Now playing on Apple Watch not working after update

Restarting the watch worked for me but it doesn’t last. Now I have to restart every couple of days. Come on Apple, this is lame.

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 17.6.1

Apple Watch Series 8, OS 10.6.1

As I am having the same problem, I am keen to try what you suggest. Unfortunately I don't understand what you write:

What do you mean by "unpair watch from the app?". Which app? Do you mean remove it from the watch?

I don't understand what you mean by "restore from backup". I confess to knowing nothing about watch backups.

Nope. My watch is Series 9 and has the same problem

Same issue over here 👋🏽 At this point I’d be happy with being able to see what’s playing, even if I can’t to control the music from my watch. I thought it had something to do with the fact I’ve got a first generation Apple Watch but as so many others have reported issues it can’t be that.

One day about a month ago “Now Playing” just stopped. I upgraded my iPhone to a newer model and there were no issues. Then after a couple of weeks “Now Playing” stopped working as intended. It doesn’t auto launch anymore either.

I’ve tried all the troubleshooting suggestions, including resetting my Apple Watch and reassigning it to my iPhone but to no joy.

Any support would be greatly appreciated.

From time to time, I still have this issue. Restarting the watch solves it for me, but only temporarily. I have found a better and faster solution: opening the recent apps on the watch (double crown click) and then closing the "Now Playing" app by swiping it to the left. After that, if I reopen the app, it works for some time, and a watch restart is not needed.

I unpaired my watch from the app and restarted the watch and re-paired it with the backup and the now playing works now. - we’ll see if it keeps working🤷🏼‍♀️

Seems like my watch can't find the watch to play it in Now Playing. the only thing showing up is the AirPod and it does not control them. I done everything mention and tired to resetting and having to rebuild wallet, etc...this is a royal pain in the ***...

didn't work for me

That did not work for me :(

It seems like a lot of 2s are having this issue now. Up until this, my only complaint was that I can no longer get through the day on a charge. Maybe I will have to retire this old beauty and upgrade😢😢

I found that turning my watch off and then back on seems to fix the issue. I was having to do this weekly, but the past month has been better, not sure why. Anyhow, give that a shot folks, hopefully it will get your Now Playing to start working again.

I have a series 8 so it's not just your model. It's so frustrating. It happened yet again to me yesterday.

Series 5 here! Volume control with the crown isn't working in now playing for multiple apps including apple music. I'm so tired of updating and introducing new and annoying bugs!

Same thing here, updated the iphone 14 pro max to the latest firmware, apple watch series 2 stopped working correctly!

do you think that the series 2 has been considered too old to keep up with the updates?

The only ones having troubles are the ones with the S2’s….

I too have lost control! I cannot use Now Playing to adjust anything I'm listening to on my phone. I have a series 2 AppleWatch OS6.3 and an iPhone XS Max running ISO 17.4.1.

This is the first time it's behaved like this. Been doing it for about 5 days.