PSA: Make Sure You’re Not Using This Apple Watch Face When DST Ends

Across the globe, Daylight Saving Time will soon come to an end. And because of that, you may want to change your Apple Watch face.

There appears to be a bug related to DST that impacts Apple Watch Series 4 models running the Infograph Modular watch face. The bug can cause Apple Watch devices to crash-and-reboot endlessly until their batteries run out.

The bug was first noted by Apple Watch Series 4 users in Australia earlier this month. When DST started there on the weekend of Oct. 6, users who had the Infograph Modular watch face on their devices reported the infinite crashing loop.

It’s worth noting that the bug corrects itself after it rolls over into the next normal 24-hour day.

Presumably, the bug is tied to the Activity complication on said watch face — which sports a 24-hour infographic. Basically, when the time changes, it adds or chops an hour off the day. The watch face apparently can’t compute a 23- or 25-hour day, thus causing the crashing issue.

While the bug was first reported early this month, Apple has not publicly acknowledged the issue. Similarly, there hasn’t been a watchOS update since then, so the bug probably hasn’t been patched via software.

Because of that, it’s probably a good idea to not use the Infograph Modular watch face. Just to be safe, you may want to avoid using any watch face with a 24-hour Activity complication.

Be careful with your iPhone, too. Users reported that selecting the Infograph Modular face within the iOS Watch app on a time-change day caused the app to also crash indefinitely.

In the United States and Canada, the time will roll back an hour Sunday, Nov. 4.

Unless Apple fields a watchOS 5.0.2 patch sometime soon, you can probably expect the DST bug to affect your Apple Watch Series 4 (if you’re running Infograph Modular, of course). Thankfully, you can now expect the issue and plan accordingly.