The Apple Watch has been considered the gold standard in the world of smartwatches over a long period and has been an integral part of the Apple Ecosystem. It offers a polished software experience coupled with a sleek design and a great number of nifty fitness features which screams a lot in the favor of Apple Watch users.
To navigate into the watch’s interface, performing different gestures will help to access various features in it. With the help of the swipe-up gesture, it brings down the control center on the Apple Watch, and with the help of the swipe-down gesture, it pulls on the notification tray on the watch itself.
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, many Apple Watch owners started encountering problems while performing ‘Swipe Up’ and ‘Swipe Down’ gestures after upgrading to the WatchOS 8.5.1 version.
Hence, if you’re someone who’s been facing this same issue while performing the Swipe up/down gesture and looking for a solution to fix it on your Apple Watch? With this article, we’ll be enlisting various methods through which you’ll be able to bring swipe up/down gestures into action again.
Fix Apple Watch Swipe Up/Down Gestures Not Working
There are a lot of Apple Watch users who witness such issues which prevent the user from accessing the notifications, quick toggles and tweaks within the settings, and much more.
During the time of writing this, Apple hasn’t officially acknowledged this issue and this problem has been reported by many users on various platforms which also results in some potential workaround that works like a magic formula that we’ve curated down below to get this issue resolved.
1. Reboot the Apple Watch
Apple Watch users have reported that most of the time, performing a simple reboot fixed this problem for them. To learn how to fix your watch with a simple reboot, follow the steps that are mentioned below:-
Step 1: Pick your Apple Watch’s dial and long-press the side button to trigger the power off option.
Step 2: Swipe the Power off slider to its left, this will shut down the Apple Watch.
Step 3: After successfully turning off your Apple Watch, wait for 5-10 seconds, and afterward press the side button again to restart the Apple Watch again.
After successfully restarting your Apple Watch, try performing the swipe up/down gesture again to check whether both the gestures are working for you or not. If not, sit back and relax! We’ve more methods coming to the rescue.
2. Performing A Hard Restart On the Apple Watch
If the standard method of restarting didn’t work for you, then try performing a hard restart on your Apple Watch. This method has been followed up by various Apple Watch users which resolved the problem completely. To hard restart, your Apple Watch, follow the procedure that is mentioned below for an insightful look:-
Step 1: Long press on both the Digital Crown and Side button on your Apple Watch.
Step 2: After long pressing on both of them, release your fingers from both the buttons as soon as your Apple Watch starts reflecting an Apple logo on the screen.
Step 3: Wait until the watch doesn’t start itself again and after the process is completed.
With this method that is mentioned above, you’ll be able to hard restart your Apple Watch which will help to resolve this problem that is being faced by various people.
3. Pair The Apple Watch Again
If both the methods that are mentioned above are not working, then unpair the existing Apple Watch from your paired iPhone and then repeat the pairing process. Do keep in mind that you don’t need to recover the existing backup throughout the process to set it up as a fresh Apple Watch.
If you’re worried about your statistical data of health and fitness achievements then don’t worry as all the data is stored on the iPhone and not on the Apple Watch, it won’t affect the existing data in it. To proceed further, perform a factory reset to the Watch and follow the method which is mentioned below:-
Step 1: Wear the Apple Watch on your wrist to begin the pairing process.
Step 2: Long press the Side button to switch it on.
Step 3: As soon as Apple Watch boots up, bring the iPhone closer to your Apple Watch.
Step 4: A pop-up will appear on the iPhone to further pair the Apple Watch. To proceed ahead, click on the ‘Continue’ option.
Step 5: Now hit on the ‘Setup for Me’ in the Set Up Apple Watch option.
Step 6: Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
As soon as the process is finished, you’ll be able to use the swipe up/down gesture on your Apple Watch.
4. Cleaning The Apple Watch.
It’s mandatory to maintain a dry and clean environment for your beloved Apple Watch which keeps the dust and dirt away from it and delivers a flawless navigation experience.
Sometimes, the delay in the touch response happens because of accumulated dust particles during day-to-day tasks like soaps, cleaning chemicals, pressurized air, and source of heatwaves that can affect the Apple Watch which can tamper with the experience of using it.
While using the Apple Watch, keep checking on the dust particles and clean the Apple Watch thoroughly. Before proceeding with the cleaning, detach the bands and carefully start cleansing the Apple Watch’s dial with a microfibre cloth.
5. Try Changing The Watch Face On The Apple Watch
This may look a little weird but a lot of Apple Watch users shared that a custom watch face inherits a lot of shortcuts and functionalities due to which the swipe up/down gesture doesn’t work properly.
To get rid of this problem, swipe through the watch faces and try swiping down whether it triggers the quick toggles. When you finally find the right watch face on which the gestures work seamlessly, set it as your preferred watch face.
Final Words
There have been several workarounds that Apple Watch users have reported, not only the swipe up gesture command is not working, but the swipe down gesture is also affected. One of the solutions includes a hard reboot which is helpful to reduce the problem.
Another method to fix this issue is to perform a hard reset and if that also doesn’t work then unpair the Apple Watch and re-pair it again as a fresh device. It’s worth mentioning that resetting the Apple Watch would fix this issue temporarily and you’d have to wait until Apple addresses this issue and rolls out a permanent solution to put a full stop to the problem.
