Is my Haptic broken?

[FellaMeLad]

Hey all,

Got my 42mm Space Gray AW Sport yesterday and have just been setting it up, playing with it, etc.

I'm wondering, though, if my haptic is not working properly. When I go into the Sounds and Haptics menu, I can set my haptic strength to one of three levels - extreme left, middle, and extreme right.

• When I set this to the extreme left, I can feel nothing at all! Is that as expected? Does that level effectively turn the haptic feedback off, or should I still feel a little?
  
  
• When I set this to the middle setting, I can feel vibrations. Cool!
  
  
• When I set this to the extreme right, I can feel vibrations - but it feels very similar to the middle settings. Should there be a real noticeable change, here?

Depending on what you all think, I may bring it back to the Apple Store later tonight for them to look at and possibly exchange. Just didn't want to waste time going there if they'll just say "That's normal". Plus - they might not have a replacement in store, and I'd hate to leave it!

(Thinking about that - I guess I could 'reserve' and Apple watch at the store through their website! Then, if they do need to replace it, they'll have one on hand )

 

[mr.anthonyramos]

Extreme left is literally like turning it off. I feel nothing too.

But there should be a difference between the middle and far right level.

Maybe have someone else give it a feel and see if they can discern if there is a difference or not.

 

[wchigo]

I'll second what ramos said. Extreme left makes a noise when you select it, but I can't say I feel anything at all. There is a fairly subtle (in my opinion) difference between middle and extreme right, but a difference nonetheless.

For what it's worth I'm currently using a 42mm SS and switching between BSB and ML.

 

[CharlesShaw]

Extreme left is haptic off, if I'm interpreting the color of the square correctly, which changes from white to gray.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Hey all,

Got my 42mm Space Gray AW Sport yesterday and have just been setting it up, playing with it, etc.

I'm wondering, though, if my haptic is not working properly. When I go into the Sounds and Haptics menu, I can set my haptic strength to one of three levels - extreme left, middle, and extreme right.

• When I set this to the extreme left, I can feel nothing at all! Is that as expected? Does that level effectively turn the haptic feedback off, or should I still feel a little?
  
  
• When I set this to the middle setting, I can feel vibrations. Cool!
  
  
• When I set this to the extreme right, I can feel vibrations - but it feels very similar to the middle settings. Should there be a real noticeable change, here?

Depending on what you all think, I may bring it back to the Apple Store later tonight for them to look at and possibly exchange. Just didn't want to waste time going there if they'll just say "That's normal". Plus - they might not have a replacement in store, and I'd hate to leave it!

(Thinking about that - I guess I could 'reserve' and Apple watch at the store through their website! Then, if they do need to replace it, they'll have one on hand )

All haptic motors are not the same. My first watch was terrible and I could only feel about 1 out of 5 times. Missed notifications all the time. My second watch has a very good haptic motor and I can feel it almost every single time.

I would get it changed out.

 

[FellaMeLad]

OK cool - thanks for the responses. At least we've determined that the extreme left setting turns it off. Thanks for that - makes sense, but it just wasn't immediately obvious!

I've just checked and my nearest Apple store (Watford, London) closes at 6PM weekdays which is too early for me to get to after work - so I'll have to use the Watch for the next few days anyway. Maybe as I get used to the feeling I'll be able to discern a difference between the middle and right settings.

I'll also do what mr.anthonyramos suggests and get someone else to feel it.

Thanks again,

Fella

 

[FellaMeLad]

All haptic motors are not the same. My first watch was terrible and I could only feel about 1 out of 5 times. Missed notifications all the time. My second watch has a very good haptic motor and I can feel it almost every single time.

I would get it changed out.

Yup - I can't get to the Apple Store until Thursday (late opening) so I'll give it a go until then. I can barely feel a difference between the middle and right settings, so I'll get a friend at work to check for me to see if it's just me lol.

When/if I do pick up a new one on Thursday, I'll make sure to test it in store...

Fella

 

[Newtons Apple]

Yup - I can't get to the Apple Store until Thursday (late opening) so I'll give it a go until then. I can barely feel a difference between the middle and right settings, so I'll get a friend at work to check for me to see if it's just me lol.

When/if I do pick up a new one on Thursday, I'll make sure to test it in store...

Fella

My first watch could not be felt on the max settings with prominent set to on.

My 2nd watch I do not need to turn on prominent. The difference is night and day.

Good Luck

 

[joydens]

I have literally just got off the phone with Apple Support over virtually an identical issue. I have had my 42mm SS for just over a week and like you have found the haptic very weak and could tell no difference between having the slide in the middle or to the far right on supposedly the strongest setting.

I have also found over the past couple of days the haptic feedback getting progressively weaker and even not happening at all, it's been driving me nuts. Rebooting the watch or fiddling with settings would seem to get things going again but for a variable amount of time.

Apple are sending me out a replacement watch.

 

[JD92]

OK cool - thanks for the responses. At least we've determined that the extreme left setting turns it off. Thanks for that - makes sense, but it just wasn't immediately obvious!

I've just checked and my nearest Apple store (Watford, London) closes at 6PM weekdays which is too early for me to get to after work - so I'll have to use the Watch for the next few days anyway. Maybe as I get used to the feeling I'll be able to discern a difference between the middle and right settings.

I'll also do what mr.anthonyramos suggests and get someone else to feel it.

Thanks again,

Fella

If you're going for an exchange, make sure you reserve one online before showing up. That's what I did with my return.

 

[FellaMeLad]

If you're going for an exchange, make sure you reserve one online before showing up. That's what I did with my return.

Yes! That's what I suggested I'd do in my original post! But I didn't know if that was an 'abuse of system' as it were.

But now you've said you did it, I'll do the same when I go for a replacement on Thursday

Fella.

 

[ThaRagingAsian]

hmmm, I do notice my Taptic feed back is the same at middle and right settings. plus feels weaker than the one i tried on at the store. I thought it was because the one i tried on is a sport model and mine is SS. Should I call Apple?

 

[FellaMeLad]

hmmm, I do notice my Taptic feed back is the same at middle and right settings. plus feels weaker than the one i tried on at the store. I thought it was because the one i tried on is a sport model and mine is SS. Should I call Apple?

Well - I think maybe you should call them. I asked a friend at work today and, like me, he could hardly tell the difference between the middle and the right settings on my Sport. So I've decided, this Apple Watch is going back.

The way I see it, if they went to the trouble of putting a three stage slider in the UI (effectively: off, strong, and stronger) then you should be able to easily tell the difference between strong and stronger. Because I can't with this watch, I want Apple to change it for one where I can feel the difference!

I'll just have to make sure to baby it for the next few days so I don't scratch it or anything. Heck, I might even just put it back in its box for now.

Fella.

 

[mush10]

I have been struggling with my Haptic as well but cannot tell if it is normal or not. I have been on phone with Apple. I am going to swing by an Apple Store today and try a few out and see if I can tell a difference. If so, I will seek a replacement. I am starting to think it is just weak in general. For now I keep the sound on, but would rather not use that as a workaround in the future.

 

[oberman]

My haptic grew weaker, then died. It's off getting repaired now.

 

[T-Will]

You probably know this already, but the band needs to be snug on your wrist to really feel the tap (not too snug, but not loose either).

 

[Mac2me]

I have the SS AW and can feel a difference when I use the slider. Far Left is just the sound alert.

 

[oberman]

For me, my haptic went weak, but then zero strength (no buzz at all) at full strength setting (I mentioned this here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/broken-haptic.1894539/ before I saw this thread).

It made it easy to decide it was broken when it wouldn't buzz at all ever

 

[swandy]

My first watch (42mm SS) that was in an early batch - received mine the week after launch date - I was missing a lot of notifications - even with Prominent - on. Especially when doing things that my wrist would be moving like driving. Got a replacement today (Thank You Apple Care +) and we will see. Not sure if I am wearing it too loosely - don't think so - but testing out the new watch. I really don't care if Prominent needs to be on for me personally, but would love to be able to leave the Watch in Mute mode. (Actually my preferences would be for the sound to be in effect for Texts and Phone Calls only and off for emails - yes did that already - AND Notifications since it seems a lot of 3rd party apps need freaking SOUND to be enabled for their notifications to be sent to the Watch.)

 

[JD92]

My first watch (42mm SS) that was in an early batch - received mine the week after launch date - I was missing a lot of notifications - even with Prominent - on. Especially when doing things that my wrist would be moving like driving. Got a replacement today (Thank You Apple Care +) and we will see. Not sure if I am wearing it too loosely - don't think so - but testing out the new watch. I really don't care if Prominent needs to be on for me personally, but would love to be able to leave the Watch in Mute mode. (Actually my preferences would be for the sound to be in effect for Texts and Phone Calls only and off for emails - yes did that already - AND Notifications since it seems a lot of 3rd party apps need freaking SOUND to be enabled for their notifications to be sent to the Watch.)

Why did you need AppleCare+? Did you pay the excess? This is surely something that'd be covered under the standard warranty.

 

[Newtons Apple]

My seconds watch has such good haptic that I would never miss a notification.

But after a week it is getting weaker and even with it turned up to max with prominent I am no longer feeling it like it was new. After both watch did the same thing . . . . .

 

[Newtons Apple]

My haptic grew weaker, then died. It's off getting repaired now.

Over how long of a period did it take for your haptic motor to fail?

 

[iConnected]

Why did you need AppleCare+? Did you pay the excess? This is surely something that'd be covered under the standard warranty.

AppleCare+ also includes the Express Replacement Service at no extra cost, so you get warranty-based exchanges more quickly.

There's no accidental damage deductible to pay for warranty issues.

 

[FellaMeLad]

UPDATE: Apple changed my Watch!

I took it to the Apple store after work this evening and explained that I thought the haptic motor was faulty. The specialist tried it and he said he could feel a difference between the middle and extreme right settings, although he agreed the difference was not great.

I noticed he was wearing a Space Gray Sport the same as mine - lol so I asked him to compare the two, and I asked if I could see how the haptic felt on his watch. There was definitely a difference on his, and he agreed - but he then said that he didn't think they had any more in stock.

So I said "Errrm - I actually reserved one earlier today just in case!" Boom! Replacement Apple Watch. I made sure to open and try it there and then and, yes, the haptic feedback on the new Watch was much better than my original one.

The fella is now a happy bunny

 

[hcole623]

I've had my silver/green Sport 42mm for only 3 days now, and I came to MR thinking my haptic was becoming weaker. Seems like it's only a matter of time at this point.