Always on Display (AOD) is a great feature that allows your Galaxy Watch always to display the watch’s face, time, and complications, even when you’re not interacting with the watch.
When you use the Always On Watch display setting, there’s no need to press a button, tap the screen, or turn the bezel on a Galaxy Watch to see your watch face with the time and your selected complications.
The main downside to always-on display is that it significantly increases battery consumption, so you need to charge your watch more often.
If you are having problems with always on display, such as the display sometimes timing out after an hour or falling asleep on its own, you are not alone!
Here are some solutions to help resolve this issue.
Contents
Related reading
- New Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or 5 Pro? Here are 20+ tricks and tips to make you a power user
- How to close background apps on Samsung Galaxy Watches
- Samsung Galaxy Watch not turning on or shows a black screen? How to fix it
- Samsung Galaxy Watch stuck in reboot loop and keeps restarting? How to get out of it
Check these things first if always on display isn’t working on your Samsung Watch 
Turn off do not disturb, bedtime mode, and theater mode
Swipe down your watch’s Quick Settings and check that your watch isn’t in Theater mode or another do not disturb setting, including bedtime mode.
Open your watch’s Quick settings panel and tap the Do not disturb icon (which looks like a minus sign) to turn it off.
Bedtime mode (also called Goodnight mode) on the watch turns off the always-on display and reduces the brightness to make it easier for your eyes to adjust to the screen while using the watch during the night.
To disable night mode, open your watch’s Quick settings and tap the little moon icon to toggle it off.
The Galaxy Watch also comes with a special theater mode that puts a few of its features to a temporary stop to allow an interruption-free movie-watching experience.
This feature also disables the AOD feature to ensure other people in the theater aren’t disturbed by the light from your watch.
To disable the theater mode, open your watch’s Quick settings and tap on the little film slate icon to toggle it off.
Measure your heart rate continuously
Always on display works when you wear your watch and when the watch recognizes that you are wearing it by gathering information from its sensors.
So, if AOD isn’t working, your watch may actually think you are not wearing it if it doesn’t detect your heart rate. So let’s try measuring it continuously, so there aren’t any gaps.
- On your watch, open Samsung Health.
- Swipe to the very bottom of the screen and tap Settings.
- Tap Measurement or HR and stress measurement.
- Choose Measure continuously for your heart rate.
Change your watch face
Not all watch faces support always on display. So try using a different watch face and see if that makes a difference.
You can change watch faces in the Wearable app or on the watch itself.
We recommend using the Wearable app with its larger screen, so you can easily review the watch face gallery to find something that works for you!
Try a different watch band 
Sometimes, it’s actually the watch band that’s the problem.
Some watch bands are bulky or just don’t fit the way you want, i.e., they don’t allow the sensors to contact your skin consistently.
First, try tightening your current band.
Then, look at how the back of the watch contacts your skin. It should maintain consistent contact. If you notice a gap or feel that the watch isn’t contacting your skin well, the problem with always on display may be that band!
So try another watch strap and see if it makes a difference. If you have the original Samsung branded band that came with your watch, give that a go.
Clean the watch’s sensors 
If the watch cannot detect that you’re wearing it, the always-on display might not work correctly. So give your watch a good cleaning, paying particular attention to the sensors on the backside.
To clean your watch, use a microfiber cloth or a lint-free cloth (like the ones included with eyeglasses.)
If there’s anything stuck on the watch that the cloth alone doesn’t remove, you can use a few drops of water or rubbing alcohol–apply these drops to the cloth and not directly to the watch.
Once you finish cleaning the sensors, wear your watch, so the sensors have good contact with your skin.
Change your watch’s position 
Where you wear your Samsung Galaxy watch is important, especially if you bend your wrist a lot or have tattoos or hairy arms that interfere with the watch’s sensors.
Slide the watch a bit further up your arm, so its sensors have good contact and are away from the wrist bend.
You can also try wearing the watch on the inside of your wrist or arm. This is especially useful if you have tattoos or have a lot of arm hair (you could also shave your hair but wearing it on the inside is a lot easier!)
Update your Watch 
Ensure your Galaxy Watch is updated to the latest available version.
Samsung regularly provides software updates to all of its smartwatches. These updates provide new features and also fix bugs that may be affecting your watch.
On the phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app > Watch settings. Scroll down and choose Watch software update. If an update is available, tap Install now or Install overnight.
On the watch (Google Wear OS watches only,) open Settings > Software update. If an update is available, tap Install now or Install overnight.
Disable power saving mode 
Always on Display increases battery consumption which makes it incompatible with power-saving features.
If you have accidentally enabled any power-saving options, the Always-On Display feature (AOD) stops working.
You can disable power savings mode in your Quick Settings by tapping the battery icon. Or turn power savings mode off via the Settings or Galaxy Wearable apps.
- On your watch, go to Settings > Battery and toggle off Power saving. For some models, tap Power mode, then toggle off Power savings.
- In the Wearable app, open Watch settings and tap Battery. Toggle off Power savings.
Clear the Galaxy Wearable app’s cache 
Clearing out Galaxy Wearable cache data may solve this problem. Cache files are temporary, so deleting them does not impact your data.
- On your paired phone, navigate to Settings > Apps.
- Select the Galaxy Wearable app.
- Go to Storage and select Clear cache.
Uninstall and Reinstall the Wearable App 
If the problem persists, try uninstalling the Galaxy Wearable app and the Galaxy Watch plug-in. After you have removed the app and plug-in, restart your phone and reinstall the apps.
You can uninstall the Wearable app in the Settings app or via the Google Play Store (or Samsung Galaxy Store) app.
- Via the Settings app. Go to Settings > Apps > Galaxy Wearable app. Then tap Uninstall. Tap OK.
- Via the Play Store (or Galaxy Store.) Open the Play Store app and search for the Wearable app. Tap it and choose Uninstall, then confirm.
Once uninstalled, restart your phone, open the Play Store or Galaxy Store and reinstall the Wearable app. Follow the prompts to reinstall the Galaxy Watch plug-ins if needed.
If you cannot uninstall the Galaxy Wearable app, clear the app’s data via Settings > Apps > Storage> Clear storage.
Clearing the app’s data completely wipes all your app data and resets the app back to its factory default settings. You need to log back in after the Wearable app clears the data.
Disconnect and reconnect your Watch from Bluetooth
Sometimes a faulty Bluetooth connection can cause issues to occur. Disconnect your Watch using the app on your phone and connect it again.
On your watch, open Settings > Connections > Bluetooth. Toggle Bluetooth off, wait a few minutes, then toggle it back on.
On your paired phone, open Settings > Connected devices > Bluetooth. From the paired devices list, select your watch and tap Disconnect. Wait for the watch to disconnect, then tap Connect.
Reset your Watch
If all else fails, you can try to reset your watch to see if that fixes the issue. But this reverts all the features to factory defaults, and you lose personal data and music stored on your watch.
If possible and time allows backup your watch first.
On the watch, open Settings > General > Reset. Press Back up data if you haven’t already done that. Then, tap Reset to confirm.
On your phone, open the Wearable app > Watch settings > General > Reset. Tap Reset to confirm.
Summary
I hope that this article has helped you to fix your AOD problem.
If you have any more questions or anything to add, please let us and everyone else know about it in the comments section below!
If you liked this article, you can follow us on social media by using the social media buttons!