The Apple Watch is designed to be a seamless extension of your digital life, offering quick access to notifications, fitness tracking, and more—all with just a flick of your wrist. However, many users of older models and the budget-friendly Apple Watch SE and SE2 have encountered a frustrating issue: the “wake on wrist raise” feature stops working, forcing them to press the crown button to wake their screens. This ruins the overal experiences.
In this article, we’ll check why this issue occurs, particularly in relation to the Theatre Mode feature. We’ll also guide you through simple troubleshooting steps to restore functionality and ensure that your Apple Watch works as intended. Whether you’re checking the time or responding to notifications, getting your watch back to its optimal performance is just a few steps away.
‘Wake on Wrist Raise’ Not Working on Apple Watch
Some users face a strange issue, the wake on the wrist raise is not working, and each time, they need to press the crown button to wake the screen on. It was so annoying to do the step each time.
Once the issue happened, many thought it was the watch’s fault. Itself, and it requires repair. We even saw that some users did the reset to fix the issue. In that case, the issue for sure is fixed. But in most cases, the reset is not required as the issue happens mostly due to the settings change on the Apple watch.
One of the Apple Watch features called Theatre mode (detailed explantion on this option added at the end of this article), keeps the screen off constantly, and you won’t get woken up by notifications and raise on wrist raise. This is not a bug or an issue, but a new feature to reduce the disturbance mainly while watching movies or in other activities, and thus, the feature is named Theatre mode.
But the issue is due to the accidental click and enabling the theatre mode on the Apple Watch. The theatre mode can be activated from the notification control panel, and while swiping the screen for notification, most people might activate it by an accidental click.
Since it was activated unknowingly, most users think it is an issue and start resetting the device to fix it. However, a reset is not required as it can be changed easily from the control panel.
How to Fix the Wake on Wrist Raise Not Working Issue on Apple Watch
The option can be disabled easily. To do so, you must wake up the watch screen and unlock it first.
Then swipe from the bottom to the top from the home screen (watch face screen)
Now you will see the control center with all the options. There you will see a two mask like picture highlighted in yellow. Tap on that. The highlighted yellow will disappear. Now the theatre mode is disabled.
Now your Apple Watch will wake up while raising the wrist as before. This feature can be enabled and disabled as per your preference if you need it.
How to Know the Theatre Mode Active on the Apple Watch
If the theatre mode is activated unknowingly on your Apple watch, it can be identified easily. On your Apple watch, you will see a small yellow mask-like icon on the top center, which shows the Theatre mode active or now.
What is Theatre Mode on Apple Watch?
Theatre Mode is a feature on the Apple Watch designed to minimize distractions in settings like movie theaters or during other activities where you want to avoid interruptions. When activated, Theatre Mode keeps the watch screen off and prevents it from lighting up when you raise your wrist or receive notifications.
This feature is not a malfunction; rather, it is intended to help users enjoy their surroundings without the distraction of a glowing screen. However, some users may accidentally enable Theatre Mode while swiping through notifications, leading them to believe there is an issue with their watch.
To check if Theatre Mode is active, look for a small yellow mask-like icon at the top center of your watch face. If it’s highlighted, Theatre Mode is on, and you can easily disable it through the control panel.
