Apple Watch activity will not update shared contacts data unless connected to Wi-Fi

Update - I seem to have fixed the issue on my watch (I have the non-cellular, just GPS)!

I spoke to a man in the Apple shop who asked if I restored from a back-up when I set up my new watch - which I had done. He said the only thing he could think of was that there was some sort of bug in the backup which was causing the shared activity to not work.

He suggested unpairing my watch and then setting up as a new watch, rather than restoring from a back up.

This seems to have fixed the problem for me and the shared activity is now updating and I’m getting the notifications again!

All my awards have remained, as well as the people I share activity with - he explained this information is saved to your phone not the watch, so when you set up as new this info will still be there - which it all is!

By setting up as a new watch you’ll loose any watch faces you have currently saved, and other small personalisations that you had previously. Also you’ll have to re-add any cards you had saved in your Apple wallet on your watch! I was prepared to redo all that if it fixed the issue as it was really frustrating me!

Seems to have worked so hope it does if anyone else tries too!

I’m having the exact same issue with the Apple Watch series 6 and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

I spoke to someone via Apple support, and apparently an engineer said that this feature is only available using WiFi. Someone was meant to call me today to discuss and try and fix the problem but no call!!

I’ve had an Apple Watch for over 4 years, and have friends who have them currently too. I know it only working via WiFi isn’t correct as I’ve never had this issue before! Only since the update.

My friend’s watches seem to be absolutely fine. When I went for a walk with those who have them, they all got the notifications for each other as soon as we finished the activity (none of them have a cellular watch). Only they didn’t get mine and I didn’t get any of theirs until I was connected to WiFi.

I too have tried everything including erasing my watch and re-pairing and nothing seems to work! Very frustrating as it always used to work perfectly!

Same thing with me. I have iPhone X and Apple watch series 4. Both were working absolutely fine until Watch OS 7 and IOS 14.

I have unpaired the watch, reset both phone and watch & then re paired it - still only get workout notifications and friends activity updates when connected to wifi.

It is not the hardware, it has only been since OS updates!!

I have this exact same issue with only pairing and syncing or sharing with contacts on WiFi, iPhone XS and Watch 6 . I have tried unpairing my watch. Didn’t have this issue with older watch.

Have you given permission for the apps to use cellular?

From your iPhone>Watch>Cellular>Activity>Toggle this on

Workout>Toggle this on

Didn’t work for me :(

Didnt work with me too :(