Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 users report missing workout icon and lag post One UI 6 update

The latest One UI 6 update for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 isn’t going as smoothly as many users had hoped. Complaints are piling up about a missing workout icon on the home screen, sluggish performance, and other quirks that have left users frustrated.

Workout icon missing

After installing the One UI 6 update, many Galaxy Watch 6 users noticed that the ongoing activity or workout icon no longer appears on the home screen. This makes it harder to quickly return to workout tracking without navigating through menus. Some users also report that raising their wrists now shows the home screen instead of the workout screen during exercises — a change they weren’t expecting.

Here’s a screenshot shared by a user highlighting the problem:

One user on Samsung’s community forum summed it up:

My watch 6 was just updated today, and now when I do a workout, the home screen is shown when I raise my wrist instead of the workout screen. This is totally stupid.

Another user said:

GW6, just got updated, and now the workout screen doesn’t stay. It just goes back to the main face, and there’s no quick icon to get back to the workout. Any fixes?

A Samsung moderator suggested checking settings related to the “Wrist Raise” gesture. Users are advised to:

1. Open Settings on the watch.
2. Navigate to Advanced Features > Gestures > Wrist Raise.
3. Set it to show the Last Used App instead of the home screen.

Another workaround involves ensuring notifications for the Samsung Health app are enabled on the watch. Users report that turning these notifications back on makes the workout icon reappear on the watch face. Interestingly, similar bugs were flagged during the One UI 6 beta testing phase. Many users hoped these issues would be ironed out in the stable release, but it seems some have slipped through.

Lag and performance issues

On top of the missing workout icon, some users are reporting laggy performance after the update. Scrolling through menus feels sluggish, and the overall experience isn’t as smooth as before. A Redditor bluntly described it as:

One UI 6, a laggy mess on Watch 6.

Some have suggested clearing the cache after the update to improve performance, but results vary.

The One UI 6 update is now rolling out to millions of Galaxy Watch 6 users worldwide, so it’s likely that more reports will surface. If you’re yet to update, you might want to hold off until Samsung addresses these problems in a future patch.

For those already affected, the suggested workarounds could offer temporary relief. Have you encountered these issues on your Galaxy Watch 6? Let us know in the comments below!