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Besides turning off the iPhone completely, can you separate the watch from the iPhone with a setting?

When I am playing pickle ball at a large venue, often times I will find myself on a court that is on the edges of Bluetooth range and the signal sucks but in order for the watch to work independently of the phone so I can use the music stored in the watch or cellular radio stations I have to shut the phone down because even on the outer edges it will continue to look for it and use the phone for support.

Posted on Sep 27, 2023 12:42 PM

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User profile for user: timdifferent
timdifferent
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Posted on Sep 27, 2023 1:00 PM

Hi WDK3762,


Turning off Bluetooth on your Apple Watch will disconnect it from your iPhone. You can do this in the Settings app on Apple Watch by choosing Bluetooth -> scroll to the bottom -> adjust the toggle.


To make turning off Bluetooth even easier, you could use your iPhone to create a Siri Shortcut that toggles Bluetooth on / off. As long as you enable "Show on Apple Watch" for the Shortcut you've created, you can run this Shortcut on your Apple Watch to turn its Bluetooth off, or back on if it's already off. You can add this Shortcut to your Apple Watch's Smart Stack as of watchOS 10. You could also run the Shortcut by saying the name of the Shortcut to Siri on Apple Watch.


Hope this helps!

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User profile for user: timdifferent
timdifferent
User level: Level 4
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Sep 27, 2023 1:00 PM in response to Community User

Hi WDK3762,


Turning off Bluetooth on your Apple Watch will disconnect it from your iPhone. You can do this in the Settings app on Apple Watch by choosing Bluetooth -> scroll to the bottom -> adjust the toggle.


To make turning off Bluetooth even easier, you could use your iPhone to create a Siri Shortcut that toggles Bluetooth on / off. As long as you enable "Show on Apple Watch" for the Shortcut you've created, you can run this Shortcut on your Apple Watch to turn its Bluetooth off, or back on if it's already off. You can add this Shortcut to your Apple Watch's Smart Stack as of watchOS 10. You could also run the Shortcut by saying the name of the Shortcut to Siri on Apple Watch.


Hope this helps!

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
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Sep 30, 2023 5:30 PM in response to Community User

You leave Apple Watch Bluetooth and WiFi on, so the Apple Watch can talk to your headphones, and stream music via WiFi (or cellular if the Apple Watch has cellular).


But as you are putting your iPhone in your locker, your bring up the control center on the iPhone and turn off the iPhone’s Bluetooth and the iPhone’s WiFi, so the iPhone will not communicate with the Apple Watch.

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User profile for user: timdifferent
timdifferent
User level: Level 4
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Sep 30, 2023 6:15 PM in response to Community User

You can't turn off your iPhone's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi from the Apple Watch, but you can setup Siri Shortcut automations to automatically turn off your iPhone's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi while you're at the court, then turn it back on when you leave. Alternatively, you could do it based on the time.


Here's a guide for creating Siri Shortcut automations: Create a new personal automation in Shortcuts on iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
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Sep 30, 2023 6:33 PM in response to Community User

Turning off the iPhone’s Bluetooth and WiFi via the control center and then turning them back on is much faster than powering off the iPhone and later waiting for it to reboot.


timdifferent’s idea is even better, as you should be able to do it from your Apple Watch.


Of course, once the iPhone’s Bluetooth and WiFi are off, you will have to turn them on again via the iPhone.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 30, 2023 5:22 PM in response to BobHarris

I certainly want to thank all those who give me some input but you’re missing my point. Turning off the WiFi and Bluetooth will disconnect me from my iPhone but anything music wise or via radio station ie cellular has to play from my Apple Watch via Bluetooh into my ear buds…..if you turn the Bluetooth off than I cannot listen to music while playing pickle ball. As I said connected to the phone, I will often find myself on a far court where Bluetooth via iPhone is a signal you can’t listen too.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Sep 30, 2023 6:11 PM in response to BobHarris

I can achieve the same thing by turning the iPhone off which do now before I start playing but I would like to be able separate the two on the fly from the watch when I reach a court that is just out of range rather than going back to my phone too turn it off. Of course now that I know I am going to be out of range at some point I will now either turn the phone off or the Bluetooth and WiFi before I start playing. I was just hoping there was a way I could do it from the watch.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Oct 1, 2023 2:55 PM in response to timdifferent

Set up an automation in that when from my work out menu on my watch I can start a pickle ball work out, Bluetooth and WiFi are turned off and with cellular or downloaded music I can listen to anything from my watch disconnected from my iPhone and when I end my work out they both come back on. Thanks for pointing me in that direction though I wish Apple could add a disconnect menu into the AppleWatch settings.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User Author

Oct 9, 2023 6:12 PM in response to Community User

Ironic but verified. I have a an iPhone 13 and a series 8 Apple Watch. Watching a pod cast on saving battery power, I learned that turning off Bluetooth on the iPhone effects “Non Apple products” I did in fact turn off Bluetooth and WiFi on my IPhone and played Apple Music from my watch and low and behold it played on my iPhone 20 feet away…..

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Besides turning off the iPhone completely, can you separate the watch from the iPhone with a setting?

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