons on the side, so I can't turn it off. The only things that show up when I hold the buttons is the time in the upper right corner and a red lightning in the upper left corner (it turns green when I place it on my charger again.) Where do I go from here? I've looked through the topics here, but nothing they suggest works. I'm stumped.

Apple Watch Series 7, watchOS 9

Posted on Mar 22, 2023 08:37 PM

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5 replies

Mar 23, 2023 11:19 AM in response to Gebbech

Good news.👍

Batteries are strange things, they need some charge to be able to get charged and when the red bolt appears your battery was in danger of being too drained to charge.


Charge all night every night, unless you use sleep monitoring, in which case make sure it is 100% before sleep and 100% before starting the work day.?

Mar 23, 2023 01:46 AM in response to Gebbech

Red lightning bolt is a severely drained battery (power reserve mode).

Put it on the charger for at least an hour,

Then force restart it - i.e. press and hold both the side button and Digital Crown for at least 10 seconds, then release both buttons when you see the Apple logo. 


Then while that is happening Force Restart the iphone  

Force restart iPhone – Apple Support (UK) 


If you still have the problem

reach out to Apple Support directly. You should be able to reach them here

Click here > Contact - Official Apple Support

or phone numbers

Click here > Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

and or

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple



Mar 23, 2023 04:54 AM in response to LD150

Thanks for your reply, however, I've tried all that. When I put the watch back on the charger, the lightening turns green again. I actually had it on my charger for at least 3 hours. When I push the digital crown and the side buttons, nothing comes up other than the lightening and the time way at the top of the screen. There's no way to force restart the watch.


Also, I've checked the watch settings on my phone; it still lists my watch, but it says it cannot connect to the watch.


I guess I'll have to contact Apple as I've tried everything I can find online.

Mar 23, 2023 10:45 AM in response to LD150

Well, this was a surprise. After trying 4 different chargers on 4 different outlets, over a 6 hour span of time, I went back to my original third party charger and just left my watch there for about 45 minutes and it started charging! It appears to be working. I’m going to wait another day before I cancel my Genius appointment, just to make sure it keeps working.

Thanks for your suggestions and help.

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Frozen apple watch

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