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ledzepfan1981

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2015
622
101
How do I keep the AOD on while locked and while charging my Apple Watch?

I want to keep it on while the phone is next to me, but eventually it goes completely blank if I don't have my watch on. TIA.
 
No I'm not doing it at night with sleep mode on. Thank you for your reply. I'll give it a go today and see what happens.
 
It stays on for me just fine when my watch is charging.

You aren’t doing it at night, are you? If you are, do you use sleep mode?

Just tested it tonight and the screen goes blank after 30 minutes.

I forgot to say before that my house has multiple WiFi connections. Could this be the problem? I'll test again tomorrow in the same room as my watch.
 
Just tested it again today. I have my Apple Watch on charge about 12 feet away from my iPhone 14 Pro, both on the same WiFi network and in the same room. When my iPhone is on the lock screen, the screen goes blank after about 3-4 minutes.

This goes against what I want from my iPhone as I want to be able to glance at my screen to keep up to date with sports scores etc, without having to tap on the screen.
 
Has anyone else had any issues with AOD - in the sense that when I get a notification, the phone lights up, but then stays lit up, I can only get it to dim to the standard AOD by pressing the side button

Is this normal, or should it be dimming itself?
 
Has anyone else had any issues with AOD - in the sense that when I get a notification, the phone lights up, but then stays lit up, I can only get it to dim to the standard AOD by pressing the side button

Is this normal, or should it be dimming itself?


It dims it itself in my experience.
 
Has anyone else had any issues with AOD - in the sense that when I get a notification, the phone lights up, but then stays lit up, I can only get it to dim to the standard AOD by pressing the side button

Is this normal, or should it be dimming itself?
It might have something to do with your auto-lock setting.
 
Just tested it again today. I have my Apple Watch on charge about 12 feet away from my iPhone 14 Pro, both on the same WiFi network and in the same room. When my iPhone is on the lock screen, the screen goes blank after about 3-4 minutes.

This goes against what I want from my iPhone as I want to be able to glance at my screen to keep up to date with sports scores etc, without having to tap on the screen.
I’m confused — you said earlier the phone went blank after 30 minutes, and here you’re saying 3-4 minutes. Please clarify.
 
I’m confused — you said earlier the phone went blank after 30 minutes, and here you’re saying 3-4 minutes. Please clarify.

On one of my WiFi networks (both watch and iPhone in the same room, watch on charge) the lock screen stayed on for 30 minutes until it went blank, but in one of the other rooms, different network, it only stayed on 3-4 minutes!
 
On one of my WiFi networks (both watch and iPhone in the same room, watch on charge) the lock screen stayed on for 30 minutes until it went blank, but in one of the other rooms, different network, it only stayed on 3-4 minutes!
That is strange. A few things I would try:

-Turning AOD off, and then back on.
-Turning AOD off, rebooting, then turning AOD back on.
-Turning AOD off, forgetting both networks, re-connecting to each network, then turning AOD back on.
 
That is strange. A few things I would try:

-Turning AOD off, and then back on.
-Turning AOD off, rebooting, then turning AOD back on.
-Turning AOD off, forgetting both networks, re-connecting to each network, then turning AOD back on.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try all of them and get back to you.

So your AOD never goes blank when charging your Apple Watch?
 
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This happens to me too.

I lay in bed, put my phone and Watch on charging (no sleep mode) and when i wake up my phone AOD is off. Why? I want to use it as a night watch.
 
Maybe you’ve seen this already:

Always-On display goes dark when you don't need it​

To save battery life, the display is completely dark when:
  • Your iPhone is lying face down
  • Your iPhone is in your pocket or bag
  • Sleep Focus is on
  • Low Power Mode is on
  • Your iPhone is connected to CarPlay
  • You're using Continuity Camera
  • You haven't used your iPhone for a while (your iPhone learns your activity patterns and turns the display off and on accordingly, including if you set up an alarm or sleep schedule)
  • Your iPhone detects that you moved away from it with a paired Apple Watch (Always-On display will turn on when your Apple Watch is close to your iPhone again)
 
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Thank you for your suggestions. I will try all of them and get back to you.

So your AOD never goes blank when charging your Apple Watch?
Mine doesn’t go blank, but I haven’t connected my 14PM to my Watch yet (it’s connected to my 13PM).

It seems to be that the phone will try to find a way to shut AOD off if it thinks it isn’t being used. Does your Watch have AOD on when charging? Do you have an alarm set, even without sleep mode turned on? Do you have “do not disturb” turned on?

I still can’t figure out why the behavior would be different between your two networks. Do you have your iPhone close to your Watch in both scenarios? It sounds like proximity is a factor that could automatically turn off AOD on the iPhone.
 
Mine doesn’t go blank, but I haven’t connected my 14PM to my Watch yet (it’s connected to my 13PM).

It seems to be that the phone will try to find a way to shut AOD off if it thinks it isn’t being used. Does your Watch have AOD on when charging? Do you have an alarm set, even without sleep mode turned on? Do you have “do not disturb” turned on?

I still can’t figure out why the behavior would be different between your two networks. Do you have your iPhone close to your Watch in both scenarios? It sounds like proximity is a factor that could automatically turn off AOD on the iPhone.

I think your tip about switching the AOD off and then on again worked. I did this and then locked my screen and left my watch on charge about 12 feet away. I came back to it nearly 2 hours later and the screen was still locked with the screen on.

I shall try the same again tomorrow just to check, but I think it has worked. Thank you.
 
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I think your tip about switching the AOD off and then on again worked. I did this and then locked my screen and left my watch on charge about 12 feet away. I came back to it nearly 2 hours later and the screen was still locked with the screen on.

I shall try the same again tomorrow just to check, but I think it has worked. Thank you.
Good to hear — let me know. 👍🏻
 
Good to hear — let me know.

Well I think my iPhone has a mind of its own! I charged my watch earlier with the same setup and left it. Came back an hour or so later and my iPhone was blank. Put my watch on and sat next to my phone - still blank, I had to tap it to wake it. Came back another hour later wearing my watch, got about a foot from my iPhone and the screen woke!
 
Well I think my iPhone has a mind of its own! I charged my watch earlier with the same setup and left it. Came back an hour or so later and my iPhone was blank. Put my watch on and sat next to my phone - still blank, I had to tap it to wake it. Came back another hour later wearing my watch, got about a foot from my iPhone and the screen woke!
I’m not sure why the screen would be off in an hour whereas earlier the AOD was still on after a few hours. I don’t know if there is ML working to determine user habits and if/when they are near the phone. I do know that for me, I set my phone face down when not using — in the morning it is off, but throughout the day the AOD is on when I pick it up. This seems to be a battery saving feature. Maybe the algorithms are different if the user doesn’t set your phone face down? It does make sense that there would be a difference in behavior with charging your Watch vs wearing your Watch and your proximity to the iPhone.

It could just be that the software needs to be a little more finely tuned. This doesn’t necessarily sound like a serious bug — since AOD is a new feature, and there is the potential for it to drain a battery faster, I’m guessing Apple erred on the side of battery preservation and is trying to detect if a person is actually near the iPhone to begin with.

When you are wearing your Watch and you are near your iPhone, is the AOD coming on in all those situations? And is your iPhone always face up? I now set my iPhone face down, so I don’t know if that makes a difference.
 
I’m not sure why the screen would be off in an hour whereas earlier the AOD was still on after a few hours. I don’t know if there is ML working to determine user habits and if/when they are near the phone. I do know that for me, I set my phone face down when not using — in the morning it is off, but throughout the day the AOD is on when I pick it up. This seems to be a battery saving feature. Maybe the algorithms are different if the user doesn’t set your phone face down? It does make sense that there would be a difference in behavior with charging your Watch vs wearing your Watch and your proximity to the iPhone.

It could just be that the software needs to be a little more finely tuned. This doesn’t necessarily sound like a serious bug — since AOD is a new feature, and there is the potential for it to drain a battery faster, I’m guessing Apple erred on the side of battery preservation and is trying to detect if a person is actually near the iPhone to begin with.

When you are wearing your Watch and you are near your iPhone, is the AOD coming on in all those situations? And is your iPhone always face up? I now set my iPhone face down, so I don’t know if that makes a difference.

My iPhone is always face up in all situations, but my iPhone doesn't always come on.
 
My iPhone is always face up in all situations, but my iPhone doesn't always come on.
I’m guessing this has something to do with proximity to your Watch, or some overly sensitive battery saving mechanism. You could also try unpairing your Watch, and then pairing again to see if this would help. Or maybe this is a quirk that will work itself out with a future software update. If you have the time, you could also start fresh and set up your device as new. If you decide to go this route, make sure you do a backup, synced up, any health data is saved, etc.
 
Thank you for all your help. I was wondering whether it was software too and thought about leaving it until 16.1 comes out and see if that fixes it. Although no one else has come forward and said that they have the same problem.
 
I've just sat next to my phone for 15 minutes (phone locked and watch on charge) and the screen has stayed on the whole time. I was hoping to leave the phone locked for at least 30 minutes, but after 15, I got a notification!
 
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