My Apple Watch app stopped working after updating my iPhone XR to iOS 14. I tried to delete it, but it won’t delete. When I try to open the app, all I get is the “Apple Watch is syncing” screen. (I didn’t start the sync process. ) Also, my Apple Watch 3 no longer syncs with the phone (the Fitness app doesn’t work either). I synced my phone to iCloud and reset my phone, but the problem persists. I hope to find a solution to this issue.
iPhone XR
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.
A factory reset solved the problem. Thank you to the people on this page who posted it as a solution. Hopefully it will be a permanent solution.
I did delete the app re add it and then had to delete my watches information, after that I paired them again, I had to go back to my last back up on the watch from when I erased my phone yesterday but it’s been a couple hours seems to be working ok, fingers crossed they figure it out and fix it before my watch starts acting up again.
Here’s what I did to fix this issue. It was extremely frustrating so hopefully it works for you too.
1st step: reset your Apple Watch and put to the side.
2nd step: go to your phone and settings, general, reset, and reset all content and setting (make sure you back up your phone to iCloud)
3rd step: after you set up phone again, go to general in settings, iPhone storage, go down to watch and delete from phone.
4th step: go to app store and install watch app
5th step: now you can pair watch to phone by opening the watch app.
hope this works!!!!
Hey everyone!!! I’ve been having the same issue... I reset my settings and it didn’t work, I ended up hitting erase all content (backed it up) and then I was finally able to delete the app off my phone and redownload. It seems to be working now.
Yes when I restored it the backup the watch app was still crashing at first but I was able to delete and reinstall it and this worked so guess it just corrupted the app during an update at some point. I was hesitant to do the backup at first but it wasn’t too difficult.
@chloegilly1 I had to do the factory reset as well to be able to delete the watch app and it worked fine, I was able to back it all up to my iCloud account and reset and then everything loaded back onto my phone from iCloud after I logged into my Apple account. I didn’t lose anything u just have to make sure to backup ur phone first
We ended up solving the issue by doing a full reset of the iPhone.
Do a full iCloud backup first.
then a restore should get you going.
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.
How to restart your Apple Watch
If any issues remain, Contact Apple Support for further assistance.
Take care.
Same way you delete any other app. As a note this is a bit different in ios14.
Hold it down till the icons shake and a little x appears in the corner. It will remove the icon from the Home Screen but put it in the App Library. Then swipe left till the app lib screen then delete it from there using the same technique.
OK, my friend left her watch (series 3) alone on the charger for a couple days, and the watch corrected itself. Works fine under IOS 14.1 She didn't have to do anything but wait.
Please backup your phone to iCloud then reset to factory settings, after you restore iCloud backup, then you delete your watch app and then reinstall watch app.
Sorry to hear this - exactly the same issue I had. However - and this is odd - I was eventually able to delete the app (4 days after it stopped working) - no idea why I could not before. I then downloaded it again and it works. It’s annoying as I had returned the watch to the store. BTW I read that 14.3 iOS is due to be released and a new version of the watch iOS. So, I will buy another watch next week. Hopefully with the iOS update all these issues will be fixed.
After the last update on my iPhone, my watch is now working. Reset your watch and be patient. The whole process took about 3 hours
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.
Apple Watch App Not Working After iOS 14 Update
