Technology

Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 4 ‘raise to wake’ gesture is broken following latest Wear OS updates

February 6, 2023

The Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 have proved to be some of the best smartwatches for Android users, but they’re still not immune to the occasional issue. Lately, some Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 owners have reported issues with “raise to wake” not working properly.

“Raise to wake” is a fairly standard feature on smartwatches, with the option allowing users to see the time and/or notifications by simply raising their wrist into view. Generally, it’s accomplished by using sensors on board the smartwatch.

For some Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5 owners, though, “raise to wake” has been leading to the watch immediately locking itself and going back to the sleep. Technically speaking, the watch should always go sleep shortly after the raise-to-wake gesture is performance unless further input is made, but users report this happening within mere seconds.

The issue has been captured by several Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 4 owners on Reddit, as well as popping up on Samsung’s support forums. PiunikaWeb was among the first to shine a spotlight on the issue.

One user captured the issue on video.

It’s unclear if Samsung is aware of the problem, as the company hasn’t officially commented. This doesn’t seem to be a particularly widespread issue either, but it’s definitely affecting quite a few folks. If you’re seeing problems, sound off in the comments below!