Samsung began pushing its Wear OS 6–based One UI 8 Watch update to the Galaxy Watch 4 family this month, but what looked like a welcome software refresh has produced a string of headaches for some owners — and the company appears to have slowed the rollout.
What users are seeing
Reports from owners and device trackers describe three main problems after installing One UI 8 Watch (roughly a 1.7GB upgrade for many devices):
- Much worse battery life. Instead of the roughly 24-hour endurance many users were used to, some watches are now draining in 12–15 hours or less. A subset of users says the drain is even more extreme. Clearing caches or rebooting has helped a few, but results are inconsistent.
- Always-on display failures and sluggish performance. Several owners note AOD no longer works reliably and the interface can feel slower than before the update.
- Sensor and wrist detection failures. This is the most concerning: a thread on Samsung’s community forums describes a Galaxy Watch 4 Classic that lost key sensor functionality after the update. The watch sometimes can’t tell it’s on a wrist, which disables health tracking and can leave the device locked if a passcode is set — making payments and notifications awkward or unusable.
- Restart the watch and phone, then re-check sensors.
- Clear the watch cache (via Galaxy Wearable app or device settings) and reboot.
- Unpair and re-pair the watch to your phone.
- If wrist detection is blocking use, temporarily remove the passcode until a fix arrives.
- Contact Samsung support or visit a service center if sensors remain nonfunctional — particularly for the Classic models reporting the worst issues.
Some odd details have surfaced: a handful of users say tilting the watch to the underside of the wrist temporarily restores sensors, hinting at a software/hardware interplay rather than a straightforward software bug.
Why the rollout stalled (and what to do if you’ve not updated)
Samsung’s rollout appears to have been paused or throttled while the company investigates. In some regions the update simply isn’t showing up; in others it landed only after a small August 2025 security patch (about 142MB) was installed first. That smaller patch seems to be a prerequisite for the One UI 8 Watch upgrade on certain Bluetooth-only variants in India and elsewhere.
If you haven’t received the upgrade yet: consider waiting. If you want to proceed, make sure any required security updates are installed first and back up important watch data. If you already updated and are seeing problems, try these troubleshooting steps in order:
Some users have reported temporary improvement after a factory reset, but that’s a last-resort step because it erases settings and watch data.
Context: older hardware, newer software
The Galaxy Watch 4 line is more than four years old. That makes One UI 8 Watch an unusually long-lived upgrade for the series — good for owners on paper, trickier in practice when modern firmware meets aging components. Samsung surprised some by confirming support for this major update at all, and its handling of the rollout echoes the tightrope companies walk between feature updates and stability.
These sorts of software ripple effects aren’t unique to Samsung. Changes in how platforms communicate or authenticate can have broader consequences across ecosystems — consider recent shifts in how Apple handles certain iPhone–Apple Watch network features in the EU, which also remind owners that software policy changes affect day-to-day wearable behavior Apple to Disable iPhone–Apple Watch Wi‑Fi Sync in EU. And for Samsung, software choices will shape other device plans and expectations, from phones to foldables and beyond — something to keep in mind as the company readies devices like the next Galaxy flagship Galaxy S26 preview.
Will Samsung fix it?
History suggests Samsung will push a follow-up patch if the issues are reproducible and widespread. The sensible strategy would be a targeted update that addresses sensor drivers and any power-management regressions, followed by a wider rollout. For cautious users who rely on health metrics and contactless payments, holding off until community reports stabilize is reasonable.
If cross-platform alternatives are on your radar — or you’re weighing a switch away from a Watch 4 that’s acting up — consider options like the Apple Watch for comparison, but remember every platform has its own trade-offs.
In short: One UI 8 Watch brings useful upgrades, but the current wave of battery and sensor reports is a reminder that big OS jumps can expose quirks in older hardware. Watch for official fixes and, for now, don’t rush into the update if you depend on uninterrupted health tracking or contactless features.