New Apple Watch not connecting to cellular

Yes. In my case, I had a newly installed T-Mobile SIM card put into my iPhone to replace the old Sprint SIM card. The problem was that the numbers assigned to the Apple Watches were Sprint numbers and the T-Mobile SIM wouldn’t/couldn’t activate the Sprint watches until I took my iPhone back to T-Mobile and had them put the Sprint SIM card back into my iPhone.

I'm not sure if this helps your Verizon situation. I would just make sure that the watch phone numbers and the iPhone you use to activate the watch are both using the same carrier.

Hey!!! I have had this issue for 2 months after switching my Sprint Apple Watch and Sprint iPhone to T-Mobile sim cards. I could not get the cellular service to work on it at all which basically rendered it useless unless it was near the iPhone. BUT, today, I finally was exhausted with the issue and told the Sprint chat person to change the service on them back to Sprint. I put in my old Sprint sim card and she activated my watch back to Sprint and reactivated my old Sprint sim card and IT WORKS NOW. The watch works on its own on cellular again now. This is the fix everyone. Do not switch them to T-Mobile sim cards and if you have, switch back to your Sprint card. Demand a new Sprint sim for your phone if needed. This is how I was able to fix this issue.

Went to Sprint/T-Mobile store yesterday. They said the fix will be on Nov 9th or 10th. I was skeptical so I went ahead and had a Sprint SIM put back in my 12 Pro because I have Sprint 5G where I live anyhow. Apple Watch cellular started working right away. When they fix is out and confirmed I’ll go back to the new T-Mobile SIM card.

I had T-Mobile put back the Sprint SIM card in my iPhone and my phone ported over the two eSIM’s to each Apple Watch SE with no problem. I kept the Sprint SIM in my iPhone in the event I have to reset the watches for any reason.

This looks like a problem for Sprint customers who had a T-Mobile SIM installed into their phones. The T-Mobile SIM software isn’t yet compatible when it’s used to install a Sprint number into their device, which required the download of an eSIM. There probably hasn’t been enough people affected for this to pop up on Apple/Sprint/T-Mobile radar, to date.

Sprint customer support told me that it was an issue that’s being worked. The watch is on the Sprint carrier and the iPhone is on a T-Mobile carrier. They said to wait for an update or go to the Sprint/T-Mobile store and have a Sprint sim installed and the watch will connect cellular. They said the T-Mobile sim is installed to give Sprint customers a better 5G experience. They also didn’t have a date on when the issue would be resolved.

Correct. I went back to a Sprint sim.

Switch your iPhone 12 SIM back to Sprint. It’s the only way until the two companies are one.

As of now a Sprint Apple Watch still will not connect cellular solo if you switch to a T-Mobile Sim. I was told it would be fixed Nov 9 2020. That’s over 3 months ago. I think they are forcing you to switch from a Sprint account to a T-Mobile account.

I think the only fix is to have T-Mobile assign you a new T-Mobile phone number for your Apple Watch. Your T-Mobile phone (SIM) won’t talk to your (ESIM) Sprint watch.

The problem persists. I bought my kids each Apple Watch SE’s for Christmas. They were each assigned T-Mobile cell numbers. The same “Hang Tight!” message still appeared on my iPhone 12pro that I used to pair them for “Family Share”. I tied to connect cellular over WIFI and 5G. Neither way made a difference. I was on the phone with T-Mobile tech support and Apple tech support on and off for two days. Neither company had any record of this persistent problem with T-Mobiles eSIM (or lack there of) for these stand alone watches. I spent hours on the phone with Apple and T-Mobile in addition to having T-Mobile store employees helping (without any luck). You would think T-Mobile would have sent their people a memo on this or at least made Apple aware.

Good to know Sprint eSIM may still work. But for how long? Isn’t everything Sprint switching to T-Mobile?..

The Apple tech I spoke with over the phone generated a case number and assured me the problem would be looked into up the Apple tech chain. I assume at some level, Apple and the various carrier engineers collaborate.

Looks like for now, I have to switch these numbers to a Sprint eSIM.

Agreed I wasted two days with Sprint tech support about why I cannot activate two new IWatch 6’s that I ordered directly from Sprint. Tech support told me they are having a lot of problems with the IWatch 6 and that I should take it into a T Mobile store for help; the store that completely unable to help. Sprint tech support then told me they may have to send me two new watches. They seem clueless about this SIM card network problem. It was only tonight I realized the problem may be that I switched out the iPhone SIM card from Sprint to TMobile. Every time I try to activate the cellular plan, I receive an error message that I must contact TMobile customer service or go into a TMobile store to pay a deposit to activate the line because of my credit. Ridiculous. Had my post pay account with Sprint over 20 years. Someone engineered a costly rollout if they are unnecessarily having to restock Iwatches and replace them because their staff thinks the product is defective when it is a network problem. I hate situations where I feel I know more about a problem than a company’s own tech support staff.

I have iPhone 11 and recently switched to T-Mobile because I have a Sprint SIM card and Sprint is “supposedly” part of T-Mobile. Look I know they merged on paper but they are very much still separate at-least from my experience. I literally spent 5 hours with T-Mobile both over chat and in store in a single day. After roughly 6 different people they still couldn’t get my Apple Watch connected to the cellular network. I spent 1.5 hours in store and 3.5 hours on chat although I did have chat on while in the T-Mobile store. While in store after the 1.5 hours they suggested going to the former Sprint store. Lol! I finally said **** it I don’t want cellular anymore and asked for a credit since I spent so much time on it. Again no one really knew what to do. We reset the watch, reset the iPhone, removed the cellular plan and then added it back from the app, unpaired the device and paired it again several times, etc. I really can’t explain my frustration with the whole process. If anyone and I mean anyone has figured out the problem please let me know! I mean I got rid of my cellular plan but I still want to know what the issue was!

It's February 9th and this problem has still not been resolved. Switched my iPhone 12 to -TMobile Experience with a T-Mobile SIM and the Apple Watch can not be activated on the T-Mobile network. Frankly no one at Sprint Support is even aware of this issue.... Spent the last 2 days trying to troubleshoot.

Lucky you, I’m 3 weka into this and they still can’t fix mine. Same thing switched to the better T-Mobile sim in my phone my watch series 5 never updated. They had me factory reset 6 times, remove the plan, delete the app. Call back next day, visit 2 stores. Got a new sprint sim another T-Mobile sim and put the original sprint sim back in and still says no sim on my watch. 2 days ago spoke with someone again and they asked me if I contacted Apple care lmao. Now they suggest I do a insurance claim cause my watch must be broken. Even though it worked perfect before the T-Mobile SIM card. This is a absolute joke and waste of my time. They also wanted me to take it to a repair store but the closest is a hour away. Wish I would have seen this thread before I did this.