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Help from black screen.

I have a black screen with a little circle of lines that circle around like my device is thinking but doesn’t get beyond. Help!!

Posted on Mar 9, 2023 5:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 9, 2023 5:11 PM

Hello Sweets1980!


I suggest you try a forced restart.


But, don’t force restart your Apple Watch if you're updating watchOS. After you see the Apple logo and progress wheel, leave your watch alone and on its charger until the update finishes.


To Force Restart the watch:


Press and hold the Digital Side Button and the Side Button for about ten seconds, and then release them when you see the Apple logo.


After that, Force Restart your iPhone that is paired/connected to the Apple Watch. You will find a link on how to do that Here.


I hope this is helpful. Good Luck!

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 9, 2023 5:11 PM in response to Sweets1980

Hello Sweets1980!


I suggest you try a forced restart.


But, don’t force restart your Apple Watch if you're updating watchOS. After you see the Apple logo and progress wheel, leave your watch alone and on its charger until the update finishes.


To Force Restart the watch:


Press and hold the Digital Side Button and the Side Button for about ten seconds, and then release them when you see the Apple logo.


After that, Force Restart your iPhone that is paired/connected to the Apple Watch. You will find a link on how to do that Here.


I hope this is helpful. Good Luck!

Mar 9, 2023 7:45 PM in response to Sweets1980

The first (and simplest) thing to try if something isn’t working right is to restart your Apple Watch and its paired iPhone. If necessary (device not responding), try a forced restart. Both methods can be found here:

How to restart your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support


If that doesn't help, the next steps would be to unpair and pair your watch again and restore from the backup just created. This should result in no loss of data. It deletes all temp and corrupted files and re-indexes the file system.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support


Mar 13, 2023 9:28 AM in response to Sweets1980

It works!!! For one day I could not fill my rings and It felt so strange without it working. I still wore it on my wrist in hopes it might start to work. I did the forced start and it seemed not to have any effect — got to work and then my watch was “coming back to life”. I was all set to go out and order another one. I am back to filling my rings daily… and increasing my activity goals. I had never before done a forced restart or really haven’t even shut my watch off.

Help from black screen.

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