Notifications and Control Center access problem

[MacCheetah3]

Trying to access Notifications or Control Center by swiping up and down on watch face does nothing. Perform a (hard) reboot, the gestures work again for a while but then also eventually stop responding again.

Long version: I received my Watch SE yesterday -- first-time Watch owner/user -- paired, updated to watchOS 7.0.2, and finished setup. Afterward, realized I could only add, edit, or change watch faces. Pressing the crown didn't go Home, pressing the side button didn't go to the Dock, and even tapping complications resulted in nothing happening. Did some searching, Found suggestions to hard reboot. Okay, did that. Yay! Things seemed fine now. No biggie, or so I thought. Sometime later, don't recall how long, I tried to see notifications I hadn't viewed. Swiped down, no change. Okay, Swiped up, also no change. Thought perhaps I didn't change a setting/preference this time as at least the crown and side button was still functioning. Did more searching. Same suggestion, hard reboot. Annoying but not difficult. So, did a reboot again. All good, again. Hassles over? Nope. This morning, the same thing, swiping up or down on watch face, no response.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions for a permanent/long term fix beyond waiting for Apple to (hopefully) eventually correct it?

 

[pgrunwald]

I also have been seeing this on occasion. Rebooting helps. Found another thread that said to turn off zoom in settings/accessibility. Using Watch OS 7.3 on a 44mm Aluminum Series 6. Even when up and down are not working, left/right (change faces) does work. The face does not matter. Up and down does work in apps after pressing the crown so it is not the digitizer.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Thanks for the response.

I did stumble across that on other threads. e.g.:

Series 6 swipe up and down for notification and control centers not working?

Sometimes I can swipe up or down for notification or control center, but sometimes I can't with the Series 6. It feels like a software issue. When the watch display is on the always-on display mode, it has no problem with the swipes. Even after I restarted the watch, it happens again...

forums.macrumors.com

Fortunately, watchOS 7.3 has seemingly included the fix, at least on my SE -- a couple of Series 6 owners still claim to have the problem.

 

[pgrunwald]

Yup.

 

[kriknosretep]

Still happening to me on 7.3.