Level 1

37 points

Watch app on iPhone won’t open??

can somebody help me with this? I recently acquired myself a series 5 Apple Watch from my cousin, it’s all good and nice for a day until all of sudden I can’t open my Watch app in my iPhone.

The watch itself is fine. I thought the problem lies with the watch so I unpaired the device with my phone. However when I wanna re-pair the devices, my Watch app keeps stubbornly crashing so I can’t use my watch for now. (As I need to pair it with my phone.. but the Watch app won’t open.) is there any solutions for this problem? I hope someone have an answer for this soon enough.

Apple Watch Series 5, watchOS 7

Posted on Oct 10, 2020 10:52 AM

Top-ranking reply

Rach_01

Level 1

23 points

Posted on Jan 7, 2021 5:27 AM

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:

On the watch go to settings > general > reset > Erase All Content and Settings
Go to your Bluetooth settings on your phone and if you see your Apple Watch, click on the 'i' and click "Forget this device"
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".
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
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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!

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102 replies

Bowdy98

Level 1

4 points

Nov 28, 2020 5:42 AM in response to ratika49

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

elixane Author

Level 1

37 points

Dec 8, 2020 4:09 AM in response to elixane

Ok, so I did try the 'restore the iPhone, re-pairs the Apple Watch, then re-store the backup' road.

After it took me like 24 hours, (i'm not even exaggerating this, my internet is extremely slow so it was rough)

it's still doesn't work. :)

Is it my current backup that's the problem? idk, at this point i'm just giving up on using the watch as I still had no plan on changing my phone.

Dec 14, 2020 6:31 PM in response to musa27

Yep.

Both things. No success! I’m not resetting my iPhone ‘cause of my bank apps and other things that might get messed. They MUST do something. I don’t expect a real fix, but they could at least allow us to delete the stupid app crashing!

Dec 14, 2020 9:41 PM in response to cdgtopper

iPhone PRO11 with iwatch 6 and having the same issues, app flashes and disappears. I cannot remove app from iPhone or update it. The watch wants to re-pair with phone but I cannot get the watch app to work so cannot pair.

komalt

Level 1

8 points

Dec 15, 2020 1:29 AM in response to elixane

I’m having the same issue with a brand new Apple Watch and the iPhone 8. Every time I click on the watch app it takes me to the Home Screen. Can’t delete the app because I can’t unpair the watch. I’ve done all the troubleshooting mentioned and it still doesn’t work.

jdc0927

Level 1

4 points

Dec 28, 2020 10:20 PM in response to Rach_01

Thank you Rach_01.....this worked for me!! I was not willing to do a factory reset, but I was trying everything else that was suggested! Fortunately, I went through all the comments and found this last post! I followed the exact steps as they were written and it fixed the issue!!! A couple comments about specific steps.....

Step 5 - I went ahead and removed the watch backup. To be honest, I am not even sure it had been backed up, but only having the watch for a couple days, there wasn’t much info to lose.

Step 6....”These next steps have to be done kind of quickly.”....For me, it had to be done very quickly!! It took me 5+ times to get into the app fast enough, but once I did, everything went exactly as listed in the steps above!

Again, thank you Rach_01 for taking the time to write all the steps. Hope it works for others also!

Niko_A

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2020 2:05 AM in response to Rach_01

Hi Rach,

It worked for me! Thank you very much!

Just additional inputs on:

6. My phone asked for a passcode at startup. It probably burned some extra time (I tried to disable the passcode in the phone settings, but wasn't able due to device management of my phone).

7. The Watch app additionally asked for confirmation after I clicked "Unpair Apple Watch". I actually had no time to read a message, was able to only see Cancel and another option. It was really challenging to do all these steps on time. I put my phone on a table and used several fingers. It took me about an hour of trying to unpair my phone.

iPhone 11, Software Version 14.3.

Jan 3, 2021 10:16 PM in response to Rach_01

You are an Apple product wizard omg. I really thought I was going to be up all night backing up phone to icloud, downloading more storage to make sure it went through etc. This saved me wow. Wish there was a pin option to the front of the comments instead of basically the last page. THANK YOU

Rach_01

Level 1

23 points

Jan 4, 2021 1:27 PM in response to haleigh97

Yay! I’m glad this worked for you! I’ve been trying to directly reply to people that have this issue so they get a notification, but yeah it would be nice if it could be pinned up closer so more people see it!!

Jan 4, 2021 1:43 PM in response to Rach_01

Trying your suggestion tonight. My daughters got me the SE watch for Xmas, worked great until New Years Day when it would not let me open the app and it would not pair up with my phone 🤦🏼‍♀️.... very upsetting because I do not want to reset my phone!!

ArashK94

Level 1

4 points

Jan 5, 2021 11:27 AM in response to elixane

My iPhone SE2020 was completely ok , just got the watch a couple of days ago.

I successfully paired them, it was ok for 1h, 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.

restart my phone, the apple watch, updated my phone (cant update the watch because it requires the Permission from Phone and therefore the application that cant be opened) , i also removed the Watch from my devices in iCloud

Don't know what to do :(

any advices ?

ArashK94

Level 1

4 points

Jan 7, 2021 7:50 AM in response to PAdele

On the up left side, select all watches

then click on your device,

on the right side there’s a tiny x which allows you to remove the watch

you’ve got 3 seconds with A13 Bionic (iphone SE and Iphone 11)

Stephg91

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2021 1:08 PM in response to Rach_01

Thank you!!! I have been trying to fix this for days and like you, was reluctant to do a factory reset! Your steps are amazing, getting the watch app open and unpairing quickly was tricky (like you said) but after a few attempts I got there! Seems to be fixed :o) thank you!

Sherih1

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2021 2:07 PM in response to Rach_01

Thank you!!! This is the only thing that seems to be working. We literally had to restart about 20 times and and every time I thought we were close it would crash. Then finally got it (even though it still crashed) but I felt like maybe it worked and it did. Thank you thank you. I’ve only had it fixed for about 20 minutes but it’s finally working since a few days after Christmas again.

madcj1

Level 1

4 points

Jan 14, 2021 1:54 AM in response to Aravind728

wow - well done apple for such an almighty **** up - I have a 12 running 14.3 and the watch bricked this morning - read the comments and the fix above - unfortunately I am not superman and hence every time I get the app open on restart, the app crashes before I can complete the unpair - for gods sake its like some gameshow for a prize with crap odds

absolutely f$$$$$$ off

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Watch app on iPhone won’t open??