i am truly fed up with this device

[stevemiller]

the apple watch has been, in my experience, the worst apple product i've ever owned.

i've reinstalled fresh multiple times (and set up as new, no backup cruft being restored), and within hours, new issues crop up, and looking online the solution is to... reinstall again. this device is not worth this level of effort. i don't know if i've just been very unlucky and bought a dud, but this has been just. so. disappointing.

since the last reformat, the watch will unlock my phone, but my phone will not unlock the watch. when i try to enable the setting, the watch asks for my password to confirm (so they are communicating), then... does nothing. the setting stays off no matter how many times i try.

trying to control homekit lights will fail, until i toggle them with my iphone, then they will start working. it seems i have to use homekit controls on the phone immediately before attempting to use them on the watch, and this basically defeats any purpose for using the watch for that task?

sometimes i'll ask siri for directions, and it will say "ok getting directions" and then proceed to go back to sleep without actually beginning any directions on my watch or phone.

when i am out walking, the watch will be a complete crapshoot of auto-detecting that i am out for a walk. sometimes it'll detect within first 5-10 minutes, sometimes it will take over half an hour, sometimes never. same route. same pace. once it started detecting after half an hour, but only recognized the previous 15 minutes of actual walk data once it started. and THEN when i finished the walk it threw out even more of that data, and in a 5km walk, registered a total 400 metres (even though the workout screen had been showing an also incorrect 1.3km - see the attached photos below if you don't believe me!)

i've had weather stop updating for days at a time. step tracking, heart rate complications being sometimes 12 hours or more out of date.

one time it literally stopped updating the date on the watch face and showed the incorrect date for half the day. i can't even rely on it for the basic task of keeping time.

all this on top of getting 1/5th the battery life of my old fitbit and doing a worse job of every single task the fitbit did perfectly.

i'm sure some people here will say "well this never happens to me"... but like... it DOES happen to me. isn't that also valid? is it right that apple products should be this inconsistent? and i feel like i have next to no recourse.

sincerely,
a disappointed user.

 

[Howard2k]

Auto-detection of a walking workout would be a crapshoot. I think that's a totally reasonable - one person's gentle stroll is another person's walking workout. The watch is going to struggle to determine which is which. I'm sure it could be better in the future as undoubtedly AI or NPU gains could provide more clarity, but I always manually start walking workouts.

But with all the other issues maybe you have a faulty device? Did you contact Apple about the lock/unlock issue? Did you reset the phone? Maybe that's another next step you could do?

 

[Reverend Benny]

Could be a faulty device but more leaning towards that it might be a combination of things.

First thing that might be an idea to look into regarding homekit is the network.
Your router might have problems using 2.4 and 5 ghz devices on the same network, it might be an explanation to the homekit issues.
Solution: As a test, use only 2.4 ghz network, then all devices will use that and see if that solves it.

Might be an idea to reset network settings on the iphone and try to set up things again.
It prob won't solve all your issues but maybe some of them.

 

[stevemiller]

As noted I have factory reset all my devices multiple times. Nothing fixes any of this stuff. I had a bug on my iPhone for over a year of the volume randomly changing that I thought was something I was doing wrong. Turns out it was a bug affecting some users that Apple just never bothered to fix until iOS 17.6. So for over a year, across many reformats there was nothing I could do but wait. I swear some of these issues must be tied to Apple IDs?

Like my job involves software development so I’m not unaware of the challenges in making things totally bug free, but I am absolutely drowning in the ocean of bugs on these devices anymore.

 

[stevemiller]

Could be a faulty device but more leaning towards that it might be a combination of things.

First thing that might be an idea to look into regarding homekit is the network.
Your router might have problems using 2.4 and 5 ghz devices on the same network, it might be an explanation to the homekit issues.
Solution: As a test, use only 2.4 ghz network, then all devices will use that and see if that solves it.

Might be an idea to reset network settings on the iphone and try to set up things again.
It prob won't solve all your issues but maybe some of them.

I have attempted the router configs in the past. It happens no matter what. This is all just so distressing. I have devoted way more time to trying to make these devices work than the value they provide.

 

[Howard2k]

I think you should contact Apple and try to have them sort it, but if you're done a clean reset of the phone and watch at the same time, and these are not problems that people are having en-masse, then a faulty device seems more likely.

Or like you said, try a fewest Apple ID, but that seems to be unlikely to be the culprit.

Or maybe it's just not the right device for you? You seem to be happy enough with Fitbit, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. No point trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

 

[stevemiller]

I think you should contact Apple and try to have them sort it, but if you're done a clean reset of the phone and watch at the same time, and these are not problems that people are having en-masse, then a faulty device seems more likely.

Or like you said, try a fewest Apple ID, but that seems to be unlikely to be the culprit.

Or maybe it's just not the right device for you? You seem to be happy enough with Fitbit, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. No point trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

i appreciate the help.

but also i have to push back just a bit. the whole "if you hate it so much why don't you just use something else" angle is a tad frustrating. its not like i'm resistant to a different way of doing things. i'm trying to use the apple watch essentially as advertised... and nearly everything about it has worked unreliably or simply not at all. having bought the thing, i feel there is some justification in trying to understand why i have a next to unusable product, and not just "well i must just be a bad fit".

 

[Howard2k]

i appreciate the help.

but also i have to push back just a bit. the whole "if you hate it so much why don't you just use something else" angle is a tad frustrating. its not like i'm resistant to a different way of doing things. i'm trying to use the apple watch essentially as advertised... and nearly everything about it has worked unreliably or simply not at all. having bought the thing, i feel there is some justification in trying to understand why i have a next to unusable product, and not just "well i must just be a bad fit".

I agree. But sometimes the struggle is not worth it. If I understand you’ve done a full reset of the phone and watch at the same time and without restoring from backup, and it seems that this massive wave of bugs is isolated to you, so I’m not sure what else you can do aside from contacting Apple.

I will say that I’ve seen odd stuff, particularly when trying to configure the watch while not wearing it. It surprised me how quickly that went off the rails. But a reset and everything was fine, and you’ve done that if I understand correctly.


Good luck regardless, I hope you get it working.