Since updating to iOS 17 I cannot ping my phone using my watch. I used to be able to swipe up or down (I cannot remember) on my watch and there was a phone icon I could use to ping. Now it’s gone. 😢 HELP!
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPad, iPadOS 15
Hi AnanceRN,
It sounds like you're on watchOS 10, which has changed how Control Center is opened.
Press the side-button on your Apple Watch to open Control Center and ping your iPhone:
Hope this helps!
IdrisSeabright wrote:
Are you saying that in your sleep by now? ;-)
I have been known to wake up at 3am and not be able to fall back asleep, so I'll answer some forum questions, or get on the company Slack service, or play a mind numbing game, or read an ebook (this is the worse, as it seems there is always an exciting conclusion that keeps me up until dawn 😁 ).
I have the Apple Watch oval button picture (I stole from Dev•veed) in my iPhone Photos, so I can quickly add it. I have the frequently used URL's in iPhone -> Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement. Generally with a trigger, such as ,wfb for Apple Watch Feedback, and ,control for the Control Center URL, and ,carrier for the list of Apple Watch carriers, etc... Text Replacement has streamlined my forum participation. I find that a leading comma on the trigger phrase avoids accidental triggers.
If I share stuff through my Apple ID, then the Text Replacements migrate to all my devices, so I have the same text replacements available on all my Macs, and my iPhone. I have some very long (up to 2,000 character) text replacements that I compose in TextEdit, then copy and paste into the Text Replacement field. They are then available to me on my iPhone.
And if I typing on the Mac, I use Control-Command-Space to bring up the Emoji list.
BobHarris wrote:
If I share stuff through my Apple ID, then the Text Replacements migrate to all my devices, so I have the same text replacements available on all my Macs, and my iPhone. I have some very long (up to 2,000 character) text replacements that I compose in TextEdit, then copy and paste into the Text Replacement field. They are then available to me on my iPhone.
I've had mixed success with text replacements, especially ones with URLs.
IdrisSeabright wrote:
BobHarris wrote:
If I share stuff through my Apple ID, then the Text Replacements migrate to all my devices, so I have the same text replacements available on all my Macs, and my iPhone. I have some very long (up to 2,000 character) text replacements that I compose in TextEdit, then copy and paste into the Text Replacement field. They are then available to me on my iPhone.
I've had mixed success with text replacements, especially ones with URLs.
The 3 issues I have with URLs are
Anastiasa wrote:
How do I ping my iPhone to find my Apple Watch.
Read through this thread, and look at the half dozen posts under the name BobHarris (me). Or any of the other posts that answer this question with pictures and arrows, and what to do, as well as what not to do, and how to adjust the press and release timing.
MrsDimartino wrote:
They shouldn’t have moved it to begin with the update is trash
I happen to like it a lot and have told Apple so. You are also free to share your opinion with Apple here:
MrsDimartino wrote:
They shouldn’t have moved it to begin with the update is trash
Not true; moving it was a BRILLIANT decision. I can now open the Control Center from any app that is using the screen, not just from a clock face screen. This is amazingly helpful when I am using an activity tracker app.
Michlrlc09 wrote:
tapping oval button does nothing for me just asks for pin and takes me to main screen. Why did they change something that was perfect the way it was!!
What you described sounds like a totally different issue having to do with unlocking your Apple Watch.
Since this thread is already 9 pages long, I suggest you start a new post/thread to diagnose why you are being prompted for you pin over and over.
Discussing your pin issue here would just make a bigger confusing mess in an already messy thread.
My biggest issue with this is WHY CHANGE the way Control Centre is accessed in the first place!!??
I didn’t even know it was called Control Centre, I just knew where to go to Ping my phone and then all of a sudden it was gone.
Stop changing and ‘fixing’ things that aren’t broken Apple! It causes more confusion using your devices than anything else.
JenW_309 wrote:
My biggest issue with this is WHY CHANGE the way Control Centre is accessed in the first place!!??
Well, that has been answered at least a dozen times in the 9 pages of this thread that you didn’t read before posting.
But, repeating it again: Because by moving the Control Center to the Side button Apple was able to add additional functionality that wasn’t there previously, most noticeably the ability to open the Control Center regardless of what app was currently using the watch screen, such as Workouts, music control, timer, etc. The old way could only be used when no apps were in use and a watch face was displayed.
And it also freed up the swipe up feature to open the Stack of recently used apps, for a quick selection of an app.
Thanks Lawrence, for your oh-so-patient reply to explain the 9 pages I chose not to read 😒. Why would I read them when I was simply looking for the fix? I found the fix, then had a vent over the frustration of the change. I apologise that my vent left you feeling like you were required to save Apple’s name. (i.e. I would have been fine if you chose not to respond).
I have found through my vocation experience that explaining a reason before an instruction or change yields a higher response rate with less emotion attached from those involved. So while I appreciate your explanation (albeit laced with a put-down). The explanation should have come from Apple prior to the change for their users to respond well.
The fate of Apple doesn’t rest on your so patient shoulders. [To state the obvious incase it’s not-so-obvious:] The fate of Apple, rests with Apple! 🤦♀️ If I feel the need, I will send feedback directly to Apple as I am also aware they don’t read the forums. The latest changes and iOS updates have screwed up my devices (and my work) because of them. As an Apple customer of over 15 years, I’ve never seen them release such messes of software, rushed and without thorough testing or communications. This is a red flag for me. The “watch-phone ping” issue was just one extra added mess on top of a crappy 6 months I’ve had with updates that I can not down-date to fix my issues - thanks again Apple 🤨
Nowhere1 wrote:
After an hour of searching collectively, this is the first useful response I have seen. Thank you!!
Really? You mean you didn’t read the Best Reply that is at the top of every page in this 10 page thread, that you must have seen when you opened the thread.
IdrisSeabright wrote:
BobHarris wrote:
Read the following link:
How to ping iPhone from Apple Watch - Apple Community
Isn't that a link to this same thread? ;-) Of course, all the information is here in this thread!
It is a link to a specific reply in this thread. Namely one of my replies with all those nice details, that if I repost all those nice details as a new reply, someone reports it and my new reply gets deleted and I receive one of those you were a bad boy emails from a moderator, with threats that if I keep this up, I will be band 😩
Except as you and I know, the users posting a "Me Too" kind of reply did not bother to actually read any of the previous replies, so they never saw my post with all those nice details (or a dozen other posts with the correct answer), and since I cannot post the details again, so that the latest user(s) gets it as an email, they will go away not knowing there is an easy solution.
You click on the link icon 🔗 next to the info ① (pretend there is an i in the circle) icon, and it takes you to the reply but with a URL that is linked to that reply, so I can post the URL and that will take the user to my previous reply.
Lawrence Finch wrote:
Links frequently go to the wrong place in a thread if there are images in any of the replies on that page. The current algorithm does not take the size of the image into consideration.
But I thought the forum software was perfect?!? ;-)
Lawrence Finch wrote:
Links frequently go to the wrong place in a thread if there are images in any of the replies on that page. The current algorithm does not take the size of the image into consideration.
maybe this something to be raised in the Operations forum ❓
Everything about this update made the watch worse. I have to jump through hoops just to find out where the watch battery life is at. I don’t understand why Apple decided to update and make it worse but I think anyone with a watch agrees that they should change it back. I also can’t ping my phone and the instructions on how to do it with the new update do not work at all. This update was a major downgrade. I was going to buy a new Apple Watch soon but might just switch back to Fitbit now
How to ping iPhone from Apple Watch
