Apple Watch Series 4 Revived! (By removing Home complication)

The last couple of months, my series 4 Apple Watch (which I haven’t yet upgraded to watchOS 7) had been acting more and more sluggish. My “just before bed” routine, which is "put watch into theater mode, open AutoSleep, and hit “Lights Out,” took a minute and a half or longer, and about a quarter of the time caused a reboot.

Well, I am a “keep the Christmas lights up WAY beyond Christmas” guy, especially this crummy year. But they’re all down now, except for some on the front porch that run on a smart plug timer. So, I took the Home complication off my watch face (Infograph) since I wouldn’t be using it to turn off the Christmas lights in the house anymore.

And with that, my watch became responsive and snappy again. An hour later, when I hit the sack, my routine took 5 seconds. No more slowdowns, no reboots. Battery life noticeably better. And as I thought about it, yes, things had started to slow down back when I began turning smart plugs on and off from my watch.

I’m not sure WHY this would be the case, but the timing of the result was so stark that I can’t imagine it not being a cause-and-effect thing.

So, if anyone has an Apple Watch that is slowing to a crawl, try ditching the Home complication and see if it helps. I’m no longer saving up for a replacement!

-Eric

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