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UPDATE: After an initial rollout in South Korea, the Galaxy Watch 6 series is receiving this update globally. It is available in the US and Europe with an identical build number. The changelog is also similar, confirming fixes for the touchscreen issues that cropped up following the previous update.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Last month, Samsung rolled out a major update to its smartwatches, including the Galaxy Watch 6. It added Workout Tracker, a feature that brings your workout data to your TV. It was also supposed to improve the touchscreen panel but did the opposite. Several Galaxy Watch 6 users reported touchscreen issues following the update. Samsung is now pushing another update to fix those issues.
A new Galaxy Watch 6 update fixes touchscreen issues
Shortly after Samsung updated the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic last month, its community forums started flooding with user complaints about touchscreen issues. Affected users said their watches abruptly stopped responding to touch input. The buttons work fine but the screen doesn’t. They had to restart the watch, only to run into the same problem after a while. Some users also noticed delayed touch response.
All of this ironically happened after Samsung pushed an update that introduced an improved firmware build for the TSP (Touch Screen Panel). After a month of frustration, a fix is finally on the way. The company is currently rolling out the latest update to the Galaxy Watch 6 series in South Korea with the firmware build number R940XXU1AXC2. It should soon reach the watches in other markets, including the US.
It is unclear whether Samsung plans to push a new update to other Galaxy Watch models. The Galaxy Watch 6 series isn’t getting a newer security patch. The latest smartwatches remain at the March 2024 security level (the April patch is already out for Galaxy smartphones). Unless the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 4 have the same touchscreen issues, they may not get this update. After all, it does not bring anything more than the bug fixes.
Samsung has also offered a temporary workaround to this issue
While an official fix for the touchscreen issues is out, it may take a while before the update reaches all eligible Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic units globally. Thankfully, there is a workaround that you can try. Samsung officially provided this workaround after acknowledging the issues.
According to the company, the issues are caused by a bug in the “Touch screen to wake” function in Settings. Disabling it should help. Go to the Settings app, enter the Display menu, scroll down, and turn off the toggle next to “Touch screen to wake”. If the touchscreen issues persist, wait for the update. You can check for updates from the Software update menu in Settings.