Powering on watch 3

Nodnerb

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2010
613
24
18
Visit site
So I've always noticed powering on my old Galaxy watch was finicky at best. The watch 3 is too, but it has gotten worse. So to power it on, hold the lower button right? But often when I do that I have to try it several times. Now on my watch 3 for the past several days it takes up to 8 tries to power it on and when it does it says "rebooting..." In blue underneath the usual "Galaxy watch3" logo. This happens daily now after powering down properly the night before(or at least I think so) by holding both buttons till the power off prompt appears and tapping that.
Anyone know what's going on? My wife's watch active is similar. What is the trick to turning these damn things on? I had the og watch since release and it was always iffy to turn on, now the watch3 is weirdly worse.
 

fuzzylumpkin

Well-known member
Dec 7, 2012
5,555
2,557
113
Visit site
Maybe you have a misbehaving app or face, or are holding the button too long or not long enough...

I don't power my watch off very often (definitely less than once a week) but I've never had an issue turning on the galaxy watch or watch3.
 

Peter621022

Well-known member
Sep 25, 2013
211
0
0
Visit site
This is how a restart should work on the GW3: hold the lower button for about 8 seconds and release as soon as the logo appears.
That will restart your watch.
By holding the lower button only you shouldn't be able to soft reset your watch (that's what it's doing if you see the Rebooting message). If I keep holding mine it will simply restart while holding the lower button.
Normally the soft reset can only be done by holding both buttons until the Rebooting message appears (a few seconds after the logo appears).
Are you sure you're only holding the lower button when you restart the watch?
If so, you might have a hardware problem, since the watch thinks you're holding both.

If you want to do a hard/factory reset (make a backup of your watch first!) to see if that helps, start the soft reset until the Rebooting message appears, then quickly press the lower button three times quickly.
A menu will appear. You can wander through it with short presses of the lower button. As soon as the Recovery option is highlighted, activate it with a long press of the lower button.
Your watch will restart as if new. If that did not help, I'd return it for exchange or repair.
 

o4liberty

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2009
2,955
95
48
Visit site
So I've always noticed powering on my old Galaxy watch was finicky at best. The watch 3 is too, but it has gotten worse. So to power it on, hold the lower button right? But often when I do that I have to try it several times. Now on my watch 3 for the past several days it takes up to 8 tries to power it on and when it does it says "rebooting..." In blue underneath the usual "Galaxy watch3" logo. This happens daily now after powering down properly the night before(or at least I think so) by holding both buttons till the power off prompt appears and tapping that.
Anyone know what's going on? My wife's watch active is similar. What is the trick to turning these damn things on? I had the og watch since release and it was always iffy to turn on, now the watch3 is weirdly worse.
Go into your wear app and you can change what each button on the watch does.
 

Nodnerb

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2010
613
24
18
Visit site
Thanks for the replies. It is still happening. This morning held bottom button only for about 10 seconds screen came on with Galaxy watch 3 and rebooting underneath in blue. When the watch is on both buttons work as expected.
 

11B1P

Trusted Member
Sep 16, 2012
1,422
23
38
Visit site
So I've always noticed powering on my old Galaxy watch was finicky at best. The watch 3 is too, but it has gotten worse. So to power it on, hold the lower button right? But often when I do that I have to try it several times. Now on my watch 3 for the past several days it takes up to 8 tries to power it on and when it does it says "rebooting..." In blue underneath the usual "Galaxy watch3" logo. This happens daily now after powering down properly the night before(or at least I think so) by holding both buttons till the power off prompt appears and tapping that.
Anyone know what's going on? My wife's watch active is similar. What is the trick to turning these damn things on? I had the og watch since release and it was always iffy to turn on, now the watch3 is weirdly worse.

You should be able to hold down just the bottom button to turn your watch off. When you feel if vibrate, let go. Then touch Power Off.

I just noticed my S3, that if I hold the bottom button too long, I get the rebooting message as well. Turning it on, if I hold the bottom button for about 3 sec, it turns on normally.
 

edubb256

Well-known member
Oct 22, 2010
606
0
0
Visit site
If I understand your first post, you had the same problem with the original galaxy watch, and your wife has the same problem with her Active 2. That makes me wonder if there is a bad app or watchface that has been on all three watches. I would factory reset and try to run without any apps or watchfaces to see if you still have the problem. I don't recall every having a problem with mine, but I hardly ever power it down.
 

fuzzylumpkin

Well-known member
Dec 7, 2012
5,555
2,557
113
Visit site
You should be able to hold down just the bottom button to turn your watch off. When you feel if vibrate, let go. Then touch Power Off.

I just noticed my S3, that if I hold the bottom button too long, I get the rebooting message as well. Turning it on, if I hold the bottom button for about 3 sec, it turns on normally.

The watch3 is different from the S3, by default pressing and holding the bottom button wakes Bixby

If I understand your first post, you had the same problem with the original galaxy watch, and your wife has the same problem with her Active 2. That makes me wonder if there is a bad app or watchface that has been on all three watches. I would factory reset and try to run without any apps or watchfaces to see if you still have the problem. I don't recall every having a problem with mine, but I hardly ever power it down.

Yeah, that's what I said. Can't be the watch, must be something installed on it.