How to turn on water Lock on Apple Watch

If you intend to get your Apple Watch wet or are a bit clumsy when it comes to accidental taps, you can use the water lock feature to prevent unwanted input and clear water out of the speakers when you’re done.

What Does Water Lock Do?

As the name may suggest, this feature locks your Watch to prevent accidental touchscreen input, clicking of the digital crown, or presses of the side button. You can still raise your wrist to check the time or the state of your current workout, but you’ll need to disable water lock before you can tap on a complication or launch an app.

Siri will still work while water lock is engaged, but only if you have “Hey Siri” or raise-to-trigger modes enabled. You won’t be able to press and hold the digital crown to trigger Apple’s assistant. Water lock doesn’t prevent the watch from making sounds, measuring your heart rate, or oxygen levels, or tracking your location via GPS. Pressing and holding the side button will still dial emergency services, where possible.

You can disable water lock by turning the digital crown until the on-screen meter fills up. You can turn the crown in any direction, and the faster you turn it the quicker you’ll disable the lock. Once water lock is disabled your Apple Watch will emit a sound that is designed to clear and dislodge any water stuck inside the speaker.

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Enable Water Lock Using Control Center

You can trigger water lock at any time from your basic Watch face by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to reveal Control Center, then tapping on the water lock icon that looks like a drop of water. You might want to do this before getting into the shower, while hanging out by the pool, or even when caught in a severe downpour.

If you can’t see the water lock icon, tap on “Edit” at the bottom of the Control Center menu and add it to the list. Your Watch is no more resistant to water with the water lock engaged, this mode simply prevents unwanted input.

Enable Water Lock During a Workout

Another time you might want to use water lock is while working out, particularly if you’re swimming. You can do this easily from the Workout menu, right after starting your activity.

Launch the Workout app and tap on a Workout type, then wait for the countdown to finish and the Workout to begin. Swipe right on the Workout summary screen, as if you were going to end your workout, then tap on the Lock button in the top-left corner.

Enabling water lock using this method will ensure that your workout summary screen remains on your wrist at all times, rather than the watch face.

Turn the Digital Crown When You’re Done

When you’ve finished working out or taking a bath, twist the digital crown until you hear the signature buzzing sound that indicates your Watch is ejecting any water stuck inside the speaker.

You might want to rinse and eject the water (by enabling water lock and disengaging it again) a few times if you’re concerned about soap or salt water residue inside your watch.

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If you want to quickly pause your trip without disabling Water Lock, press the Digital Crown and Side button at the same time.

Disable Water Lock

Here's how to disable the Water Lock feature in Paddle Logger:

• From the "GO" screen on the Paddle Logger Apple Watch app, swipe from right to left
• Scroll down, you will see a toggle to turn Water Lock off - this switches off Apple's Water Lock and the screen will always be active

If you choose to turn the water lock off, we would recommend rinsing the watch in fresh water and clearing out the speaker of your watch to avoid corrosion damage.

Apple Watches are water-resistant, which means that you can keep it on your wrist pretty much all day––through sweaty workouts, swimming in a pool, lake, or ocean, and even if you get caught in the rain. 

To keep you from accidentally tapping the watch face while in the water, Apple Watches are equipped with a Water Lock feature that temporarily locks the screen and helps clear out any water from the speaker when you're back on dry land. 

Here's everything you need to know about the feature and how to disable it when not needed:

What is the water drop icon on Apple Watch?

The water drop icon is associated with Water Lock, an Apple Watch feature that prevents you from accidentally touching or interacting with your Apple Watch screen when you're in the water. 

When you turn off Water Lock, your Apple Watch will emit a few short sounds to clear water from the watch speaker. If you forget to turn on Water Lock before going into the water, the water resistance of your Apple Watch doesn't change (just your ability to interact with the screen).  

You can clear the water from the speakers by manually turning Water Lock on and off once you're out of the water.

How to turn on Water Lock on your Apple Watch

1. Swipe up on an Apple Watch face to open the Control Center.

2. Scroll down, then tap the Water Lock icon. It looks like a raindrop. 

Quick tip: Water Lock turns on automatically when starting a water-based workout. These include Pool Swim, Open Water Swim, and Surfing.

How to turn off Water Lock on your Apple Watch

If your Apple Watch isn't responding to taps on the screen, Water Lock may be on. To turn it off, rotate the Digital Crown until the blue water drop fills the gray circle.