Watches are things that people like to put on their wrists and forget about. The Apple Watch is no different except for the extra features it offers. It’s great when it works, but if your watch isn’t vibrating when it’s supposed to, here’s how to fix it.
The Apple Watch is arguably the most popular smartwatch on the market, and with the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple has upped the ante considerably. The problem is that as watches get smarter and smarter, they invariably start to suffer from the same kinds of software bugs as any other computer. The Apple Watch has seen its own bugs and missing notifications because the watch doesn’t vibrate is quite important.
If you find yourself missing alarms, or even ordinary app notifications, that’s no good. Here are some fixes that might help. I hope you missed your last wake-up call.
Raise your vibrations
The Apple Watch has always offered two different vibration levels. There is the standard option and a more vigorous Haptics Prominent option. We much prefer the more visible version, so we suggest you give it a try first.
To get started, open Settings on your Apple Watch and scroll down until you reach the bottom. Tap “Sounds and Haptics”.
Next, under Haptic Force, enable the “Prominent Haptics” toggle.
The difference between the two is quite noticeable, we think you’ll agree. If you can’t seem to notice the standard vibrations, this should solve your problem.
Restart your Apple Watch
Small and slender as it is, the Apple Watch is still a computer. This means that unfortunately, even today, it could benefit from a reboot once in a while. If you find yourself in a situation where your watch just won’t vibrate, a restart is a good troubleshooting step to try.
To restart your Apple Watch, press and hold the side button until the power off slider appears onscreen.
To complete the process, drag the “Power Off” slider all the way to the left.
Once your Apple Watch is off, turn it back on by pressing and holding the side button until the Apple logo appears. The issue that was preventing your watch from vibrating for alarms should hopefully be resolved.
Consult Apple
If none of these steps solve your problem, it may be time to contact Apple through your local Apple Store or the many other support channels available through the Apple Support app.
