Apple Watch Series 4 suffers from daylight savings bug rebooting loop in Australia

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in Apple Watch
A number of Apple Watch Series 4 owners in Australia suffered from a rebooting issue with their new wearable devices over the weekend caused through a switch to daylight savings time, meanwhile an AppleInsider reader advises there's another timezone issue that apparently remains unresolved in watchOS.




Users are reporting on Reddit and social media their Apple Watch stopped functioning properly on Sunday morning, shortly after the country moved into daylight savings time. Affected Apple Watch units were forced into a reboot loop, which consumed the battery and made it almost impossible to recharge or restart manually.

A Reddit post about the problem offers the suggestion that the Infograph Activity complication may be the cause, with one user proposing switching a different watch face via the Watch app as a means to escape the reboot cycle. The same poster notes selecting the Infograph Modular face with the Activity complication in the Watch app even caused the app to close.

It appears that the problem only occurs for the 24 hours following the daylight savings change, with users advising their once-affected devices are back to normal.

While the issue is largely rectified for the moment, it is unclear if similar issues will occur when other markets change their clocks. The United States will be moving out of daylight savings time on November 4, while the UK and Europe changes on October 28.

It is likely that Apple will issue a software update to close the bug, but it is unknown if it will make an appearance in time for the other time changes.




The daylight savings issue is not the only time-related problem affecting the Apple Watch. A reader advised to AppleInsider of another problem specifically for the Apple Watch with Cellular, one that affects people on time zone borders.

As the Apple Watch determines the time zone via cellular, it either acquires it from a connected iPhone or, if there is no iPhone present, by connecting to a nearby cell tower.

According to the reader, who lives in Australia on a border between two states with different time zones and only one abides by daylight savings, this can cause problems for the cellular Apple Watch separated from its iPhone. Depending on the tower the Apple Watch connects to, it could be up to an hour out from the correct time for the reader's location, simply because the cell tower in question is in another time zone.

A "Senior AppleCare Specialist" is said to have worked with the reader over the matter earlier this year, acknowledging the issue and that a software fix would be on the way, but it has yet to be issued.

AppleInsider has contacted Apple for comment.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Mmmm. Daylight saving seems to bite them a lot. Not sure why though. It’s been around for quite some time. 

    [update]

    Nope. My goof. The folk below me are correct. This is not a bug. 

    As as you were. 
    edited October 2018
  • Reply 2 of 18
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    "According to the reader, who lives in Australia on a border between two states with different time zones and only one abides by daylight savings, this can cause problems for the cellular Apple Watch separated from its iPhone. Depending on the tower the Apple Watch connects to, it could be up to an hour out from the correct time for the reader's location, simply because the cell tower in question is in another time zone."

    Wouldn't that also affect every device that doesn't allow you to set a time zone and relies on a cell signal to provide the info?
    bonobobwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 18
    To the author. Please look at a calendar. It is “daylight saving time” and is not “daylight savings time.”


    StrangeDaystokyojimularryadysamoriawatto_cobrasteveau
  • Reply 4 of 18
    ivanhivanh Posts: 597member
    Software quality assurance is seemed to be too expensive to Apple’s executives. 
    dysamoria
  • Reply 5 of 18
    jcs2305jcs2305 Posts: 1,336member
    To the author. Please look at a calendar. It is “daylight saving time” and is not “daylight savings time.”



    Real World Issues
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    Daylight Saving spelling is not on this list.  Thanks for pointing this out..
    edited October 2018 muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 18
    Time zones are one of the most annoying things in all of programming, so if anything I’m surprised we don’t see more issues like these.
    StrangeDaysdocno42dysamoriawatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 18
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    s.metcalf said:
    Time zones are one of the most annoying things in all of programming, so if anything I’m surprised we don’t see more issues like these.

    And geographical edge cases are always going to be a challenge. You can't expect the displayed time to change as you set foot across the border from one zone to another.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 18
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    jcs2305 said:
    To the author. Please look at a calendar. It is “daylight saving time” and is not “daylight savings time.”



    Real World Issues
    • College and Financial Aid.
    • Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Addiction.
    • Eating Disorders and Body Image.
    • Food, Fitness, and Exercise.
    • General Health.
    • HIV and AIDS.
    • Homeless Youth and Runaways.
    • Bullying Prevention.
    Daylight Saving spelling is not on this list.  Thanks for pointing this out..
    That doesn’t make any sense because no one could talk about anything else. AI is a professional publication, so it’s good for their writers to learn about their craft and correct mistakes in order to produce a higher-caliber product for their readership. Writers like Gruber of Daringfireball welcome corrections for this reason. 
    gutengeldysamoriawatto_cobrasteveau
  • Reply 9 of 18
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    ivanh said:
    Software quality assurance is seemed to be too expensive to Apple’s executives. 
    Nah, that’s just your confirmation bias showing. There’s another word for it.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 18
    bonobobbonobob Posts: 382member
    s.metcalf said:
    Time zones are one of the most annoying things in all of programming, so if anything I’m surprised we don’t see more issues like these.
    We got through a whole year before this without any problems, so why didn’t they just leave the working code alone???
  • Reply 11 of 18
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    bonobob said:
    s.metcalf said:
    Time zones are one of the most annoying things in all of programming, so if anything I’m surprised we don’t see more issues like these.
    We got through a whole year before this without any problems, so why didn’t they just leave the working code alone???
    Oversimplification 101. I’m an enterprise software developer and work with production defects every day. It’s never as simple as “Why did they decide to mess it up!” In real life, things are much more complicated. None of us here will ever know the particulars around most defects we read about.
    edited October 2018
  • Reply 12 of 18
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    I had no idea the daylights savings times were a thing outside the US. I was told it was invented by Benjamin Franklin.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    mac_128mac_128 Posts: 3,454member
    eightzero said:
    I had no idea the daylights savings times were a thing outside the US. I was told it was invented by Benjamin Franklin.
    Not exactly, though Franklin proposed some DST concepts. Regardless it is applied inconsistently throughout the world, leading to all sorts of issues. Frankly (no pun intended), I'd prefer they move the clocks halfway between the two standards, and keep them there year-round worldwide and get rid of this outdated and dangerous ritual.


    eightzerodysamoria
  • Reply 14 of 18
    maddygpmaddygp Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    > Apple Watch stopped functioning properly on Sunday morning, shortly after the country moved into daylight savings time. Affected Apple Watch units were forced into a reboot loop, which consumed the battery
    This happened to my watch on 30th September when New Zealand switched over to daylight saving time. It became an Apple Brick despite numerous attempts at restores, clean resets, etc. I didn't get around to logging the support call with Apple until Monday morning and when the technician got me to start/charge it one more time, the watch "fixed itself". I did say on the support ticket at the time the only explanation seemed to be daylight saving.

  • Reply 15 of 18
    docno42docno42 Posts: 3,755member
    Sigh - screwing around with time twice a year and the inevitable screw ups when it goes wrong costs literally millions each year.  It's way past time to end this BS once and for all. 

    Stop screwing around with time!  It's a really bad idea!
    larryadysamoria
  • Reply 16 of 18
    It’s probably because their toilets flush the wrong way
  • Reply 17 of 18
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    jcs2305 said:
    To the author. Please look at a calendar. It is “daylight saving time” and is not “daylight savings time.”



    Real World Issues
    • College and Financial Aid.
    • Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco and Addiction.
    • Eating Disorders and Body Image.
    • Food, Fitness, and Exercise.
    • General Health.
    • HIV and AIDS.
    • Homeless Youth and Runaways.
    • Bullying Prevention.


    Daylight Saving spelling is not on this list.  Thanks for pointing this out..
    While not quite as egregious an item as those on the bulleted list you provided above... Eliminating daylight saving time would save a lot of people a lot of wasted effort, money, and actual time. Twice a year there’s this completely unnecessary waste of time-changing effort that generates problems. People get their schedules mixed up, forget to change their non-automatic clocks (or their automatic clocks mess up, like in this article), waking up late, etc.

    Just like it would benefit everyone if the USA moved to metric, for crying out loud (millions of dollars were once lost due to a conversion error destroying a satellite).
  • Reply 18 of 18
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member

    It’s probably because their toilets flush the wrong way
    Ha ha, but they don’t.
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