Apple watch airplane mode watchOS 6

i have a solution. Worked for me (iwatch 4, watch OS 6.0.1)

• turn airplane mode on

(watches are still connected to iphone because bluetooth is still on)

• go to the settings on your watch, and turn bluetooth off manually

(watches are disconnected from iphone)

• turn airplane mode off

and that's all - nextime when you turn airplane mode on, bluetooth will turn off in the exact same moment...watches somehow remembers, that you turned bluetooth off after you turned airplane mode on, and keep it that way.

it solved my problem, hope it solves yours

sorry for bad english

Airplane mode exists because the FAA requires that you block cell signals to prevent any signal interference with the plane's navigation systems, but Bluetooth has been legal on planes since late 2013 — and it just so happens to be the primary technology the Watch uses to connect to your iPhone. If you don't want to lose access to your Watch's third-party apps when it's time to go up into the sky, here's what you need to do.

Go to iPhone > Control Center > Turn on the Airplane mode, his should also disable Airplane mode on your Watch.

Tap the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons to turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth back off (while keeping Airplane mode disabled for cellular)

now On your Apple Watch, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and find the Settings Glance and Tap the Airplane button to turn Airplane mode on on your Apple Watch. (This will only disable Airplane Mode on your Watch, not on the iPhone.)

Hope this works for you too

Hey

Apple watch and Phone are paired and connected over bluetooth. Turning it off and on once paired will automatically connect watch to the phone

As far as i understand the airplane mode switched off your cellular connection meaning you would not longer be able to connect calls through watch.

Also my watch 6 has that Bug.

I already contacted Apple (Italy) and sent them a video.

It is a bug, because even when in airplane mode it still communicate with iPhone, send e-mail, receive WhatsApp messages, and so on... it should not in airplane mode.

Try with your watch in airplane mode to send an e-mail..... see what happens..

Filippo

No, it is not that the problem.

If you put the watch in airplane mode, it must disconnect from the iPhone. You cannot send an e-mail on the watch while in airplane mode (from watch series 0 to series 4 was so until Os5).

Now with Os6 you remain connected always. Try if you have the Os 6 installed.. put in airplane mode the watch, then look the small icon in the control center on the left upper part going red for 10 seconds. Then after 10 second that come back in green and connect to iphone.

Try please and let us know.

Filippo (Italy)

I have exactly the same problem, before this update everything was functional and now with ios 6, it is impossible to put the airplane mode, even if this mode is activated, the watch communicates with the phone.

There is certainly a change in behaviour.

If I turn on Airplane mode on my Apple Watch 2 (5.3.2) the phone icon goes red, blinks to green and then goes back to red and stays there. I am no longer connected to the iPhone.

If I turn on Airplane mode on my Apple Watch 5, the phone icon turns red, and then turns green and stays green. The watch is still connected to the phone using Bluetooth.

So, IF Airplane mode is supposed to disable the Bluetooth radio in the watch, then it's a bug. You can check that by going to the settings on the watch, select Bluetooth, and see that it's still enabled. You can play music from your watch to airpods while in Airplane mode on a 5.

Airplane mode on Apple Watch 2 with 5.3.2 turns the bluetooth radio OFF as I would expect it to be.

Thanks, useful. Hopefully Apple will leave this workaround active, as it'd be annoying to need to dive into Settings to manually deactivate Bluetooth each time. I use my Watch for sleep tracking at night (with Bluetooth off), and previously was able to get away with only charging briefly twice a day (when showering).

I´ve update to the yesterday WatchOS and it still not fixed by default by Apple. The only solution was the solution some member back there says. it was the same with the lasteste WatchOS and the other one before.

Turn airplane ON, go to settings on the watch, turn blutetooth OFF, and turno airplane ON again.

Hello everyone,

this is just to tell you that with regard to the airplane mode problem, I unpaired my watch and then paired it again with my iphone, and now it's all functional again. Try it and let me know.

Best,

S

This is definitely a bug, when you hit airplane mode it even shows the little red “phone is disconnected” in place of the green one. While still watching it and you make a call to that watches attached phone the icon turns green as the call comes through. Also the fact that doing the suggested workaround of turning off Bluetooth once airplane mode is off after which it then It follows airplane modes on or off status backs that up.

I would still qualify this as a bug. Airplane mode has always meant one this to its users i.e. disable all communication both cellular and Bluetooth (or whatever other technology is added in the future). prior to this version, turning on airplane mode on the watch did not activate it on the phone and vice versa. They are separate entities. That has now changed and it shouldn’t have. For those individuals who bought the watch intending to use it for sleep monitoring. We especially like to limit the EM radiation next to our heads at night. This used to be achieved via two simple gestures, namely swipe up in the watch to access common functions, and then activate airplane mode. This no longer functions as it did prior to version 6 upgrade. Therefore it’s a bug. Not only does it not limit the EM radiation as its users think it will, but getting woken by notifications when you think your watch is disconnected is a real pain in the $&@. Mark my words, if apple doesn’t fix this, someone more litigious than I will sue and easily win. If BurgerKing customers can sue over contaminated impossible burgers, someone will easy do the same over unannounced EM radiation and loss of sleep / emotional distress

This worked for me. Airplane mode would still allow notifications until I turned off Bluetooth while airplane mode was on, disabled airplane mode and it came back on. Airplane mode finally does what it’s meant too..

If you wish to report an issue to Apple, you use the feedback app. Go to Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple and you can select bug report.