Doing some digging into watchOS quirks lately, especially with beta versions, can get pretty frustrating. If your Water Lock button suddenly went MIA from the Control Center, it’s not your imagination — lots of folks noticed this bug after installing the watchOS 16 beta. The good news? There are a couple of ways to bring it back, and it’s not super complicated, even if the steps seem a bit weird at first glance. Overall, it’s about getting that button to show up again when you need it, especially because beta software sometimes hides or moves features around unpredictably. So, if you’re tired of swiping around trying to find that water lock icon, here’s what to try next.
Note: Since watchOS 26 is still in beta, some features might act up or be temporarily unavailable. Sometimes, just toggling settings or re-adding items can get your Water Lock icon back to life. Just kind of weird, but it works most of the time — if not, more heavy-duty fixes are available below.
How to Fix Water Lock Button Missing on Apple Watch
Fix 1: Add the Water Lock button back to Control Center
This is probably the easiest and most straightforward fix. Apple shifted things around in newer watchOS versions, so that little icon sometimes hides or gets removed from default view, even though it’s still buried somewhere in the menu. Re-adding it manually usually solves the problem and makes the button reappear on the main Control Center. This helps if the icon just vanished into thin air after a beta update or a software glitch. Expect that once you do this, the Water Lock should be readily accessible again.
- Swipe down from the top of your watch face to open the Control Center.
- Scroll down to the bottom and tap Edit, which reveals all hidden buttons.
- Look for Water Lock. Tap the plus (+) button next to it to add it to your Control Center.
- Hit Done at the top to save everything.
Now, when you pull up the Control Center next time, the Water Lock icon should be right there. Works for most folks, but on some setups, it might take a restart or a quick toggle of a setting to stick.
Fix 2: Roll back to regular iOS/watchOS updates
This one is kind of a workaround but might be necessary if the beta bugs bug you too much. Since Water Lock disappearing is linked to the beta stage of watchOS 26, switching back to stable updates can help stabilize things. Especially relevant if the icon is missing on all your devices and not just a glitch.
Here’s how to do that:
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Go to My Watch tab if you’re not there already.
- Navigate through General > Software Update.
- Scroll down a bit to find the Beta Updates checkbox or toggle. Turn it Off.
By doing this, it switches your watchOS back to the latest official release, which should smooth out bugs like missing icons. Of course, expect the watch to then stay on the latest public stable build, without frequent beta hiccups. On some devices, this might require a restart or re-syncing to make the changes stick, but generally, it’s a solid fix if you wanna skip the beta madness altogether.