How to Fix Apple Watch Not Vibrating for Notification or Calls

Your Apple Watch comes preloaded with a ton of features to make your life easier. This watch actually connects to your iPhone and you can receive notifications as well as calls right on your Apple Watch. When you get an incoming call on your iPhone, for example, your Watch vibrates and lets you know about it. However, sometimes, your Watch may not vibrate and you can miss the call.

If your Apple Watch haptics are not working and your Watch is not vibrating for any of your notifications, there could be an issue with the software of the device. Many times, a minor issue with the Apple Watch’s system – watchOS can prevent things like vibrations from happening.

Fix Apple Watch Not Vibrating for Notification or Calls

The following methods will help you fix the vibrations issue on your Apple Watch.

Tip 1. Enable Prominent Haptic and Increase Its Strength

As you may already know, your Apple Watch is actually based on watchOS which is an operating system developed by Apple. This system works much like other operating systems, and you have various options to change the settings and other items on your Apple Watch because of this OS.

This operating system actually offers an option that lets you enable and disable vibrations on your Apple Watch. If this option is turned off for some reason, that is why your Apple Watch’s vibration is not working. Your Watch thinks you do not need to know about any notifications, so it does not vibrate no matter what happens.

If you want to change that behavior, you can actually go into the Settings app and change an option. That will enable the vibration as well as increase the strength of the vibration so you can actually notice it. The following shows how to do that.

Step 1. Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch and tap the Settings app.

Step 2. On the resulting screen, tap the Sounds & Haptics option. This will let you see the vibrations option.

Step 3. You should now see a slider on your screen that says Haptic Strength. Drag it all the way to the right to increase the vibration strength.

Step 4. Enable the Prominent Haptic option as well. Your Apple Watch should now vibrate as normal.

Tip 2. Toggle Off Do Not Disturb

These days, we get the most number of notifications than we have ever got in the past. Your devices continuously get alerts from various apps and items that are installed on your device. To reduce these notifications and to avoid getting distracted from your actual work, there has to be something on your device that helps prevent the notifications.

Well, you have something called Do Not Disturb on your Apple devices including the Apple Watch. For as long as this option remains enabled, your Apple Watch will not send you any notifications nor will it vibrate. One of the reasons your Watch is not vibrating may be that the Do Not Disturb option is enabled on your device.

Turning off the option should fix the issue for you, and here we show how to do that.

Step 1. Press the Digital Crown to head to the main screen on your Apple Watch.

Step 2. Swipe up and you will see the Control Center.

Step 3. You will find that the Do Not Disturb icon is turned on. Tap on this icon and the mode will be disabled on your Watch.

Tip 3. Power Off Apple Watch and Turn On Later

Not all of the issues that you ever experience on your Apple Watch require lengthy fixes. Sometimes, all your Watch needs is a simple refresh for it to work the way it is supposed to. A possible reason your Apple Watch is not vibrating may be that there is a minor issue with the system.

Fixing these minor issues does not require you to go through dozens of methods. All you need to do is reboot your Apple Watch and your issue will likely be resolved. In case this method does not work for some reason, it will not cause any harm to your device. And, it is extremely easy to use.

Step 1. Press and hold down the Side button and a menu will be displayed on your Apple Watch’s screen.

Step 2. You need to drag the slider for Power Off to turn off your Apple Watch.

Step 3. Once your Watch is turned off, wait for about five minutes and then press and hold down the Side button again to turn your Watch back on.

You can try calling from your other phone to your iPhone and see if that makes your Apple Watch vibrate. It should likely work this time around.

Tip 4. Check for watchOS Update

Most people remember to keep their iPhone and iPad devices updated but they forget that their Apple Watch also needs regular updates. Your Watch actually runs an operating system called watchOS, and this OS often receives new updates like iOS and macOS.

Your Apple Watch haptics not working may be due to an obsolete version of watchOS. Whether this is the case or not, you should go ahead and get the operating system updated on your Watch anyway.

As long as you have a working WiFi Internet connection, you can connect your Watch to it and then check and install the available updates. These steps will show you how to do that.

Step 1. Connect your Apple Watch to a stable WiFi network.

Step 2. Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch and open the Settings app.

Step 3. Select the option that says General and then tap Software Update.

Step 4. If you see a software update is available, tap the Install button to download and install the update on your Watch.

Once watchOS is updated, reboot your Watch. Your vibration issue should likely be gone if it was caused due to an older version of the OS.

Tip 5. Reset All Settings on Apple Watch

If none of the above methods fixed the vibration issue on your Apple Watch, the last thing you can try and do is reset your Watch to the factory settings. This will reset all the settings, configurations, and apps that you have ever installed. Therefore, you should make a backup of your Watch before you actually go ahead and reset it.

Resetting should fix many issues including the vibration one if it is caused by a system element. However, be advised that this method should only be used when you have no other options available; resetting is not something we recommend everyone to do.

You can either reset your Apple Watch from your iPhone by unpairing it, or you can reset the Watch directly from the Settings app. The following shows how to do the task using the latter.

Step 1. Access the Settings app on your Apple Watch and head into General.

Step 2. Tap the option that says Reset and you will find an option for Erase All Content and Settings. Select this option.

Step 3. On the following screen, select Erase All and your Apple Watch will begin to reset. Wait for the process to finish.

When your Apple Watch is reset, you can reconfigure it from scratch. You should then find that your Watch vibrates whenever you get a call or a notification.

Bouns Tip. How to Upgrade iOS/iPadOS with Ease Using AnyFix – iOS System Recovery

In most cases, you need to use iPhone to update watchOS. If your iPhone is not the latest iOS system, it may cause watchOS update failure. So you need to update your iPhone to the latest iOS version in advance. AnyFix – iOS system recovery is ​​a system repair tool that not only can help you fix iOS system problems, but also can upgrade and downgrade your iPhone.

The following shows how AnyFix works.

Step 1. Free Download and install the AnyFix app on your computer.

Step 2. Connect your iOS or iPadOS device to your computer and click on Upgrade/Downgrade iOS option.

Step 3. Then select the 1-click to upgrade iOS/iPadOS option and click on Start Now.

Step 4. Choose one version that you want to upgrade to, click on Download next to it, and then hit Upgrade.

Step 5. Just wait for a moment. When the upgrade is done, you will see the following interface.

The Bottom Line

You expect your Apple Watch to vibrate when there is an incoming call or notification. However, if it does not do that, you will want to find out what is causing the issue and then get it fixed. Our guide above should tell you all the things you can do when your Watch is not vibrating.