How to Force Close an Apple Watch App

If an app on your Apple Watch has become unresponsive or is just acting stupid, here’s how to force close an Apple Watch app.

The Apple Watch is just over six months old now, and it recently received its first major software update in the form of watchOS 2, which came with a handful of bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features. Many were hoping that this update would fix issues with slow apps, but many users are still having problems with this.

Furthermore, many Apple Watch users have been experiencing issues with third-party apps lagging and being slow overall. This could mean that you might have to force close an app if it becomes unresponsive or even freezes up.

On the iPhone, it’s fairly easy to force close an app, since all you have to do is open up the app switcher and swipe up on the app to close it out completely. However, the Apple Watch doesn’t have an app switcher for you to do that in, so you might not know how to force close an app on the Apple Watch.

The good news is that it’s really easy to do, and we’ll show you how it’s done. So if an Apple Watch app is acting up, here’s how to force close an Apple Watch app completely.

Force Close Apple Watch Apps

It’s actually really easy to force close an Apple Watch app. Just follow these quick instructions:

• While you’re in the misbehaving app, click and hold down in the side button until the power menu appears.
• Click and hold down the side button again until the app force closes and you’re taken back to the app layout. The app has been force-closed.

You probably won’t need to do this all the time, and there are some users who might never need to do this, but if an app is misbehaving and is unresponsive, this is a good trick to know for the future.

Of course, if your Apple Watch is still acting up, even after force-closing an app, you might have to take more drastic measures.

Reboot Your Apple Watch

If force-closing an app worked, but your Apple Watch is still acting up for some reason, then it’s probably time that you reboot your Apple Watch to clear its cache and give it a fresh coat of paint, so to speak.

To reboot your Apple Watch, follow the instructions below:

• Click and hold down on the side button until the power menu appears.
• Then swipe the Power Off slider all the way to the right to power off the Apple Watch.
• Wait a few seconds for the Apple Watch to fully power down. When it’s complete, click and hold the side button again to power on the device and wait for it to completely power up.

Force Reboot Your Apple Watch

If restarting didn’t work or your Apple Watch is frozen to the point that you can’t access the power menu, then force-rebooting may be your only remaining option.

To completely bypass the power menu and reboot your Apple Watch anyway, all you have to do is hold down the Digital Crown and side button simultaneously to force-reboot your Apple Watch.

If you really wanted to, you could just force reboot anyway, instead of trying the two other solutions mentioned above, but this method takes the longest, so if you can, try to force close an app first before you try to reboot your Apple Watch.

Answer Calls on the Apple Watch

> 1 / 66

You can answer a call on your Apple Watch using it as a small Bluetooth speakerphone. You only want to use this for shorter calls because the audio quality isn't as good as when you are talking on speakerphone on your iPhone.  The Apple Watch only allows you to answer your calls on Speakerphone, so you won't want to use this all the time. It is very handy when you are working on a project or busy with your hands. Definitely be conscious of where you are taking calls. If you wouldn't talk on speakerphone, you shouldn't talk on your Apple Watch. If you buy the new Apple Watch with LTE, you can even make calls on the Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby. This requires adding the watch to your plan for $10 a month. You cannot answer a FaceTime video call on the Apple Watch.

> 1 / 66