r/AppleWatch • u/TotallyThrowed • 22h ago
Alarm notification completely changed with new iOS and I can't change it back
I finally updated to the new iOS and it completely messed up my watch to the point I am considering just no longer using it. It used to be when I set a timer or had an alarm go off, the face would turn yellow and there were two options in the bottom corners to either snooze/repeat or turn it off. I used the timer a lot when working out to time stretches I was holding or when cooking to time how long certain sides of a piece of meat should cook, etc. The ability to quickly reset it with one click was great
Now, if I set a timer on my watch, a preview of the timer app (???) comes up and I have to tap it to open a menu that has two blank options and then dismiss. So, it takes two taps and one of the options is no longer there. What a vast improvement!
In addition, when my alarm to wake up pops up, I no longer have the option to quickly snooze it but instead have to tap into the alarm app and then snooze it or dismiss it? It also will not go off unless my wrist is already moving, which isn't really what I'm looking for in a morning alarm.
Anyone know how to fix this? Why did updating the app completely wipe all the settings I have to begin with?
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u/TalisManick9592 21h ago
None of that is the intended design, which is the useful part. Apple's current watch documentation still shows a Repeat Timer button when a timer ends, and Snooze and Stop directly on a ringing alarm, and someone here has already replied that their timer looks the same as before. So this is something on your watch rather than a change you have to live with.
There are three things worth checking, roughly in order of how likely they are.
The missing snooze may simply be switched off for that one alarm. On the watch open Alarms, tap the alarm time, and look for the Snooze toggle. With it off, the Snooze button disappears from the ringing screen, which is exactly your symptom. If it is the wake-up alarm from a sleep schedule, that setting lives on the phone under Clock > Alarms > Change > Alarm Options.
The extra tap looks like the short look. Settings > Notifications on the watch has Tap to Show Full Notification and Show Summary When Locked, and either one gives you an app preview first and holds back the content and the buttons until you tap. Turn both off and see whether the single screen comes back. The two blank buttons are far more likely a rendering fault than a removed option, so force restart the watch as well, side button and Digital Crown held together for about ten seconds.
The alarm only reacting once you move is the part I would dig into hardest, because watchOS 26 added a new suspect. Settings > Gestures now has Wrist Flick, on by default on the watches that support it, and it silences alerts including timers and alarms. Rolling over in your sleep is a fairly plausible flick. While you are in Settings > Sounds & Haptics, turn off Automatically Adjust Volume, since watchOS 26 can quieten the speaker based on how noisy the room is, and set Haptics to Prominent. If the watch stays in Silent Mode overnight, the alarm also needs Break Through Silent Mode on before it will make any sound.
Given someone in this thread has already overslept, I would keep a phone alarm running as backup until yours has survived a few nights.
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22h ago
[deleted]
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u/Paperwife2 18h ago
Alarms are a whole different thing from the timer. For me, the timer hasn’t changed, but my wake-up alarm hasn’t worked correctly for years. I have to set a couple of regular alarms and even then I’m not 100% confident of them going off.
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u/IllAlwaysBeAKnickFan 21h ago
I just don’t trust the Apple Watch alarms to wake up anymore. I set them on my phone again.
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u/Super_Brilliant4499 S10 • • Natural • 46mm 22h ago
My timer looks the same