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I can't receive a call on my Apple Watch 7 with cellular when my iPhone is turned off

When my Apple Watch 7 with Cellular is turned on and my iPhone 13 Pro is turned off, I can make outgoing calls on my watch but I can't receive any calls using the normal iPhone's phone number. It only receives calls if I used the unique phone number that Verizon gave it. That would mean that everyone would have to know both numbers in order to reach me. Is there a way that the watch can work using the iPhone's connected number at all times, whether the iPhone is physically turned on or not?

Posted on Feb 16, 2022 3:27 PM

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Posted on Apr 16, 2022 8:43 PM

By systemwide, I meant Verizon, not Apple.


Anyway, i finally figured out how to fix it myself without having to restore the watch from a factory reset. Inside the Apple Watch app on the iPhone, in cellular, I removed the Verizon cellular plan. Then I added it back. It took a little while for activation and two separate tries, but all is working now.


Pushing Verizon harder is worthless because the Verizon rep kept telling me repeatedly that he was the expert and the only thing to do was to reset the Watch to factory and restore it like a new watch. I could have kept calling different reps, but it’s hit or miss on finding anyone who knows any more than just that everything has to be a factory reset. The rep even started out telling me that I couldn’t do what I knew I could—that in order to ring the Watch people had to know the watch’s hidden number and the watch couldn’t be reached on the main number without being directly attached to the phone at the time. Pure lunacy and lack of any real training.

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I can't receive a call on my Apple Watch 7 with cellular when my iPhone is turned off

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