Apple Watch’s Taptic Engine not working? Here’s how to fix!

I recently purchased the Apple Watch Nike+ and fell in love with the way the watch looked, the built in GPS functionality, and the bigger screen (previously I had the 38mm model.)

Having already owned an Apple Watch in the past, I noticed the Taptic Engine intermittently working the first few days. It would tap me on the wrist selectively, and certain feedback I was used to didn’t work reliably. On the third day, it stopped working completely.

Thankfully, after a little bit of back and forth between Apple and Nike, I was able to go to my local Apple Store and exchange the watch. However, there are a couple of troubleshooting steps you may want to try before calling up your local Genius Bar.

Force restarting the Watch & toggling Bluetooth and WiFi off/on

Like your other Apple devices, many times the easiest way to fix an intermittent issue, is to restart the device. With the Apple Watch, you can force restart it by pressing the side button and the Digital Crown simultaneously.

Hold the buttons until you see the screen go blank, and the Apple logo appear. I’ve noticed this fixes many temporary issues. I had a small issue the other day where the Mickey face wouldn’t say the time when I tapped on him. Restarting the Watch remedied the issue right away. Many users have reported this fixing intermittent haptics.

Another solution that Apple noted to work in our Support chat was to toggle Bluetooth and WiFi off, restart your Watch, and then toggle Bluetooth and WiFi back on. This also works for issues with the Watch not pairing successfully.

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Make sure your haptic strength isn’t turned down

While this seems like a pretty straightforward fix, you’d be surprised the amount of times I’ve seen this setting turned down. If the haptic strength is turned down all the way to the left (i.e. no green bars showing), then you won’t receive any taps on the wrist for notifications. Here’s how to fix that issue.

1. Enter the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2. Scroll down and tap on Sound & Haptics.
3. Scroll down and make sure you tap on the right button under Haptic Strength to increase the strength of haptic feedback on your wrist.

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Toggling wrist detection off/on

Apple themselves note that having your Watch snug on your wrist is important. It’s important for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is accurate wrist detection. Wrist detection allows the watch to lock if you have a passcode set, when it detects the watch isn’t on your wrist.

This helps to keep anyone who isn’t you out of your personal data. I’ve also seen wrist detection get glitchy in the past, and not allow haptic feedback to be received. The best fix I’ve found so far is to toggle the functionality off and on again, with a restart in between. Here’s how:

1. Enter the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2. Tap on General in the settings screen.
3. Tap on Wrist Detection.
4. Now, tap the switch to turn Wrist Detection off. If you have a password tied to your account, it will ask you to enter your password.
5. Restart your Apple Watch.
6. Follow steps 1-3, and then tap the switch to turn Wrist Detection back on.

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If all else fails…

If all of the troubleshooting steps above don’t fix the issue, you should contact Apple Support. How is your Apple Watch holding up? Have you had any issues with it? Let me know in the comments section below!