While watchOS is generally a very stable operating system, third-party apps can occasionally freeze, become completely unresponsive, or get stuck in an endless loading loop. Because the Apple Watch lacks a traditional home button or a multi-tasking swipe gesture like the iPhone, users often mistakenly believe they have to restart the entire watch to fix a crashed app. Fortunately, Apple built a hidden “Force Quit” mechanism specifically for this scenario.
How to Force Quit an App
To force an app to close, you must use a specific sequence involving the physical buttons on the side of your Apple Watch.
- Ensure that the frozen or unresponsive app is currently open and visible on your Apple Watch screen. You cannot force quit an app from the background; it must be the active application.
- Press and hold the Side Button (the flat, pill-shaped button located just below the Digital Crown).
- Keep holding the Side Button until the power menu appears on your screen (displaying the Medical ID, Compass Backtrack, and Emergency Call sliders, along with the Power icon in the top right corner).
- Once the power menu appears, release the Side Button.
- Now, press and hold the Digital Crown (the round, rotating dial).
- Keep holding the Digital Crown for approximately three to five seconds.
The screen will suddenly flash black, the unresponsive app will be forcefully terminated, and you will be returned directly to the watch face.
You can now press the Digital Crown to open your app list and relaunch the application. It will start fresh, loading all its data from scratch, which almost always resolves temporary software glitches or freezing issues.