Got the AW Ultra but so now so sad and don’t know what to do

[zinned]

Like everyone else I’ve been looking forward to my Apple Watch Ultra arriving and today was the day.

I got it delivered, so happy, and unpaired my Series 4 while unpacking the new watch. When I had the S4 unpaired I started my new watch but…what? It doesn’t boot up. I tried all kind of way but no, it wouldn’t boot. After a bit of searching and a bit of YouTube I learned that I was facing what was called “The green snake of death”, something with the battery that wouldn’t be fixed no matter how long I charged it.

I went to the one and only local Apple Store we have here and they exchanged it for another. I stayed in the store while setting it up so I saw that everything was ok.
When I got back home I noticed that it suddenly rebooted but I didn’t make anything of it.

During the rest of the day I was experiencing immediate freezes of the watch. It wasn’t possible to interact with it at all, it was totally frozen and I needed to hold down both Digital Crown and side button to force it to reboot. So it rebooted and then it happened after like five minutes again. Reboot again and then it happened again, and again, and again…

I went back to the Apple Store a third time and they said they couldn’t do anything about it but recommended me to call Apple Support Senior technicians.

Afterwards I went swimming with my son and wife and I noticed that the watch didn’t freeze at all during the time I was in the pool. The only difference was that when in the pool and the watch got submerged in water, the water lock kicked in and turned off all interaction with the screen until I held down the Digital Crown to get it to push out any water inside. After the water lock was gone the watch would then freeze up in a couple of minutes. After reboot I went down in the pool again and did some swimming and diving to the bottom and the Depth app kicked in every time and everything was working fine. Up until I removed the water lock in order to interact with the watch, then it took some minutes and then it froze as before.

I’m just so incredibly sad right now. I’d been looking forward to this, to step up to the Ultra from my S4 and this happens.

Have you guys any idea what I could do, besides calling Apple Support? I want to use my new watch, I want it to work, like all my previous watches have.

 

[ckurt25]

Did you update to 9.0.1? I wonder if that might be the cause or possibly the solution. If haven't updated, try that. If you're still having issues after the update I'd call Apple as soon as possible.

 

[zinned]

Did you update to 9.0.1? I wonder if that might be the cause or possibly the solution. If haven't updated, try that. If you're still having issues after the update I'd call Apple as soon as possible.

Yeah, I updated as soon as I’d paired the watch to my phone.

Feels like it should be possible to narrow it down to the cause here.

 

[NotApplicable]

Feels like it should be possible to narrow it down to the cause here.

Luckily this is exactly what support personnel are for!

 

[ckurt25]

Luckily this is exactly what support personnel are for!

I had to call today about a borderline ID Ten T error and they were super helpful.

re: the error - I guess had set Apple Watch Faces to Never share location from my iPhone a while back and that’s why I couldn’t see Lat / Long on the Wayfinder watch face. I could in Compass so I was very corn-fused.

 

[pedregosa]

If a new Apple device does not appear to function properly out of the box, and it isn't a known issue with a solution in sight, you're better off returning/exchanging and just getting a new one within the 14-day window rather than trouble-shooting. My new AW Ultra had an orange line briefly flashing across the screen during start-up this morning (which I might have let go if that was the only thing), and then would not charge properly (the battery level went down over the course of an hour while on a 20-watt charger and with the charging icon showing active), so I took it back swapped it out for another -- which fortunately they still had in stock.

 

[dotwav]

Why wouldn’t they swap it out for another one that works? Kind of insane they sent you home with a broken $800 AWU

 

[kitenski]

Did you restore from backup or setup as a new watch? Might be worth setting up as a new watch & turn off sync all apps in case some older app is causing an issue?

 

[zinned]

Why wouldn’t they swap it out for another one that works? Kind of insane they sent you home with a broken $800 AWU

This is the second one. The initial one I got would boot at all so I went to the store and they swapped it out. This second one did boot but now has the big issue of freezing from time to time.

 

[zinned]

Did you restore from backup or setup as a new watch? Might be worth setting up as a new watch & turn off sync all apps in case some older app is causing an issue?

I’ve tried both to no avail.

A question though, when setting up as a new watch the option to sync all apps seems to be turned on by default. So before I’ve even gone through the initial setup wizard I believe that the apps has started syncing.

 

[Monkswhiskers]

My friend always told me never to buy the new version of any Apple product, always wait for the 2nd revision,lol.
Seriously though, just return and buy another.

 

[M33-1]

Like everyone else I’ve been looking forward to my Apple Watch Ultra arriving and today was the day.

I got it delivered, so happy, and unpaired my Series 4 while unpacking the new watch. When I had the S4 unpaired I started my new watch but…what? It doesn’t boot up. I tried all kind of way but no, it wouldn’t boot. After a bit of searching and a bit of YouTube I learned that I was facing what was called “The green snake of death”, something with the battery that wouldn’t be fixed no matter how long I charged it.

I went to the one and only local Apple Store we have here and they exchanged it for another. I stayed in the store while setting it up so I saw that everything was ok.
When I got back home I noticed that it suddenly rebooted but I didn’t make anything of it.

During the rest of the day I was experiencing immediate freezes of the watch. It wasn’t possible to interact with it at all, it was totally frozen and I needed to hold down both Digital Crown and side button to force it to reboot. So it rebooted and then it happened after like five minutes again. Reboot again and then it happened again, and again, and again…

I went back to the Apple Store a third time and they said they couldn’t do anything about it but recommended me to call Apple Support Senior technicians.

Afterwards I went swimming with my son and wife and I noticed that the watch didn’t freeze at all during the time I was in the pool. The only difference was that when in the pool and the watch got submerged in water, the water lock kicked in and turned off all interaction with the screen until I held down the Digital Crown to get it to push out any water inside. After the water lock was gone the watch would then freeze up in a couple of minutes. After reboot I went down in the pool again and did some swimming and diving to the bottom and the Depth app kicked in every time and everything was working fine. Up until I removed the water lock in order to interact with the watch, then it took some minutes and then it froze as before.

I’m just so incredibly sad right now. I’d been looking forward to this, to step up to the Ultra from my S4 and this happens.

Have you guys any idea what I could do, besides calling Apple Support? I want to use my new watch, I want it to work, like all my previous watches have.

I agree with many others…return it in the 14 day window. Don’t keep that watch with random errors. Get a new one at the local store, or order another online if they are out of stock. Shop Target, Best Buy, and others for inventory. Don’t settle! Even if you have to wait another 30 days for a new watch, you won’t regret it.

 

[zinned]

Yeah, I will swap it at the Apple Store but how about this way :

1) Unpair it and wait for iOS 16.1 to be released (should be this coming week, right?) and see if it works then.

2) If that doesn’t fix it, then return if for a new one. Then I’m thinking of restoring my phone (12 Pro Max) and set it up as a new one before I then pair the new watch with my phone.

Another thing, I also have this strange option among all the available complications. I’m not sure but I believe it’s from the Widgy app. I have deleted that app from my phone and rebooted it but the complication is still available among the others in the settings for any of the watch faces.

 

[Toratek]

My friend always told me never to buy the new version of any Apple product, always wait for the 2nd revision,lol.
Seriously though, just return and buy another.

Your friend might have been right in the case of a Series 0. This is arguably the 9th generation product.