Four Apple Watch problems we see every week, and what can be fixed

Apple just announced the Series 12 and the Ultra 4 (on sale September 18, from $399 and $799), which means a lot of Series 6, 7, 8 and 9 watches are about to be handed down or traded in — and a lot of owners are wondering whether their old one is worth fixing. These are the four problems we see most, and what can be done about each.

1. The battery doesn't last the day

This is the most common one, and it's age, not a fault. After two or three years an Apple Watch battery has lost enough capacity that "18 hours" becomes "get me to dinner." Check it: Settings → Battery → Battery Health. Under 80% and it's time.

Fixable: yes. A battery replacement is a routine job for us on every Apple Watch from the Series 4 onward. It's the single most cost-effective repair you can do on a watch, and it's far cheaper than a Series 12.

Before you assume the battery: turn off Always On for a day, and check that a rogue app isn't running in the background. If it's still dying early, it's the cell.

2. Cracked or scratched screen

A watch lives on the part of your body that hits door frames. Aluminum models have Ion-X glass, which scratches; the stainless and titanium models have sapphire, which shrugs off scratches but can still crack on a hard edge.

Fixable: yes. Screen replacements on the Series 4 through Series 11 are jobs we do regularly. A cracked screen on a watch is worth fixing quickly — water gets in through the crack, and water is the one thing that turns a screen job into a "buy a new watch" conversation.

3. It won't charge, or charges slowly

Nine times out of ten it's the charger or the puck, not the watch. Try a different cable and a different USB adapter. Check the back of the watch is clean — sunscreen and lotion build up on the sensor glass and stop the puck sitting flat. If it charges on someone else's puck, buy a new charger and you're done.

Fixable when it's the watch: usually. A watch that won't charge on any puck is either the battery (see above) or the charging coil, and both are repairs.

4. It won't pair, or keeps disconnecting

Almost always software. Restart both the watch and the phone, make sure both are fully updated, and if it still won't behave, unpair it from the Watch app and set it up again as new — pairing is where most of the strange behavior lives. Keep Bluetooth on, and don't run a VPN on the phone while pairing.

If none of that works and the watch also has trouble with Wi-Fi or the digital crown, bring it in — that combination sometimes points at a hardware fault.

What isn't worth fixing

We'll tell you before we start. A Series 3 or older is at the end of its software life and a screen replacement can cost more than the watch is worth. A watch that's been in the pool with a cracked screen for a week is often not saveable. Diagnosis is $35 and comes off the repair, and every repair we do is covered for 30 days.

Old watch, new watch

If you're upgrading to the Series 12, we buy working Apple Watches over the counter — and a Series 8 or 9 with a fresh battery is a genuinely good watch for someone else in the family. Price the battery before you decide it's done.