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S4 Watch Finally Died 😮

Dino F

Dino F

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 16, 2010
4,515
3,405
Croydon, South London, UK
So took my S4 44mm Space Black on holiday last week (had this since the S4 was released) and wore it on several swimming workouts (which I have done hundreds of times before in previous years), but unfortunately, it finally died on me :(

Got out the pool, did the whole eject water thing and ended the workout and then literally a few minutes later, the screen started spazzing around going in and out of menus and screens as if someone was touching the screen??!!

It would still respond to my touches at random moments but it continued spazzing for a good 10 minutes or so. At one point, it started to do a countdown and play a siren (very loudly!!!) as it tried to call the emergency services?!!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short and after many unsuccessful attempts to reset it/clear it (hold both buttons etc, none of which worked), my watch and/or screen is dead.

When it gets connected to the charger, no signs of life can be seen other than the watch becoming hot at the back where the charger connects.

I'm guessing that after hundreds and hundreds of sweaty workouts (watch was always cleaned with a damp flannel) and pool/sea swims over the years (watch was rinsed after swimming), the innards have finally succumbed to water ingress.

I was holding out for this year's S8 however I can't now wait without a watch so ordered the S7 just the other day.

Just wanted to tell my story...!!

:)
 
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It sounds like the gasket finally gave out. Even on dive watches, the gaskets need replacing every couple of years. I have a Series 6, and this will probably be the last year I take it in water, just to be safe.
 
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The only recommendation I have is to get AC+ on your new watch. I had it on all of mine and it’s worth it. I’ll keep it on my Ti S7 for as long as it will be my primary watch
 
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I feel your pain. That's what i think happened to my S5 LTE after about a year. I used to wear it in the pool all the time. I did some swimming in a nearby lake and within a few days the watch was dead. It wasn't the first time I had worn the watch while lake swimming. All I can guess is not all the water was pushed out.

I know i could have gotten Apple Care with it but I found them to be useless on a prior Apple Watch. The battery would drop from 100% to 15% within a few hours. Apple had it a week, said they couldn't replicate the issue so returned it to me. Yet upon return the same issue continued so i went to Best Buy, traded it in and bought a new watch.
 
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Dino F said:
So took my S4 44mm Space Black on holiday last week (had this since the S4 was released) and wore it on several swimming workouts (which I have done hundreds of times before in previous years), but unfortunately, it finally died on me :(

Got out the pool, did the whole eject water thing and ended the workout and then literally a few minutes later, the screen started spazzing around going in and out of menus and screens as if someone was touching the screen??!!

It would still respond to my touches at random moments but it continued spazzing for a good 10 minutes or so. At one point, it started to do a countdown and play a siren (very loudly!!!) as it tried to call the emergency services?!!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short and after many unsuccessful attempts to reset it/clear it (hold both buttons etc, none of which worked), my watch and/or screen is dead.

When it gets connected to the charger, no signs of life can be seen other than the watch becoming hot at the back where the charger connects.

I'm guessing that after hundreds and hundreds of sweaty workouts (watch was always cleaned with a damp flannel) and pool/sea swims over the years (watch was rinsed after swimming), the innards have finally succumbed to water ingress.

I was holding out for this year's S8 however I can't now wait without a watch so ordered the S7 just the other day.

Just wanted to tell my story...!!

:)
Click to expand...
I'm also on the S4 and also planning to do the S8 update. However, in your case, I believe continual usage in the water accelerated the seal's degradation. Hopefully that last workout was saved so you don't loose your streaks.
 
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Same here. After a few days of holidays with beach and pool the AW series 4 kept showing the shutdown menu, as if someone was always pressing the on/off button. Tried to restore several times but the problem persisted.
Also had the same dilema between waiting for the series 8 or buying now the series 7. Ended up buying the series 7 because of sports and good price on Amazon.
The only thing that could make me change it for the series 8 would be a substancial increase in battery life.
 
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I still using the S4, which I got in late 2018 and the battery life barely last little over 12 hours. By the end of the day, it's low battery. I thought about replacing the battery, but I may just wait for the Series 8 since I waited this long. Sure, it got some catches on the screen and one small one on the body, but it's actually in pretty good shape.
 
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I handed my S4 to my son when I upgraded to the 6 - mine would have been a similar use case to OP's, but after a short while of my son having it, he broke the screen, so we had that replaced and also the battery. It's been like a new (but now non-water-resistant) watch ever since.

I'll be less worried about the 6, as I haven't been in the water as much, due to the pandemic and all that.
 
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Dino F said:
So took my S4 44mm Space Black on holiday last week (had this since the S4 was released) and wore it on several swimming workouts (which I have done hundreds of times before in previous years), but unfortunately, it finally died on me :(

Got out the pool, did the whole eject water thing and ended the workout and then literally a few minutes later, the screen started spazzing around going in and out of menus and screens as if someone was touching the screen??!!

It would still respond to my touches at random moments but it continued spazzing for a good 10 minutes or so. At one point, it started to do a countdown and play a siren (very loudly!!!) as it tried to call the emergency services?!!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short and after many unsuccessful attempts to reset it/clear it (hold both buttons etc, none of which worked), my watch and/or screen is dead.

When it gets connected to the charger, no signs of life can be seen other than the watch becoming hot at the back where the charger connects.

I'm guessing that after hundreds and hundreds of sweaty workouts (watch was always cleaned with a damp flannel) and pool/sea swims over the years (watch was rinsed after swimming), the innards have finally succumbed to water ingress.

I was holding out for this year's S8 however I can't now wait without a watch so ordered the S7 just the other day.

Just wanted to tell my story...!!

:)
Click to expand...
Did you not use the water drop app to release the water from the watch?
 
Dino F said:
No worries.

And actually, just received my S7 from Apple today!
:)
Click to expand...
Awesome! Hope you like it. Let me know if I can help with any of its feats, bells and whistles lol. Like I said, I just got mine Saturday, so still learning about it. I've already learned a lot :)
 
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Only issue I had with my new S7 is that I had to set it up as a new watch instead of restoring from a back up.

Because my S4 was dead, when I chose the unpair option from the Watch App on my iPhone, it was throwing up errors because the S4 wasn't actually connected anymore. It did eventually unpair (according to the app) so I thought a back up had been taken.

But, when I then set up my new S7, the only back-ups I could restore from were my old S0 back ups!!!

Not a massive problem as it was only the few watch faces I lost from my S4!
 
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Dino F said:
Only issue I had with my new S7 is that I had to set it up as a new watch instead of restoring from a back up.

Because my S4 was dead, when I chose the unpair option from the Watch App on my iPhone, it was throwing up errors because the S4 wasn't actually connected anymore. It did eventually unpair (according to the app) so I thought a back up had been taken.

But, when I then set up my new S7, the only back-ups I could restore from were my old S0 back ups!!!

Not a massive problem as it was only the few watch faces I lost from my S4!
Click to expand...
In the past i've always restored from a backup of a prior AW. I'm thinking about getting an AW with LTE sometime soon. This might be a dumb question but here goes - when you set it up your S7 as new were all your awards still there? I had some issues with an S3 that carried over to my now dead S5 when I restored from backup. I'd prefer to set up as new but would hate to lose all my awards.
 
firstcellosuite said:
In the past i've always restored from a backup of a prior AW. I'm thinking about getting an AW with LTE sometime soon. This might be a dumb question but here goes - when you set it up your S7 as new were all your awards still there? I had some issues with an S3 that carried over to my now dead S5 when I restored from backup. I'd prefer to set up as new but would hate to lose all my awards.
Click to expand...


...yea, all my awards were indeed still there (if you're referring to the Apple Fitness awards).
 
Dino F said:
Only issue I had with my new S7 is that I had to set it up as a new watch instead of restoring from a back up.

Because my S4 was dead, when I chose the unpair option from the Watch App on my iPhone, it was throwing up errors because the S4 wasn't actually connected anymore. It did eventually unpair (according to the app) so I thought a back up had been taken.

But, when I then set up my new S7, the only back-ups I could restore from were my old S0 back ups!!!

Not a massive problem as it was only the few watch faces I lost from my S4!
Click to expand...


This has gotten a little stranger...?!

On my iPhone 13 Pro, I have just looked at my storage in Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Watch, and my Apple Watch Series 4 back up from July 10th'22 is indeed showing there..??

I can't understand why, in that case, did this same back up not show when I set up my new S7 watch as one of the 'Restore From' options....?!

o_O

EDIT - Looks like this guy had the same exact issue and found a workaround:

1658480453307.png


:)
 
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