Apple watch S4 call failed

I have iPhone SE (iOS 13.1.3) and Apple Watch Series 4 Nike (WatchOS 6.1).

I have the same “CALL FAILED” problem. Generally can’t make calls.

I spent a lot of time with Apple Support, but still can’t fix the problem.

I even went to Apple Service to claim warranty and get a new replacement.

But the same problem returns as soon as I updated the Watch with the latest WatchOS.

All the fixes are pretty much temporary. It would work for a little while and the problem just comes back.

Hi Gam3ngine,

It seems you're having some trouble with making and receiving calls from your Apple Watch, and I want to help.

Since you seem to have tested calls a few ways and have your device up-to-date, let's try to unpair and pair your Apple Watch to see if the issue persists:

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

Hi Everyone. There is another (short) post regarding same issue. It's called "AW Cellular S3 Nike - Call Failed every time... A solution was posted on that string that worked for me as I can now answer calls on my watch. It states:

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Phone, and turn off Wi-Fi Calling and Calls on Other Devices.

In the Watch app on your iPhone, go to My Watch > General > Enable Handoff, and disable Handoff.

Restart both devices, then turn these features back on.

Here's more about Wi-Fi Calling and how calls are delivered to other devices:

Make and receive calls on your Mac, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling - Apple Support

Let me know if this works, test while connected and not connected to Wi-Fi.

Good luck.

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

Same problem here.

I already posted about it in this discussion so I won’t repeat myself rather than saying it’s really disappoint to witness how slow the reaction from Apple is regarding this issue.

Will keep waiting for a bug fix in the next update as I am not planning to dismiss the iPhone SE for the moment. (I like the form factor)

/P

I just filed a bug report at the Apple Watch feedback page.

It can be found here

Has anybody else done the same? Was there a return feed back?

If we want to get Apple’s spotlight on this issue I encourage everybody to file in a bug report.

It takes only a few minutes and might turn being helpful.

/P

Over the last two months, I had my phone and my series 4 watch replaced. One would think that with that the issue has been solved. Wrong! at the Apple Genius Bar (Apple Ingenious Bar, rather) they tried to explain to me this way. Explanations are in chronological order:

1. “there is no issue with your watch”. (Proved them wrong. Showed them the inconsistent data between health app and the duplicate device list)
2. “There COULD be an issue with the watch”. (They sent it off and email came back: We will be replacing your device.)
3. Since the issue was still there, they said “there could be an issue with your phone” so off they sent my phone. A week later message comes “We will be replacing your device” (At this point i was laughing my head off. Fine with me, new watch, new phone...they are absolute idiots.)
4. When I paired the new watch with the new phone, I used a different Apple ID, wiped clean, no health data...still two devices in Data Sources. What it also does, connection between the watch and the phone is slow and Siri often takes a minute to respond. At this point I could not be bothered. However, I did notice a difference: under watch OS 5 there was only ONE device listed. The moment I updated the watch OS, immediately 2 watches came up. And the very same thing happened with both Series 4 Apple Watches. So IT IS SOFTWARE RELATED ISSUE. My boss just got his new Apple Watch and new iPhone. He never had an Apple Watch ever. Paired the watch and he also has duplicate devices in the Health app data source/device source. 1 devices actively paired with the phone but does not receive any data. 2nd device, “no longer paired” with iPhone receives all data!

Lesson: Apple both employers and employees do not have the backbone to say: Yes, the operating system has a major bug. We don’t know how to fix it at this stage. We are sorry.” No, instead, they pretend there is no problem, no responsibility, no integrity. Only lies, lies, lies. At least when Steve Jobs was at the steering wheel, he had the guts to admit. Mr Cook is always cooking up something that people eat up and then get sick. But we are fed up. No more Cookies, please!

Well, when this problem started and left my iPhone SE at Apple for service, I was given an iPhone 8 as a loan phone. Guess what, I had the same issue still. My boss has an iphone 10 and an AW Series 5. He also has the same issue/s which would be:

1. Slow, laggy Siri connection.
2. calls drop or don’t go through when initiated from the watch.
3. apps connect slowly
4. under the health app device list: 2 identical apple watches show up: one device connected but has no data; the other device is “no longer paired with iphone” has all the active data.
5. when bluetooth is disabled on the watch, everything works fine.

so it’s def an OS issue since watchOS 6. And one last thing: whenever I went back to the Apple store, all functionality works. I believe they either have a Bluetooth repeater or the local WiFi network is very strong. So I couldn’t show them anything in the shop apart from the duplicate watch listed on my phone. Very frustrating.

Had the same problem, did the following which seems to have solved it:

• Restart iPhone.
• Hard-reset Apple Watch - hold both buttons pressed for about 15 seconds and wait for watch to restart.

Hope it helps you too!

it’s worth trying replacing your battery to see if it resolves the issue as it did for me, been testing for 2 days now and it’s working great.

On a side note, I have found a few ways to get the calls to work via Apple Watch, this is when I was facing the issue.

1. When your phone is unlocked/screen activated, calling feature would always work
2. Plug in your AirPods and the feature will again always work, this might be something to do with the handoff feature that Apple offers.

As mentioned about battery above, so I tried to set "Optimized battery charging" to disable, and reboot. It seems work. Siri look fast, and calling work. I also tried to set it to be enable, the issue also came back. This may solve.

Hi !

I fixed that right now!

I have iphone 11,ios 13.4 and watch s3 os 6.2

I had this problem and fixed that very easy

like this picture your bluetooth icon must be “blue” !

thats worked for me

When paired your iPhone and watch tap on bluetooth icon and it will be “blue”

make call,your call will not be failed anyway!

I test it for 10 minutes call and it worked!

I wonder if Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5 are different in the context of the issue at hand. I mean, today I made and received several calls again via my Apple Watch Series 5. Several calls within three hours, and everything is still working perfectly since I updated my iPhone SE (2016) to iOS 13.6 and Apple Watch Nike Series 5 (no cellular) to watchOS 6.2.8.

I see that in the thread, the owners of the Series 4 report a still existing problem. I thought that in this regard, Series 4 and Series 5 are all the same. But it seems not. Are there any Series 5 owners who still have the problem?

It's a pity that many users still have this problem, because this is really a very convenient feature: I didn't even need to take my smartphone out of my shoulder bag to receive or make a call. Even on the street you can hear it well.

No it does not help. I have the same problem.

I unpaired AW and re-paired it and problem still exist. Latest WatchOS lates iOS....and this it does not help.

Apple Watch now is piece of crap, which does not work. I pickup calls with Apple Watch but it drops connection / calls after few seconds. People are thinking I rejects their calls. ...and they could think that I am rude. Please report this to Apple and please. The problem EXISTS...

@Gam3ngine

Please report the problem as a bug on feedback website.

Apple makes so buggy software nowadays that it is frustrating....

The same as me. I called Apple Support and they suggest:

#unpair watch

#reset settings in iphone ( reset settings - not erase phone )

# pair again watch.

Did it help? No.

As usual.

Problem came up after iOS 13 or watchOS 6.

It is so frustrating.

What iphone and watch do you have?

Having the same Problems with iPhone SE - iOS 13.2 and Apple Watch Series 4 OS 6.1

Almost all Calls fail! Had Contact to Apple Support several Times - Unpair, Pair, Reset iPhone, Restore iPhone completly...

Nothing worked..

Before i made the Updates to watchOS 6 and iOs 13 everything worked fine.

The Support told me that they do not know about this Problem!