Messages Notifications Not Working Intermittently on Apple Watch

None of what had been suggested in this thread had worked for me until the very last message from carbon_based_l1fe, but with a twist. All of the numbers/addresses listed under Send & Receive had a check mark next to them, but what I did was go thru and uncheck and re-check each one. After that, it started working like a charm and the text notifications began to come thru to my Apple Watch once again.

Try this - go to settings, Sounds and Haptics, and check to see if you have a tone set for "text tone". My wife and I were having this issue and going crazy trying to figure it out. We both have Apple Watch 5 / iPhone 12 Pro and could not get text haptic or sound alerts on watch. Once a 'text tone' was selected, it worked with both sound and for haptic only after that. Apologies if this has already been posted and did not work for some, but it worked for us.

@everyone

i think I found a solution... sort of.

i just read this whole thread and have been battling with Apple for the last week to figure out why my notifications aren’t working on my new series 6 watch. I have an iPhone XS Max (not that I think it matters at this point)

they had me try every possible thing under the moon to get this working... I mean everything that’s been mentioned in this thread. This is what I’ve finally found that SEEMS to be working so far.

Turn off “cover to mute” (not sure that this is causing it)

Turn off “wrist detection” (when this is on my notifications don’t work)

I hope this info helps makes someone’s day.

Hi just found something I just signed into messages for the first time on my MacBook Pro and stayed signed in and I missed a few texts on my iWatch6. But I was on the laptop at that time. When I found that happened I freaked out for a second but remembered that I opened messages on my Mac. I went and signed out of messages and texted my wife and a few friends and the watch worked fine. I thought about you guys and came here to tell you what I found. Check you Macs and iPads and make sure you are singed out of messages. Hope that helps some of you. Stay safe Brian

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to share how I fixed mine doing the same exact thing. I unpaired my apple watch from my iPhone, repaired it WITHOUT installing from the backup data.

Since I've done this, it's worked perfectly. I wanted to post this in case this would work for anyone else!

I have had the same problem for a long time, same Apple watch series 3 but different phones from my company. We also use AT&T as our carrier. I notice the problem most often after I put the watch back on and unlock it, usually this is when I don't see text notifications or the texts themselves on my watch. I have found that if I turn on airplane mode for a few seconds and then turn it off I will get the notifications and texts on my watch.

I have this problem too, what I have found is SMS messages are not consistently alerting on the Watch. To duplicate, I use gmail to send a text message to my phone (this happens with gmail, bank sms notifications, and some people using Androids). I see the visual notification, but no audio or haptic occurs. However, if I reset network settings it will work for a short while, then stops after a few hours. iMessages always come through, . This occurs if the phone is near and locked.

My "workaround" is to have the text icon on all my Apple Watch faces, so when I use the Watch I see the text. arg.

Hi I'm probably sure that you have done the following but maybe not. On your iPhone go to settings a then messages tap on that scroll down to text message forwarding and tap check that there are not any devices are allowed get messages. next back to messages and scroll down to filter unknown senders and make sure it is off. If you still are having a problem there is another thread that I am on because my watch intermittently will not notify me of text messages. I have been on the phone with Apple and she is scheduled to call me June 5 for update since we just got updates for phone and watch.

I am having the same problem with both my apple watch 4 and 5 Gps. I don’t receive notifications for text messages If I restart the phone and watch it sometimes corrects it. I find that I have to put my passcode in immediately when the watch turns on or I won’t receive notifications. This all started after an update about 3 updates ago. I am using an Iphone 11

Hi I bought 2 i watch6's and so far they have worked perfectly. One for me and one for my wife! They haven't missed a text and worked flawlessly. When I had my iWatch3, I found that shutting the Bluetooth off on the watch or iPhone11 pro-max worked. Then both the phone and the watch would respond to the text. The negative side of doing that was when you read the text on one of them, The other would still report it as a new text. Try turning off Bluetooth on one or both and try that. Hope this information helps. Good luck and stay safe.

Try turning off “wrist detection”

This worked for me... although it eliminates most functions of the watch

Hello,

I have the Apple watch series 5 (watch os 6.2.1) and iphone 11 pro max (ios 13.4.1) and I have a quite similar problem as you have described. I get notified by my apple watch with a vibration for a incoming message, just the red notification dot in the always on display mode does not appear or appears very delayed. :-) Apple support told me to wait for the next watchos or ios update (next release date is uknown). I need to admit, for such a expansive equipment near 2000 Dollars, the quality and the support is very poor. I'm very disappointed. Or with other words, you are not alone. :-(

At the moment I do not wear my Apple watch, because in this state I'm better without the fully misleading notification Apple watch.

Best regards

David

Greetings, all,

I've been having the EXACT same problem since just about the same time this thread was opened. I've tried everything mentioned here and in other threads, even re-pairing and setting up as a new watch. As the OP has experienced, things work for a small while, and then stop working shortly after.

One thing I haven't noticed in any of the threads was which cellular provider everyone is using? I'm starting to think that the cellular connection is the main culprit here, as powering off my phone completely prevents me from sending or receiving SMS messages, but I can receive and make phone calls, and also can send and receive iMessages through the LTE connection.

I happen to be on AT&T, and am wondering if anyone else on this thread is also leveraging the same provider? If so, maybe it's AT&T that has the issue on their end, which is impacting everyone exhibiting the problem. I'm probably going to give AT&T a call today to see if they're aware of a systemwide problem.

Outside of the above, would love to hear everyone's thoughts about this theory, as this sounding less and less like a software issue (especially with the recent updates not fixing anything).

Hope to hear back!

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply!

Just off the phone with AT&T. They turned off "NumberSync" and then turned it back on again. Obviously, this required a bunch of power cycles and then, trying to use the watch without the phone turned on.

Unfortunately, I still could not send or receive SMS messages with the phone is powered off. I fear until this issue is corrected, the missing haptic alerts (even when the phone is powered on) will not be corrected. AT&T opened up a trouble ticket, since they couldn't rectify the matter.

I'll keep the group updated around what they find, but my hunch is that there's some system or service malfunctioning on their end, and has been on the fritz for 6 - 8 weeks. With so many on quarantine, folks have been near their watch so frequently that they didn't notice. With this in mind, if they fix it for me, it might wind up being fixed for everyone with this exact same problem on AT&T.

To be continued...

Hi will your watch work with the phone's Bluetooth turned off. That should make both the watch and the phone ping when you get messages. My watch works fine as long as it is not connected to the iPhone. But if I turn my Bluetooth on and they hook up then at times when I have the watch and the phone with me neither will notify me of texts. Thats my problem I would just leave the Bluetooth off but I have heart problems and need the watch to upload heart rate to iPhone and when the iWatch 6 comes out then my heart rhythm as well.