Apple Watch won’t stay connected to cellular while I am away from my phone

Question

Level 1

11 points

Apple Watch won’t stay connected to cellular while I am away from my phone

Apple Watch won’t stay connected to cellular while I am away from my phone. And when I’m out for a run and don’t have my phone in hand. I am connected to cellular and have my watch paired with my AirPods. It’s super frustrating that the music will play for a song or two and then when I look at his automatically disconnected from cellular which means the music is stopped. I have to go back onto the watch and reconnect it was cellular. It’s incredibly frustrating. Looks like other people have had the same problem. The Apple support responses didn’t really address the issue. It’s not a matter of the watch not being set up for cellular. It works just fine when the phone is nearby.

Apple Watch, watchOS 4

Posted on Jul 12, 2021 6:14 AM

Reply

Answer 1

destiny241

Community Specialist

Jul 13, 2021 7:36 AM in response to Trl_lvr

Welcome Trl_lvr,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Based on your post, when running your Apple Watch disconnected from the cellular network when your paired iPhone isn't close by. We'll do our best to assist.

Does this occur when your Apple Watch detects a Wi-Fi network or is it completely random? In order to use cellular the Apple Watch would need to be out of range of any known Wi-Fi networks and the paired iPhone. Since it seeks these connections first, then cellular.

In the location where you're running, does it only offer 3G connection? We ask because some CDMA and GSM carriers require LTE to connect to the network, and do not support 3G. This includes Sprint, Verizon, Bell, EE, to name a few.

Does it help to disconnect from Bluetooth? You can do this in Settings > Bluetooth and disable it to test out. We ask because you mentioned using AirPods with them when it occurred in the past.

Hoping to hear back, take care!

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Answer 2

Trl_lvr Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 13, 2021 8:00 AM in response to destiny241

Thank you for the reply. I have tried everything that you listed in terms of troubleshooting to no successful end. The only thing that I can think of — what you mentioned about the trying to connect to Wi-Fi. I’m running through a neighborhood so obviously it’s detecting everyone’s Wi-Fi signal as I’m running. Perhaps the watch is trying to connect to every single Wi-Fi network that is being admitted from home in my neighborhood? How do I fix this issue if that’s what’s causing the problem?

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