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Got a series 4 Apple Watch from a friend and it won’t pair with my phone. The phone seems to be recognizing the watch but when watch won’t give the 6 digit code when trying to pair manually. I have updated my phone, restarted both the phone and the watch multiple times, turned Bluetooth off and back on, switched to airplane mode and back but nothing is working. Any thoughts?
Hi Sp_fletch5,
We understand that you're having some trouble with your new Apple Watch pairing with your phone, and we're happy to help. To get started, can you tell us which iPhone and iOS version you're currently trying to pair it with? The resource below may help as well.
Set up and pair Apple Watch with iPhone
If these steps don't resolve the problem, let's also have your friend confirm that Activation Lock is turned off on the watch.
About Activation Lock on your Apple Watch
Please let us know what you find, and we'll take it from there. Thanks!
Best regards.
Hi Sp_fletch5,
Thanks so much for sending these additional details over to us. So we understand correctly, what exactly happens when you try to use the animation to pair the Apple Watch with the iPhone, instead of pairing it manually?
We're referencing the steps in Set up your Apple Watch
By chance do you know which version of watchOS is currently installed on the Apple Watch as well? That will provide us with some more information to work with.
Take care!
I am using an iPhone 8 Plus and running iOS 13.6.1
I double checked with my friend, and he confirmed that he had not unpaired the watch from his phone. Once he completed that, I tried again but had no luck. I tried restarting both devices again and am still unable to pair them. It’s as if the phone is able to recognize the watch because I get a matching 5 digit ID code, but the watch isn’t getting the communication back from the phone to give a 6 digit code.
I’m not sure what OS the watch is running.
if I try to use the animation to pair, instead of pairing manually, the phone seems to recognize the animation and it greys out the option to pair manually, but after that nothing will happen. The animation continues to spin for maybe 30 seconds and then then phone closes the window and goes back to the Watch app home screen with the Start Pairing button.
Hi Sp_fletch5,
Is there a way that you might be able to find out from your friend which version of watchOS they were using? The reason we ask is that if the Apple Watch has a beta version of watchOS installed, we might not be able to pair it with iOS 13.6.1 on your iPhone 8 Plus.
If the watch is using a public version of watchOS, can you let us know more about the 6-digit code that you're expecting to see on the screen? For example, are you being prompted to enter a 6-digit passcode to unlock the Apple Watch, or does it say that it's sending a 6-digit verification code for your Apple ID? This will help us better determine our next steps.
Best regards!
Apple Watch won’t pair, no 6 digit code
