Plot twist: we thought the 'ghost touches' issue on the Apple Watch 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 had been fixed for good, but it's now made a return, with Apple issuing fresh advice to its authorized repair shops.
The problem is with Apple Watches falsely registering taps and swipes on the screen without being touched, and we first reported on it back in February. It wasn't clear how many devices were affected, but Apple did acknowledge the issue.
Then in March we got the watchOS 10.4 update, which apparently fixed the ghost touches problem – it even said so in the release notes. At that point we thought it was case closed for this particular Apple Watch bug, but not so.
As per MacRumors, it seems some Apple Watch owners are still seeing the phantom taps. What's more, the issue is now affecting even more models, stretching back to the Apple Watch 7 that made its debut in September 2021.
What to do?
This has JUST been extended to series 7, series 8, as well as ultra 1 just FYIApple has advised us not to replace watches for this issue and to tell people to basically force restart the watch by holding both buttons together for 10 seconds and also keep your watches up-to-date https://t.co/klrVeYhkD0April 10, 2024
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It's difficult to figure out exactly what's happened here: all we know is there's a new Apple memo to authorized service providers, telling them that users might complain of ghost touch problems on any Apple Watch launched since 2021.
Has the watchOS 10.4 update failed to fix the problem? Has it in fact caused the problem to appear on older models besides the 2023 watches? At this stage Apple isn't saying, but users are still reporting problems on Reddit.
We do know the advice in the memo, which is to update affected Apple Watches to the latest watchOS version, then do a force restart: hold down the side button and the digital crown for 10 seconds, before letting go.
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Go through that process and – hopefully – any lingering ghost touch problems should be fixed. Considering this has now been in the news for a couple of months though, we might not be completely done with it yet.
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David Nield
Freelance Contributor
Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
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