Watch app on iPhone won’t open??

Hi Niko, 

I was having the same issue and didn't want to factory reset my phone either. 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 what lam_serge said below.. 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. It's only been about an hour, but so far so good. 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!

If it is saying to unpair your watch first, and you can’t open the app to unpair it, unfortunately you will have to factory reset your phone. Which is ridiculous. I had to do the following:

1. backup phone
2. factory reset phone
3. delete watch app
4. reinstall the watch app
5. pair your watch

this worked for me. All other suggestions from Apple did not work and I was on chat with them for over 3 hours.

I experienced the Watch app immediately quitting when attempting to open it. It was because my watch got paired with my old phone after restoring a backup from when I used the two devices together.

I unpaired on the other phone before changing phones. However, restoring a backup also restored the pairing to the previous phone. The pairing on the new phone got corrupted.

I fixed the problem with the procedure described below.

I first forced an unpairing of my watch from the new, failing phone. I did that by using reset to erase its data. However, I was able to restore it in the Watch app from a backup on the old phone.

Next, I restored my new phone using recovery mode (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263), followed by restoring a backup I made right before attempting the repair. Once complete, deleting the watch app and installing it again allowed it to open.

Finally, I paired my watch to the new phone again and restored a backup inside the Watch app on the new phone.

In summary, it is possible to fix this problem and recover some data by having backups and much patience!

thx! it's the only way that i can fix Watch app on my iphone 7 - use Settings > «General > Reset, Erase All Content and Settings. And when restored from icloud backup

https://support.apple.com/ru-ru/guide/icloud/mm7e756df7fd/icloud

You have not disclosed which iPhone you are using. I will have to make an assumption and my assumption is that you are using an iPhone X or newer. Based on this assumption, my recommended solution for your iPhone is to:

 Try and Force Restart your iPhone exactly as shown below and see whether that resolves the issue:

• Press and quickly release Volume UP button
• Press and quickly release Volume DOWN button
• Press and Hold the SIDE button until an Apple logo appears then release the Side button (Can take up to 20 seconds. DO NOT release Side Button when invited to Slide Power OFF). 

Axel F.

This exact problem happened to be. I have an iphone 11 with IOS 14.3 and an apple watch SE. It would not let me delete the apple watch app because it was "paired" but it wasn't.

Heres what I did to fix the problem:

1. Erase apple watch / factory reset watch
2. Backup iphone to icloud or itunes
3. Factory reset Iphone
4. BEFORE restoring, Delete apple watch from phone
5. Restore iphone from backup
6. Delete apple watch and activity apps from phone
7. redownload from app store and then setup watch

I had to do this 3x in order for it to work. It didn't work the first two times but the third time I was able to delete the apple watch app. Apple support was NO help and told me it'd be fixed with an "update" but it was a month later.... and nothing.

Goodluck!

Try out my suggestion which doesn’t require a factory reset like others are suggesting. It is doable, you just have to be quick. This has worked for many other people. See instructions 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 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 quickly. Do a Hard reset of your 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 crash. I also recommend disabling your passcode if you have one to get into your phone quicker. 
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".
8. After you click "Unpair Apple Watch", a pop up at the bottom appears where you have to click “Unpair Apple Watch” again. After you have done this, you should see a screen where it shows it is unpairing your 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. 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, go back to the app store and download the watch app again and you will be able to get into the app with no issues and start over with your watch.

Since I did this, my watch has been working perfectly. Let me know if this works for you!

Here is a solution.

It is very possible that you paired your Watch to you phone prior to updating to the latest IOS software. It has been know to create an issue within the app if that’s the case.

Here's what you need to do.

1) Reset the watch to the manufactures setting.

2) on your phone delete the Apple Watch app and reinstall.

You will need to to delete the app from the location it’s in. Typically it’s in the utilities folder. If not, you can find it under the App Library. Delete and reinstall.

once you reinstall the app and your watch has been gone through the reset process pair them up.

if that doesn’t work (which it should) then do a manufacture reset also on your phone and repeat the steps.

One other thing to try is to Remove the Watch app and then reinstall it again.

You can delete/remove the app from your iPhone. Then perform a Force ReStart as shown in my previous response. Once that is completed then you can download the Watch app from the App Store and try setting up your Apple watch again.

Axel F.

Same issue for me. iPhone is an 8 and just got the watch a couple of months ago. Not sure what happened but I cannot open the app on my phone despite deleting and re-adding the app. It blinks a second and goes back to usual Home Screen. ☹️ And watch says it cannot find the phone.

Same here and tried all the things mentioned above minus what Nouzi said to do as the old phone I had was completely wiped and set up as a new phone for my son when I got a newer phone and I just got this new watch

About to send the watch back and get something that I can actually use and enjoy versus being frustrated as crap with

I managed to get it working by restoring my iPhoneX from a cloud backup, which unpaired the Apple Watch 6. While unpaired I was able to delete the app, erase / reset the watch and start over. A hassle for sure.