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

Jan 20, 2021 7:45 PM in response to Henejebebr

Update, have a call with the engineers on Monday to most likely get no where other than to restore my iPhone. If any engineer or customer service rep reads this, I just want you to understand how unprofessional continuing to not patch this bug is. According to this thread it’s impacted 1000+ people. It virtually renders the Apple Watch useless unless you nuke your entire phone. If one cannot afford iCloud and uses different services to backup their phone then it’s hours of work to POTENTIALLY get the app to work. Keep in mind, this watch app isn’t a critical piece of software to the phone itself!!!! Your phone will always work as is. When speaking to the support folks (who were very nice), their last trouble shooting step is too nuke your phone. I worked in support for 3 years, that’s unacceptable, and not troubleshooting. That’s a band aid for the real problem. Keep in mind, this bug has been present since October and 1000+ people have complained since. One of Apple’s best features is the seamless connectivity between their products, this is the complete anthesis of what the company stands for. It’s a bad bug. Patch this or come up with an actual workaround or troubleshooting steps. Nuking someone’s phone is a cop out. This thread is unresolved.

KS_88

Level 1

8 points

Jan 25, 2021 2:51 AM in response to Rach_01

TYSM Rach_01 - I had this exact same problem of the watch app crashing on my iPhone 8. I followed these steps and now the app is working, hallelujah! It was a little tricky between steps 6+ 7 to get the watch to unpair before the app crashed! I wonder why this is such a problem for so many watch users. Thanks again, Rach_01 for restoring my watch app and my sanity.

jaihoji

Level 1

4 points

Jan 26, 2021 9:26 AM in response to elixane

Even i have the same problem with my IPhone X paired with series 6 watch

now unable to open watch app in my phone after successful pairing

crashing my app after a second.

please can someone help on this.

JNau

Level 1

4 points

Jan 28, 2021 6:01 PM in response to Rach_01

Thank you so much for this tutorial. Worked great so far. Definitely have to be fast on Step 6. When we did click unpair, it kicked us out but I clicked on the app again and it showed it was unpairing. Definitely use this to fix this bug since Apple won't!

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

Feb 1, 2021 9:15 AM in response to Rach_01

Rach_01,

This issue has been plaguing me with my iPhone XR and watch series 6 since early December. I have called apple numerous times, done full resets no less than a dozen times and still nothing. I want to give your instructions a go, however I am concerned that once I do a reset on my watch, if I cannot get this to work I will be stuck with a useless watch again. (This happened before when apple had me reset both my watch and phone, only way to make the watch useable as at least a watch again was to setup the phone as new, repair the watch, then restore my backup. This allowed the watch to at least function as a watch, but still have no communication between it and the phone)

Do you know if you should still be able to get into the watch app following your instructions without doing the reset first, just to see if this might work for me? Needless to say I am a bit gun shy about resetting at the moment, but I would love to have a working watch again.

Feb 1, 2021 10:32 AM in response to Rach_01

Thanks Rach_01,

I have been trying all morning, probably 15-20 tries. I turned off find my iphone, deleted all watch backups, turned off my passcode so I can just swipe up and get to the home screen really quick, but every single time I open the watch app, the screen stays black for a few seconds, then crashes. Usually it crashes instantly, so it gives me hope for a short period of time but doesn't work. I may keep trying a few more times, but shy of trying the reset on the watch, which I am not sure I want to do again yet, I may just keep fingers crossed apple decides to finally fix this. I have a 90 day return policy on the watch which expires here in a few weeks, if its not fixed by then I will take the watch back and find a new company who actually cares.

Feb 23, 2021 8:32 AM in response to Rach_01

You are an absolute SAINT of a human being.. did want to note that I️ went in to the find my location app and turned it off but it still asked for password. Might want to edit to say you need to stop sharing location in settings. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Feb 24, 2021 4:30 AM in response to Rach_01

hi Rach_01,

Thank you so much for this, I finally can use my watch again. I restored my phone but the watch app wouldn't open, finally, this process help me open it and pair my watch again. to add to what I did, I did not have to open the app I directly deleted it after hard reset.

thanks again. hope this helps

Mar 14, 2021 9:59 AM in response to Rach_01

I tried following your steps and it was going good until it asks me permission to unpair so then I have to type in the long password to my Apple ID but I don’t have enough seconds to do that because that app kicks me out how do I deactivate permission?

Oct 15, 2020 12:16 AM in response to elixane

I have the same problem!

Oct 19, 2020 12:23 AM in response to elixane

I have exactly the same problems, same process.

Did u resolve ?

Thanks

Nov 4, 2020 10:37 AM in response to elixane

I have the same problem

Nov 5, 2020 3:16 PM in response to dilovanmatini

The same problem any fix?

ratika49

Level 1

4 points

Nov 28, 2020 4:49 AM in response to Gololo13

I also have the same issue

Nov 29, 2020 4:36 PM in response to Bowdy98

I’m having the same issue and nothings working from the above thread iPhone 11pro.

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Watch app on iPhone won’t open??