1. Force Restart Watch

The first thing that you must do when your Samsung Galaxy smartwatch touch screen doesn’t work is to restart the watch. For that, press and hold the two buttons on the side of your watch simultaneously for at least 30 seconds or until your see the Samsung logo. Ignore the Power menu if it pops up while pressing the buttons. Tip: If the above steps don’t work, hold down the button from the bottom only until your watch restarts. Please keep in mind restarting the watch is different from resetting it. Restarting the watch will not delete data from your watch.

2. Charge Your Watch

When the Galaxy Watch touch screen isn’t working, you must try charging the watch. Doing so will supply some power to the watch, which could in turn fix the watch touchscreen not working issue.

3. Disable Water Lock

If you see water droplet icons on your Galaxy watch screen or the screen appears bluish, then your Galaxy watch is in the water lock mode. When it’s enabled, it disables the touch screen of your watch. This is done as a precautionary measure to prevent accidental touches when the watch is in touch with water. To disable water lock mode on your Galaxy Watch, hold the Home button for 2-3 seconds. Tip: On some Samsung Galaxy watches, you can disable water lock mode from the Wearable app as well. Open the Wearable app, go to Watch settings > Advanced features > Water lock. Disable it.

4. Change Watch Face

Often a problematic third-party watch face can also be responsible for Galaxy Watch’s touch screen not working issue. You should change the watch face and revert to the ones offered by Samsung.

  1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone.
  2. Tap on Watch faces. A number of watch faces will greet you. Tap on a watch face that you would like to use. Hopefully, the new watch face should fix the touchscreen unresponsive or not working issue.

5. Uninstall Recently Installed App

Did you recently install any new app on your Galaxy Watch? That could also be the reason behind the Samsung Galaxy Watch touch screen not working issue. You must uninstall any recently installed app to troubleshoot the touchscreen issue. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone.
  2. Tap on Watch settings > Apps.
  3. Look for the app that you recently installed. Tap on it and hit the Uninstall button. Tip: Check out the best timer apps for Samsung Galaxy Watch.

6. Unpair Watch

You should also try unpairing the watch temporarily from the phone. Doing so will disconnect the watch from the phone and if any issue is caused by the phone, this fix will identify that. To unpair the watch from the phone, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your connected phone.
  2. Tap on the three-bar icon to open the menu. Press the Disconnect icon next to your watch.
  3. Now, use your watch. If the watch touchscreen works fine without the phone, restart the phone and pair them again. Tip: Learn other ways to unpair the Galaxy Watch from the phone.

7. Reset Watch

Lastly, if nothing works, reset the watch. Resetting the watch will disconnect it from your phone and delete all data from the watch. You will need to set up the watch again with your phone. To reset Galaxy Watch, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the Galaxy Wearable app.
  2. Go to Watch Settings > General.
  3. Tap on Reset and confirm by hitting the Reset button again on the next screen.

8. Touch to Wake Gesture Not Working

You are mistaken if you assumed that your Galaxy Watch touchscreen has stopped working just because the touch-to-wake gesture isn’t working. The touch-to-wake gesture will not work if either Bedtime or Theatre mode is active on your watch. You must disable these sound modes to activate touch to wake gesture. To do so, open Quick Panel on your Galaxy Watch. Look for the Bedtime mode (Bed icon) and Theatre mode (Camera action icon). If one of them is highlighted, that means the mode is active. Tap on their respective icons to turn off these modes. Learn what do various icons mean on Galaxy Watch.

Bonus Fix: Activate Voice Assistant

If your Galaxy Watch is stuck on the “Try again, touch the screen with your palm to turn it off” error, one of the Reddit users suggests activating voice assistant on the watch. That will bypass the error screen and you should be able to use the watch touch screen normally. To activate voice assistant, open the Wearable app on your phone and go to Watch Settings > Accessibility > Screen Reader. Turn on Voice assistant. The tutorial to set up the voice assistant will start. If the instructions suggest steps to skip the tutorial, follow that. You should then be able to use the watch. You can go ahead and deactivate the voice assistant by repeating the same steps mentioned above.

Use Galaxy Watch Like a Pro

I hope the above solutions were able to help you in fixing Samsung Galaxy Watch touch screen not working issue. Once your watch starts functioning properly, learn how to use the calling feature on Galaxy Watch like a pro. Also, know various tips to use notifications on the Galaxy Watch.