You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Apple Watch will not connect to iPhone 15

I disconnected my apple watch (AW) from my old phone, tried to connect it to my new one and it needs to be updated first. Tried reconnecting with my old phone, and my husband's, and it wont connect. Also tried updating from the AW but it prompts me to agree to the terms on my phone, which I can no longer connect to.

iPhone 6, iOS 11

Posted on Sep 22, 2023 8:10 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 3, 2023 6:39 PM

I was having this exact issue all day! While transferring my data from an old iPhone to the new iPhone 15 Pro, my watch "froze" in the process of transferring, and thereafter wouldn't connect to my new phone. I repeatedly tried to connect as both a new and existing watch but was never successful. By this point, I'd already wiped and turned off my old phone, so my top priority was to not have to turn it back on and confirm my watch data was off of it. Without going back into my old phone, the solution that worked for me was:


  • powering off and on the iPhone 15
  • powering off and on the watch
  • once on, going into the watch settings and selecting the reset option. This initiated another automatic power-off, so then I powered the watch back on
  • as the watch was powering back on, I went into the watch app on the iPhone 15 and selected to pair a NEW watch. It automatically recognized my watch and began the pairing process--this took less than 10 minutes. Despite having gone through the reset, all of my apps and settings were retained once my watch finished pairing.


Success!

67 replies

Nov 13, 2023 4:02 PM in response to ashlie293

I have iWatch 7 gps connected to iPhone 13pro and I had problems pairing it to iPhone 15pro (all updated to the latest versions) in the end after I tried all these steps, combo that worked for me:

  1. turn off BT on iWatch
  2. turn off BT on 15pro
  3. turn off BT on 13pro
  4. wait 5min
  5. turn on BT on iWatch
  6. turn on BT on 15pro
  7. open Watch app on 15pro and it found the watch right away
  8. finish on the iWatch


Aug 18, 2024 6:40 AM in response to ashlie293

Success!! (Without needing to Reset the watch)

This is how I did it on two different, new iPhones and older SE watches.

  1. Of course activate the new phone and transfer data/settings from the old phone :)
  2. Power off the old phone
  3. Plug the new iPhone and SE watch into its power source (this is the important step)

(Keep the devices close to each ther for the rest of the steps)

  1. Restart the new iphone 15 and the SE watch
  2. Open Watch app on new iPhone and select pair to existing watch
  3. Follow the prompted instructions to pair the devices
  4. Let the Watch do it's thing by slowly going around clockwise, do not interrupt this process

(time to pair and copy data diffes depending on how much you have stored in Fitness and Health...)

That's it!! Hope it works for you also :)


Oct 4, 2023 1:54 PM in response to Sjohnson1184

Yes! Having the same issue with my series 8, I got it to finally sync but needed to go into setting and factory reset my watch to update it. It updated it synced to the 15 pro, I let it die at work, went to charge it and when it charged I was greeted with the welcome set up thing with multiple languages but my phone still sees the watch? So weird gonna go in this weekend and see what they can do.

Oct 16, 2023 5:46 PM in response to ashlie293

Me Too. I think it is because my WatchOS was not the most current even though my iphone operating systems were (old phone and new phone) when I moved to the new phone. Thus the old watch operating system could not talk to the new phone OS. I had to reset my watch by following Apples directions (On your Apple Watch, tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings). and then pair the reset watch to the iphone but first I had to download the new WatchOS operating system on the iphone because the phone said the watch OS was not current, install the watchos 10.0.1 onto the watch then finish pairing it. It took a long time - be patient. You had to have your iphone (connected to WIFI) next to your watch and your watch had to be charging in order to do it. Then I had to turn off the health data sharing with any health apps. Then had to turn off the phone and turn off the watch then turn them both back on and then share the health data again with the apps. But it is working now. So the moral of the story is make sure all operating systems on all devices shared with a new iphone are the latest version. Then I think the transition is smoother and the watch pairing just works with out all the the rigmarole. Good luck everyone.

Oct 16, 2023 6:00 PM in response to ashlie293

I had to unpair my device a couple of times, turn the watch on and off a couple of times and then I chose to pair manually. When I tap on the footsteps on the watch face it then asked me to share data in the health app to see the step count. I did all this and I see 0 steps now but before was seeing three dashes. Hoping this fixed the issue although I’m doubtful.

Oct 27, 2023 12:40 PM in response to Jub1122

I don’t think there is much data saved on the watch. I reset my watch and I am missing one day of health data for the one day the watch did not talk to the new phone. I had to reset the watch to install the new watchOS so the watch could communicate with the new phone which also had the newest operating system. I should have updated the watchOS prior to turning on the new phone. Learned that the hard way. Good luck.

Dec 14, 2023 4:13 PM in response to ashlie293

All I wanted to do was remove the perpetual green running man and even tried to unpairing iwatch with my old iphone 11 which has the latest OS update and re - pair with no success on either phone! (new 15) .


Hours wasted doing hard reboots, unpairing,, can't pair it now. Doest recognize the blowing orb and never sends me a six digit code. My time wasted is more than a watch costs.

Apple Watch will not connect to iPhone 15

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.