The latest watchOS update (8.5) on the Apple Watch has a new recovery mode that will allow you to restore your Watch if it’s stuck on the Red Exclamation point screen. According to our support article that was updated on Monday on the Apple website, You will now be able to recover your watch at home if it gets stuck.
This support article by Apple says that you will need an iPhone running iOS 15.4 to go through the steps that they mention, If you or Apple Watch is showing an animation of a phone and a watch being brought together, or a red exclamation point, the process to fix it as very simple. Just go through this process:
- Put the watch on its charger.
- Unlock your phone and bring it close
- Double-press the Watch’s side button, next to the crown
- A prompt should then pop up on your phone, saying that it detected an Apple Watch in recovery mode, initiating steps you can follow to restore the Watch.
Although there is a little bit of pickiness around what kind of Wi-Fi network your phone is connected to, So if the process above does not work for you, could just go ahead and read the fine print written on that article.
Normally these kinds of red exclamation marks and other issues are caused or caused by watchOS beta. We would recommend you just leave your Apple Watch the way it is and do not go ahead and upgrade to the Beta version (As you know, it could bring a lot of problems with it which Apple won’t be willing to fix as you are taking the risk of using the beta version)
