Apple Watch 5 voice memo not syncing with iphone

I had the same problem. Rebooted both my iPhone and watch and it started working. I noticed one issue, that if you have a recording with the same name on the Phone and the watch (e.g. "Recording 4"), then the watch upload doesn't work for that specific recording, even if the recording on the phone is deleted.

iPhone Xs iOS 13.1.1 and Watch 4 WatchOS 6.

To me it looks like the sync didn't work even after the re-pair but it started working after the iPhones hard restart (https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios). Give it a try, it might help you to! Also you make sure the voice memos are enabled in the iCloud settings AND when you'll be sure that it's enabled, try recording a voice memo on your iPhone. Voice memos do sync both ways so it may trigger the sync from opposite side.

Had the same issue - tried a lot of different stuff.

I almost never connect my phone to PC/iTunes, but tried that too, downloaded lastest iOS, all that stuff.

Along the way something funny happened - my phone had downloaded files I thought were deleted when I resetted my watch (after the reset, the files weren't showing on the watch so I assumed they were gone).

The bad news was I still couldn't figure out what I did right to get those files to the phone.

So tried more stuff and finally one thing worked for me.

1. Delete the Voice Memo app from your phone.
2. Download it again (on the phone).
3. On apple watch, turn on Voice Memo.

Bad news? ALL the voice memos recorded after the reset are gone. Gone from the phone, and gone from the watch. Just deleting the Voice Memo app on the phone did that. But they sync almost right away now.

I still don't have answer to how to restore those files that are gone, but at lease this is how I got my phone and watch to start syncing Voice Memo.

Good luck.

Make sure that in your icloud setting you have toggle on Voice

iPhone>Settings>Your name>iCloud>Voice Memos (go down to the 3rd section, it will be just below ShortCuts)>toggle this on

Same issue here. But it helped me do an un-pair an then a new pair and right after the watched was ready, I had all my watch recordings on my iPhone. New records are on my iPhone right after. So I'm happier now.

:iPhone X (IOS 13.1.1) and Apple Watch 5 (WatchOS 6)

I have the same problem, I tried unpairing not as new pair but instead from backup as suggested here. But the same problem persisted. I also tried rebooting but to no avail. Other than that, when I played the recording on my watch it will do so for a few seconds but as soon as the screen dims out so does the recording.

Ok I tried everything that was mentioned here. I made sure the icloud setting was selected. My voice memo did not sync with my iphone. Then I unpaired and paired my device as new. My last recording disappeared and lastly I again unpaired and paired to a backup version of the apple watch. And I have completely lost that recording on my watch and it is not on the iphone either.

I was hoping maybe magically this is stored somewhere, but I don't see any other options in which I can recover my last voice memo.

I have not solved my issue, which is the same as the many posts here. However I have an iPad mini and an iPad Pro and it syncs to those devices. So there is some disconnect between the watch and the iphone which acts as the “master” hardware vis-à-vis the Apple Watch.

my experience, for what it’s worth, perhaps it will lead to some expert troubleshooting.

Hey. Just in case if anyone will be in my situation wanna share my story. My f/ws are iOS 10.1.3 and WatchOS 6.0.1, which are currently the latest ones.

Had a 2 hour meeting record on my watch. It wasn't syncing with my iPhone. Contacted the support and they told me to restart everything and after it didn't help, insisted on repairing the watch, using restore from backup while creating a new pair. After nothing helped, I've did the repair.

Everything started working after the repair but... it turned out that voice memos actually aren't included in to the backup so I've lost really important records in the process.

While I've been chatting with a support specialist, I've asked 3 times if he is sure that the memos will be saved during the backup/restore process and he reassured me.

So if you have any important voice memos already saved, DO NOT REPAIR the watch to the phone, if you want to keep them. Probably they might start syncing after some f/w update and make sure you try force restart of the phone and the watch. As far as I understand iCloud setting for the voice memos doesn't affect watch->phone sync but you can try re-enabling it just in case.

Good luck!

agreed. When re-pairing the iPhone/watch I lost my lecture of approximately 1.5 hours. I’m trying other app solutions now. Nothing so far has been perfect. None has the promise of the Apple voice memo stock app; Nor works at simply. It used to sync to my iPads, but not the iPhone, but then that failed.

I tried everything suggested here. I rebooted my phone and watch. I made sure Voice Memos was turned on in my iCloud settings. I unpaired my watch and retired from backup. I rebooted again. I endured once again that Voice Memos was on. I unpaired and paired as new. I again checked the iCloud setting for voice memos. I rebooted both again. No luck. Memos showed up in my Mac but not on my phone.

Finally, I uninstalled and reinstalled the Voice Memos app on my phone. Works perfectly. Before going through the hassle of unpairing and re-pairing a watch, try this.

I fixed this issue.

Do not repair the device you will lose your recording.

Go to your settings on your iPhone and/or MacBook MacPro etc. and follow these instructions. The issue here is with your iCloud setting which you must have perfect to fix this issue.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Apple ID, click iCloud in the sidebar, select iCloud Drive, click Options, then select Voice Memos in the list of apps.

On your iOS or iPadOS device: Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud, then turn on Voice Memos.

Done; I exist to make life great.

Same problem here. What I have deduced is that all devices are saving to iCloud but each can only see its own recordings. Nothing to be done about that, I guess, except wait for an update from Apple.

Not my situation. The recordings never left the Watch. I'm guessing, that watch don't upload the recordings directly to the cloud, but to the iPhone first and then iPhone uploads them to the cloud. So they should appear in the iPhone first. My memos never got to iPhone :(