Fitness+ Apple Watch pairing and Apple TV airplay issues

i had the same issue for days and managed to resolve it by taking the following steps.

1) on the Apple TV you need to go to settings and user accounts to remove my default user account

2) then go to the Home app on your iPhone and delete your apple TV

3) then go back to Apple TV and add your iCloud account again

4) the go to airplay & HomeKit on your Apple TV to set up your home hub

5) then go back to Home on your iPhone to ensure the Apple TV is set up again

6) that should now fix it (go to fitness + on your Apple TV and you should be able to connect it to your watch).

hope that works for you guys as well. Shame Apple support couldn’t help with this, instead had to figure it out myself.

I had this issue also & had a few conversations with AppleCare support to resolve it.

First of all, the Apple TV MUST be added to the Home app, which wouldn't work for me. Everytime I tried, it kept saying that I needed to log into iCloud, which I already was. (I was on the latest versions of software on my phone, watch & Apple TV).

In the Apple TV settings, I had to "restore & update" the Apple TV & when setting up the Apple TV again, it did prompt me to set up the Apple TV for AirPlay 2 & iCloud in the Home app. However, I still continued to get the "pairing canceled" error message when trying to start an Apple Fitness+ workout on Apple TV & pair/connect to my watch. They had me log out of iCloud on my phone and log back in. They had me log out of my User on Apple TV and log back in. That prompted the necessary "red badge" in the Apple TV settings under AirPlay and HomeKit, which allowed me to finish setting my Apple TV up in the Home app. Then it all started working! I hope that this advice helps others!!!!!!!

I was able to resolve the issue by deleting the default user from the Apple TV, then re-adding a default user using the iPhone proximity setup method. It then worked okay. Although my Memoji icon associated with my iCloud account isn't showing anymore. I think the issue is to do with Apple IDs.

Logging out of iCloud and back in on the AppleTV worked too. Oddly, when I logged back in I had to reconnect the AppleTV to Home on the AppleTV settings even though it was still showing and controllable in Home.

Thank you I did this, removed the user on my apple TV then re-added it. It was easy just asked to put my iPhone near the Apple TV, once re-adding the main user again I launched the fitness app on my apple TV. It asked me to open my fitness app on my watch, once launched on my apple watch it gave me the connect option.

I had the same issue, but when I did a hard reset of my Apple TV (holding the menu button and the home button) it started working for me.

Yes I reset everything, Apple TV, watch and phone. I even reset the watch and downloaded from backup. None of this worked. What finally worked was the step of “finishing” the setup of my Apple TV where I had to hold my phone near it. Not sure what this step did it’s been working as expected for over a year. Anyway that made it work with my watch. No word yet on if it’ll work with my wife’s watch.

I did resolve the black screen issue from my phone to my apple tv. But could not get my watch to directly connect to apple tv or my ipad pro. So the fix i found, instead of ‘screen mirroring’ you phone to apple tv then trying to start the works out which results in a black screen. Start the work out on the phone then hit the airplay button in the bottom right of the screen (picture attached) then it will show the work out on your tv and ask your watch to play to start. Hope that helps. This is the only way i got it to work between my iphobe 12, apple tv and ipad pro. Hope for a real fix soon.

Just to close the loop on this thread, I finally did a full reset of the Watch (Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings) and after re-pairing it worked.

Thanks to all who provided suggestions, and especially SwahiliTodd! :)

"the issue appears isolated to Apple TV HD... I have several Apple TV’s and the Apple TV 4K’s work just fine. The HD’s won’t connect. I have a total of 8 Apple TV’s and the issue is consistent based on the type of Apple TV"

FWIW, that was not my experience and I had the error on both the Apple TV HD and the 4K.

Ultimately, completing a full reset/re-pairing of the Watch did the trick in my case and everything now works on both Apple TVs.

I finally bit the bullet last night after closing all my rings first LOL... Reset watch from watch settings only. Let it do its thing, synced back from a backup (not new), and it connected to two of my ATV's. Still have to tried bedroom but at this point don't see why it wound't work.

So up to this point; I did everything on ATV, reset them, disconnect iCloud, go back in, and add HomeKit. Nothing worked until I reset watch itself 🙄...

Also note, I have x3 ATV's. On one I reset it, on 2nd I disconnected from iCloud and rejoined, on 3rd did nothing. All this before resetting watch. The only ATV I have not tested since watch reset was bedroom ATV which is the one I reset when testing one last couple of days.

Looks like reset watch I best course if you have tried all other things here.

Apple doesn't tell you this but you'll need to enable Two-factor authentication on your Apple ID account. Otherwise the TV and Watch won't be able to communicate.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915

Hi. I was having the same ‘pairing cancelled’ message and I didn’t seem able to complete the Home set up either. In the end I reset my Apple TV and that properly set it up in My Home app. Now Fitness+ works perfectly paired to my watch. Good luck 👍🏻

So my Watch would say "Connecting" and then never get past that stage. My boyfriend connected his Watch to the Apple TV without any issues. Based on all the tips here, I went to my Apple TV, signed out of iCloud, and signed back in. When that was done, there was a red alert icon on the Apple TV in settings next to Airplay & HomeKit. I followed the onscreen instructions to get that red alert icon to disappear. After that, my Watch was visible in the Fitness+ app on Apple TV the next time I opened it.

I don't have much to add but I also have the same problem today. I read another post at Apple Discussion suggesting to reboot everything. That works for me the first time.

I rebooted my Apple TV, Apple Watch and iPhone at the same time. Went to Apple TV, pick the Fitness I want, my watch asks for a confirmation to Connect, and that was it. All three running the latest firmware and updates.

Good luck all.