Apple Watch Not Connecting to iPhone? Try these fixes

Aug. 29, 2023



Generally, it’s super-easy to pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone and keep them connected all the time. You can access your Apple Watch screenshots,add workouts manually, and do much more on your paired phone. However, there can be instances where your Apple watch won’t connect to iPhone even if they are right next to each other. It’s not only annoying but defeats the whole purpose of owning such a smart wearable. Fortunately, you can easily fix Apple Watch not connecting to iPhone problems in a few minutes. We’ve mentioned 7 tried & tested ways to reconnect your Apple Watch and iPhone.

1. Check your Apple Watch’s Connection

1. Check your Apple Watch’s Connection

If you feel that your Apple Watch isn’t connected to your phone, the first thing you need to do is check your Apple Watch’s connection status. To verify try these steps:

Sometimes, even a simple setting might unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone. As a result, you won’t get any notifications or calls on your watch. To fix Apple Watch pairing problems, you should make sure you’ve got all the settings the right way.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are the main connection points between your smartwatch and the phone. So, you have to keep them on to allow your Apple Watch to communicate with your paired iPhone.

When you enable Airplane mode, it will turn off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and shut off all the connectivity. As a result, your Apple Watch won’t connect to your iPhone. To avoid this, make sure you haven’t enabled Airplane mode on your iPhone or Apple Watch.

After you’ve checked all the basics, it’s time to restart the devices. Sometimes, there might be a minor software glitch or bug that causes connectivity issues. When you restart your devices, it willclear the cacheand eliminate minor bugs to help things run again in no time.

Running an older version of iOS might be responsible for your Apple Watch not connecting to your iPhone. Apple regularly releases updates with security patches, bug fixes, and new features. To avoid any compatibility issues, it’s a great idea to check and ensure that your iPhone is on the most recent iOS version.

Whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth device, your iPhone stores the network information to make the reconnection process smoother in the future. However, this saved information may sometimes get corrupted which obstructs the connection between your iPhone and Apple Watch. To fix this, you shouldreset network settings on your iPhone.

Note:This will wipe off any saved Wi-Fi networks & passwords, paired Bluetooth devices, VPN details, and other network-relatedinformation.

There can be instances when something’s wrong with your smartwatch and that’s why it won’t connect to your phone. In such cases, you canreset your Apple Watch.This will wipe off anything that might be preventing a smooth connection between your smartwatch and smartphone.

If your Apple Watch won’t connect to a new phone, you shouldunpair your Apple Watch with iPhone, and then pair it with your new phone. When you do this, it will unpair your Apple Watch from the older iPhone, remove the Activation Lock, and erase all its content & settings. In short, it gets your Apple Watch ready for your new phone. Here’s how the whole process goes by: