Watch app (iOS) crashes on launch

I’ve got the same problem (Watch 6 and IPhone XR). Can’t believe it’s possible to pay this much for a phone and watch and for it to be impossible to connect them.

Was a shame to hear someone on this thread saying that iOS 14.2 (in beta) hasn’t solved the problem.

I spent around five hours yesterday trying to sort this issue, doing full restores of the phone, etc. And only when I chatted to the 5th member of Apple staff was I told this was a known issue and I just need to wait for an undate to address it.

Why they couldn’t tell me that in the beginning yesterday, I’ve no idea. It wouldn’t have made the tech work, but it would have saved me hours of wasted time.

I’m doing a restauration now and I hope it will fix it! I don’t know how they will fix it with 14.2 as the RC doesn’t do it. I try the restauration directly on iOS 14.2 RC in hope it will be fixed... let you know in couple of hours.

I think I solved this problem. Force press the Apple Watch App from the App Library (swiping all the way left on home screen). Drag the Watch icon to the home screen. Delete. Re-install the Watch App and re-pair your phone.

I will also return my 9 days old Series 6 watch. I just bought a Scanwatch from Withings and I am positively surprised.

Restauration of my iphone is currently not feasible, it would take ages. I have around 20-30 important 2-Factor logins which can not be backed up with a restauration.

I am sorry to hear that some of the customers have to return their Apple Watch, given that I am one of the share holders of AAPL. It is unacceptable for not handled the incident in 2 weeks, this is not a rare case and it should be fixed ASAP!

2 weeks? I bought my watch September 23 and on September 25 I already reported the problem to Apple. It is 6 weeks already not 2!

14.1 did not fix the problem and now 14.2 does not fix the problem. Even saving animated GIF file does not work hahaha!!

I returned my Watch 6 and got my money back. I am never buying an Apple product again not even headphones.

There is no excuse!! I only buy Android after this. No more Apple!

This discussion forum seems just for "discussion", Apple seems want people solve their issue by themselves and I can't find any page for customer to report issues that can't by solved by discussing more.

After backing up the iPhone, reset it completely, and setting it up again from the back up I was still unable to delete the app by clicking on it.

I had to go to

Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Watch App > Click Delete

After that I was able to re-download it from the App Store and it stopped crashing

Hope this helps someone

The "Bug" here is that, the deletion of the Watch App (the "App" for short) is not working because in some cases it is locked by a already paired Apple Watch and somehow it still locked up with the non-exist watch even it has already been unpaired. I want to emphasis that the locking not always happen but in most of the case as we report in here, it does locked by the Watch.

What Apple should fix is to allow uninstallation of the App without consideration of pairing of watch. IMHO, it should be the Watch that depends on the App but not the App that relies on the Watch, so if the App is uninstalled, it force unpair the watch until user re-install the App to pair again.

It is frustrating that I can not use my Apple Watch app running in iOS 14.2/iPhoneX with Apple Watch se.. It is normal that softwares can face with such bugs.’; but it is unacceptable that Apple didnt/couldn’t react on it more than 3 weeks.. what a shame!!!

You have to backup your phone on the cloud. Then restore phone to factory settings once you upload your phone from the cloud, delete the watch app then reinstall it from the apple store. It should open and allow you to pair your watch. It worked for me!

Same problem exactly . I did the full restart for both my watch (6) and my phone (8) and was able to delete the app and reinstate everything. However after two days the watch app again refused to open. Another full reboot and up and running again but if this happens again I shall almost certainly return the watch and insist on a full refund. Come on Apple sort this out.... and fast. You should be ashamed of this situation.

I just updated to 14.2 on my boss' phone and it is still not working. Sill crashes after launching the app.

I do not have the courage to tell him that he has to backup and restore a backup and for just a watch.

He always wore high end luxury watches and switched to a smart watch just the last month, buyng what we tought it was the top level and now it is not even working.

What i think is wrong is that you have to backup and restore for just an app not working...

I just purchased the new Apple Watch Series 6 and received it on Saturday (11.21.2020) - like many of the stories on these threads about the Watch app crashing, my watch worked great for a few days - then suddenly unpair itself from my phone (iPhone XS) on 11.23.2020, then when I went to open the Watch app, the app opens for a split second to a black screen and then crashes. This prevents me from re-pairing the watch to my phone.

I chatted with Apple Support over live chat this morning for over an hour and went though backing up my iPhone, updating the phone to 14.2, restarting the phone, restating the phone and making sure all the apps were closed, and still the issue persists. The support agent said they exhausted all their options and suggested I reach out the Watch app support team directly from the App store. I asked if I should do a restore from my iCloud backup (as I saw on many threads there that that would fix the issue). I did that and it still did not resolve the app crashing. After reading all the threads on here I believe there's not a good solution in the works - Apple has no mention of this issue and the support I received did not resolve it.

It's frustrating because it seems this has been going on for months. The 14.2 bug fixes explicitly mention that it will fix the watch app crashing, but it has not.

I feel defeated and cheated - I will be returning this watch today.

Question:

Has anyone been on iOS 14.2 when the problem initially started. That is you had a successfully paired watch under 14.2 stop communicating followed by the watch app crashing.

To clarify a little. Clearly 14.2 (and 14.3 beta) does not resolve the issue of the watch app crashing if the problem pre-exists (which would be the general interpretation of Apple’s release note for 14.2. ) A more narrow interpretation would be that Apple claims to have stopped the issue from initially occurring when running 14.2 with a paired watch.

I ask because I have been able to “fix” the crashing watch app with a special case non-repeatable scenario. I switched from an iPhone 11 to 12. The transfer process resets all Bluetooth (except AirPods) so the watch became unpaired and the watch app now starts. My dilemma now is whether or not to pair the watch now or wait for a future update.