How to troubleshoot touchscreen issues or use touch gestures on your Samsung Galaxy Watch

The touch gestures on your Galaxy Watch allow you to navigate your device efficiently. If your screen appears unresponsive, slow, or frozen, understanding the proper gesture actions can help determine if the issue is hardware or software-related.
A person wearing a silver Galaxy Watch and scrolling through app icons on its screen.
A person wearing a silver Galaxy Watch and scrolling through app icons on its screen.

How to troubleshoot touchscreen issues or use touch gestures on your Samsung Galaxy Watch

Note
Available features, menu options, interface, and settings may vary depending on your specific watch model and software version.

Standard touch gestures for Galaxy Watch

Your Galaxy Watch supports various touch and tap gestures alongside its physical buttons and rotating bezel. Review these gestures to ensure you are interacting with the screen correctly.
Note
Note: Models equipped with a physical rotating bezel do not feature a digital Touch Bezel.
Tap: Lightly tap the screen to launch an application or select a menu item.
An illustration of a finger tapping the center of a circular screen.
Touch and hold: Touch and hold the screen for more than 2 seconds to enter edit mode or view additional options on specific screens.
An illustration of a finger touching and holding the center of a circular screen.
Drag: Touch and hold an icon or item, then slide your finger to move it to a new location.
An illustration of a finger swiping to the right on a circular screen.
Double-tap: Double-tap the screen while viewing an image to zoom in or zoom out.
An illustration of a finger double tapping the center of a circular screen.
Swipe: Swipe your finger up, down, left, or right to scroll through pages or move to different screens.
An illustration of a finger swiping to the right across a circular screen.
Pinch to zoom: Spread to fingers apart or pinch them together on the camera preview screen to zoom in or out.
An illustration showing a thumb and index finger touching the outer edges of a circular screen.
Swipe the Touch Bezel: Swipe along the outer edge of the digital screen (the Touch Bezel) to move through items, adjust settings values, or control phone/alarm functions
An illustration of a smartwatch with two blue arrows indicating a rotating bezel motion on a circular screen.
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Troubleshoot an unresponsive, slow, or glitching touchscreen

If your watch screen appears to be lagging, freezing, or failing to recognize touch inputs, follow these troubleshooting steps to resolve the software issue.

 

  1. Swipe up from the watch Home screen to open the Apps screen.
    A watch home screen displaying a digital clock with an arrow pointing up, indicating a swipe up gesture from the bottom.
  2. Tap the Recent apps icon.
  3. Swipe up on an individual app card to close it, or tap Close all to terminate all background apps.

If the touchscreen remains unresponsive after closing background apps, force restart the watch.

 

Press and hold the Home key (Power button) and Back key simultaneously for more than 7 seconds until the watch restarts.
A Galaxy Watch with the home button and back button highlighted.

If the issue persists after restart, perform a factory reset.

 

  1. Tap Settings, then tap General.
  2. Tap Reset.
    A watch screen showing the General menu with the Reset option highlighted.
  3. Tap Reset once more to confirm.
Important
All stored data will be permanently deleted once the device is reset. If you wish to keep your information, please back up your data before resetting.
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