Apple Watch Series 4 DST bug may not be fixed as clocks roll back in Europe

Zac Hall | Oct 26 2018 - 6:46 am PT

You may not want to use the large Activity complication on the Infograph Modular on Apple Watch Series 4 if you live in a country where the clocks are about to roll back this weekend. That’s because there hasn’t been a software update since the same Daylight Saving Time bug affected users in Australia earlier this month.

The software bug is simple: the large Activity complication on Infograph Modular shows a graph for 24 hours, but any change to DST technically results in a day with 23 or 25 hours. The complication isn’t designed to adjust for these changes yet.

Apple will presumably release a software update before DST ends in the United States. watchOS 5.1 is currently in beta (and may include the fix) which could be released around the Apple event next week. watchOS 5.0.1 was released on September 27th, a week and a half before the DST bug surfaced. Perhaps we’ll see watchOS 5.0.2 later today, but if not … expect the same DST bug to be present.

DST starts on the first Sunday of October in Australia and ends on the last Sunday of October across many countries in Europe including England. In the United States, DST ends on the first Sunday of November which falls on November 4th this year.

When the DST bug struck Apple Watch Series 4 users in Australia earlier this month, the result was consistent crashing and rebooting. The issue automatically resolved when the day changed and the cause corrected itself, and customers who managed to change the watch face complication could avoid it.

Since there has been no software update released for the Apple Watch since the DST bug, however, we have to presume the same issue will strike across Europe this weekend as well.

The difference this time is that we at least know to expect it. You can simply change your watch face or just the large complication on Infograph Modular to avoid the risk of reboots and crashes as the clock rolls back on Sunday.