Apple Watch App Not Working After iOS 14 Update

There is a potential bug with watchOS 7.0.3 and the iOS 14.1 update (along with iOS 14.0.1).

Pairing can be eliminated between the Watch and iPhone. If you have GPS + Cellular, this bug will turn off Shared Lines, and the watch will function as if it's another cell phone.

A couple of things you can try to resolve the issue:

1. Reset Pairing
2. Call AppleCare and report this issue. Apple can then check device information and repair the devices. Apple (not your cellular carrier) connects your Apple Watch to your iPhone. Your cellular provider, simply provides the telephone number used by your watch.

Click Here to view Apple Support for Unpairing your Apple Watch

Click Here to view Apple Support for Set Up and Pairing you Apple Watch

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I was online with IT for about 2 hours, they told me to factory reset my watch then they told me to delete the Watch Application. So I reset the watch, and the Watch App will not delete because it says that there is a watch still paired with the phone. So now I have a $1000 watch that doesn't work and won't pair to my phone because the application on my phone is broken.

I was experiencing similar issues. Even after a factory reset of my Watch and a factory reset of my iPhone (with a subsequent restore from iCloud) I was running into the issue of the Watch app not launching or presenting me with a syncing screen. I eventually was able to work around it by removing the Watch app from my phone. As many might discover, starting in iOS14 you can not actually "delete" the Watch app, rather you can "Remove it from your home screen". I found that by going into Settings-->iPhone Storage-->Watch and selecting the option "Offload App" I was actually able to remove the app off my iPhone (I had a hard time finding the Watch app in iPhone Storage so I actually used the magnifying glass in the upper right of the screen to search for it). Once that was accomplished I was able to go into the App Store and re-download the Watch app, to my astonishment the Watch app launched and functioned without issue.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE: After re-downloading the app and "setting up my Watch" I noticed that while I was able to setup my Watch from my prior backup I had lost ALL of my activity and health data. While somewhat frustrating I felt it an acceptable trade-off since I was able to use my Watch and iPhone again.

Not sure if it will work for others, but I figured I would share my experience with others. Good luck.

Greetings drea510,

W understand that you are having some difficulty syncing your Apple Watch with your iPhone, and we'd like to help. Begin by restarting both your Apple Watch and your iPhone.

Restart your iPhone

How to restart your Apple Watch

If any issues remain, Contact Apple Support for further assistance.

Take care.

I can’t even open my watch app. It just crashes again and again 😭

I am helpless.

• my iphone is up to date iOS 14.1
• my iwatch is reset and ready to pair
• But my watch app crashes and doesn’t even open😭😢

I got it to work!!

1. installed 4.2
2. erased and reset watch
3. backed up iPhone, erased and restored from backup
4. once iPhone was restored I was able to delete and watch app and re-download it.
5. watch app finally worked and I was able to connect and setup my watch as a new watch.

Hope this helps someone!

Hi Shep,

I was having the same issue and wanted a solution where I didn’t have to reset and erase my phone. So, I kept trying out different things and actually managed to get the app completely erased and then redownloaded successfully, without doing a complete erase and reset of my phone!! I'll share with you the steps that I took and hopefully this works for you too! I'm thinking the issue might be related to not having my phone updated to the latest IOS software 14.3 when I paired my watch. If that is the cause, then hopefully Apple fixes the issue because that is ridiculous! Hope they fix it permanently either way. Anyway, see what I did below.

1. On the watch go to settings > general > reset > Erase All Content and Settings
2. Go to your Bluetooth settings on your phone and if you see your Apple Watch, click on the 'i' and click "Forget this device"
3. Go to "appleid.apple.com", scroll down to devices and you should see your apple watch. Click your apple watch and select "Remove from account".
4. Next you will need to turn off "Find my iPhone", which should turn off activation lock on the watch. On your phone go to settings > click your name > Find My > Find My iPhone > toggle this off
5. Next step (not sure if necessary) is to go go settings > general > iPhone storage > scroll to the Watch app and "Remove all backups". I saw someone do this somewhere else, saying that there might be corrupt files in the backups, so removing them might be a good idea. If you do have a backup and want to try without this step, it might still work, just wanted to mention this.
6. These next steps have to be done kind of quickly. What I did next was do a Hard reset of my phone (quickly press volume up > quickly press volume down > press and hold side button until Apple logo appears and then release side button). Once the phone turns back on, you should have enough time to be able to get into the app and then unpair the watch, but you have to do this super quickly before the app kicks you out. Make sure your app is on the first screen once you unlock your phone, because you don't have much time from when the phone turns on from the hard reset to when the app will fail.
7. Next, go into the app, and once loaded, quickly press "All Watches" in top left screen > Click the 'i' next to your watch > then click "Unpair Apple Watch". Because you turned off Find my iPhone in the previous step, this should have turned off the activation lock, so you shouldn't have to type in your Apple ID password.
8. After you click "Unpair Apple Watch", you should see a screen where it shows it is unpairing your watch. Once I got to this point, the app didn't kick me out and I was successfully able to unpair my watch.
9. After the unpair is completed, go back to your apps and you should have the ability to completely delete the Watch app. First remove the app from your home screen and then completely delete the app from the app library.
10. After you have deleted the app, you can go back to the app store and download it again and you will be able to get into the app and start over with your watch.

So far my watch and the app seem to be working fine. I really hope this works for you and others! I'd be curious to know if this works for you, or if I can explain anything better. I feel bad for all these people who are having this frustrating issue!

Hi John,

I was having the same issue and wanted a solution where I didn’t have to reset and erase my phone. So, I kept trying out different things and actually managed to get the app completely erased and then redownloaded successfully, without doing a complete erase and reset of my phone!! I'll share with you the steps that I took and hopefully this works for you too! I'm thinking the issue might be related to not having my phone updated to the latest IOS software 14.3 when I paired my watch. If that is the cause, then hopefully Apple fixes the issue because that is ridiculous! Hope they fix it permanently either way. Anyway, see what I did below.

1. On the watch go to settings > general > reset > Erase All Content and Settings
2. Go to your Bluetooth settings on your phone and if you see your Apple Watch, click on the 'i' and click "Forget this device"
3. Go to "appleid.apple.com", scroll down to devices and you should see your apple watch. Click your apple watch and select "Remove from account".
4. Next you will need to turn off "Find my iPhone", which should turn off activation lock on the watch. On your phone go to settings > click your name > Find My > Find My iPhone > toggle this off
5. Next step (not sure if necessary) is to go go settings > general > iPhone storage > scroll to the Watch app and "Remove all backups". I saw someone do this somewhere else, saying that there might be corrupt files in the backups, so removing them might be a good idea. If you do have a backup and want to try without this step, it might still work, just wanted to mention this.
6. These next steps have to be done kind of quickly. What I did next was do a Hard reset of my phone (quickly press volume up > quickly press volume down > press and hold side button until Apple logo appears and then release side button). Once the phone turns back on, you should have enough time to be able to get into the app and then unpair the watch, but you have to do this super quickly before the app kicks you out. Make sure your app is on the first screen once you unlock your phone, because you don't have much time from when the phone turns on from the hard reset to when the app will fail.
7. Next, go into the app, and once loaded, quickly press "All Watches" in top left screen > Click the 'i' next to your watch > then click "Unpair Apple Watch". Because you turned off Find my iPhone in the previous step, this should have turned off the activation lock, so you shouldn't have to type in your Apple ID password.
8. After you click "Unpair Apple Watch", you should see a screen where it shows it is unpairing your watch. Once I got to this point, the app didn't kick me out and I was successfully able to unpair my watch.
9. After the unpair is completed, go back to your apps and you should have the ability to completely delete the Watch app. First remove the app from your home screen and then completely delete the app from the app library.
10. After you have deleted the app, you can go back to the app store and download it again and you will be able to get into the app and start over with your watch.

So far my watch and the app seem to be working fine. I really hope this works for you and others! I'd be curious to know if this works for you, or if I can explain anything better. I feel bad for all these people who are having this frustrating issue!

I am stuck after update Will not go anywhere after I have restarted and reset so many times. Also This is all I see when I open the app

I guess I have a paperweight also unless someone has a suggestion on how to get off this update screen and set up the watch. Thanks everyone

MINE IS NOW WORKING! Took me 4 hours to update my phone software and then I was able to update my watch and pair it back to my phone. I can delete apps off my home screen now which I couldn’t before. 5 weeks without my watch.

So I’ve been in contact with Apple support regarding my watch issue. Their suggestion was to try and pair it with another phone. I was able to pair it to my husbands so it looks like there’s an issue with my phone.

if you can, try and pair your watch to another phone to see if you still have the same issue.

It’s unbelievable.... the same issue... it’s is already the 8th of October and no response from Apple( Surprise for my mom looking like a big “deal”... I’m really disappointed ☹️

I have tried all these “storage” “offload app” “copies in iTunes” “reset” - nothing...

(iPhone XR, watch series 6)

Hope that this issue will be resolved in the nearest future! And Apple will notice about this...

ran into same issue today, got my watch yesterday morning worked fine until today that my watch app doesn’t open. Have tried everything but app opens for a split second then shuts down. I am unable to delete the app because it states I have to unpair the watch. I impaired it but using my watch. How am I able to unpair on my phone when I cannot open the app.

Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Within iPhone storage find your Watch application. There should be an option to "offload" or "Delete" the app altogether. What worked for me was deleting it altogether. After deleting, re-download from the apple store. Make sure you're connected to Wifi/internet before downloading. After opening the re-downloaded app, it should prompt you to set up your apple watch. Be sure your apple watch is charging with its original cord and adapter.

If you've reset your watch, DO NOT choose the language or region before pairing. Somehow it prevented me from pairing. I hope this helps. If you have any questions lemme know!

Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Within iPhone storage find your Watch application. There should be an option to "offload" or "Delete" the app altogether. What worked for me was deleting it altogether. After deleting, re-download from the apple store. Make sure you're connected to Wifi/internet before downloading. After opening the re-downloaded app, it should prompt you to set up your apple watch. Be sure your apple watch is charging with its original cord and adapter.

If you've reset your watch, DO NOT choose the language or region before pairing. Somehow it prevented me from pairing. I hope this helps. If you have any questions lemme know!