Face Gallery empty / no Watch Faces shown

Agreed. It's an absolute disaster and you'd think an embarrassment for Apple after two Watch 10 OS updates and the same number with iOS 17. I'm running 10.2 and 17.2.1 and just received an AWU2 and have begun suffering this problem. Faces don't load within Face Gallery, those added to "My Faces" don't make it to my watch, setting a selected face as the current watch face doesn't occur, general wonkiness with many complications on the watch, etc. I never experienced anything remotely like this with my AW7 (even after I updated to Watch OS10) so am unsure if it's the Watch OS, the AWU2 integration, or something else. I've restarted my iPhone 14 Pro multiple times and have done the same with the AWU2, all to no avail.

Fix this, Apple, as it's currently a joke.

Any fixes or insight of late that might provide a fix to what appears to be a terrible implementation by Apple?

i have the same issue with my brand new Series 9 watch. I unpaired and paired my watch multiple times, hard reset the watch and phone, reboot both, uninstalled and installed the Apple watch application on my phone and still having the same issue. This needs to be fixed.

I had this problem. On Reddit someone said that limited the number of photos shared with the watch to 25 solved the problem. I turned off photo sharing using the settings on my iPhone and the watch faces returned.

Wondering if this is an issue with having two watches simultaneously paired? I never had this problem with my AW7- even after "upgrading" to Watch OS 10 and iOS 17. I then got an AW2, paired it with the iPhone 14 Pro, and many problems began- including the missing faces from Face Gallery, Faces within "My Faces" on the Apple Watch App not transferring to the AW2 (and vice-versa!), wonkiness with certain Complications, and an overall very sluggish Apple Watch App experience- especially when attempting to navigate within the Face Gallery area.

I've restarted both devices many times, updated to the latest OS releases, etc. Something is very wrong.

I've been following everyones issues with the watch face gallery (which I too have had the issue for about 2 months) and then all of a sudden this morning the watch face gallery started to fill up (at least 98% of all categories). Thus, what has changed? Only thing different this morning from yesterday was a new Mac OS update (which I'm sure didn't help the watch issue), and I turned off the "Nightstand Mode" in Watch App-> General. Did that do anything?? Not sure but, wanted to share.

Hello DavideNL,

If you haven't yet since noticing the issue, try forcing the Watch app on the iPhone to close using the steps here: Close an app on your iPhone or iPod touch - Apple Support

Then try restarting both the Apple Watch as well as the iPhone it's paired with:

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support

Restart Apple Watch - Apple Support

Be sure to also double-check the expected Apple Watch is the selected one in the Watch app. That'll be done by tapping "All Watches" in the upper-left of the app, and then tap on the desired one here.

Cheers.

Nothing simple has ever worked correctly since my Watch 4. Same ole, Same ole. Something may work, but it comes back in a few days. The way I notice that this has happened is my Apple Health app has stopped updating from the Withings and other health input apps. U look and health has not captured my Blood Glucose or my scale data, and I am lacking data on my runs from the watch. Now on watch 8, but it was the same on my watch 1, 4, 6, 8 and iPhone 6s, iPhone 8, iPhone 10 and my iPhone 14.

If by some miracle I can get it working, it is for just a bit until a new software update is pushed out.

So far the only way I have found is to nit out any music, photos or apps on the phone or watch. Just keep it factory and it seems to work fine.

Thinking about it, I think it is time for Apple to take the Watch product line seriously. By this I mean how about anime approach and just add a SYNC button on the watch that will replace the data on the app with that on the watch since it is the watch that holds the the data not the watch app.

It now works on mine.. It was **** to get there.

If you have been storing health data fir a looooong time, it will take a looong time to get it done.

If you store music on your watch or photos or any data, it will take a long time.

I did not have photos myself, but I turned off the syncing on the phone.

I did have Withings BP and scale data going back for 10 or more years. I did have other programs with store data..

Reset the watch to factory. Do not install any other programs on the watch. Delete them from the phone so it can't.

Delete the watch app from the phone. Turn off the phone. Turn on the phone. Install the watch app.

Make sure you have nothing on the phone that syncs to the watch with the exception of the watch app.

Turn on watch and let it do its thing and set it up as a NEW watch. It will take a while for all the data to load onto the watch.

There is a place on the health app where you can see it loading. I don't remember. When I saw that it was no longer "loading" the watch app was loaded with the gallery. It took about 2 hours for the health app to be loaded. The default face was showing.

I next download the Withing app and started loading in its data from the Withings servers. Another 2 -3 hours.

But the Face Gallery was still there.

The best I can tell (in my situation) is the health app has to be happy and in sync for the Watch app to be functional.

In my case way too many things were trying to sync to health.

I have the same proble with an iPhone 14 Pro Max and a brand new Model 7. I've tried completely resetting and unpairing/repairing the phone, deleting and reinstalling the app....nothing works. I get a few watchfaces showing in the gallery but far from the complete set. Very annoying.

Hello DavideNL,

If you've followed the related steps outlined here: Explore the Face Gallery on Apple Watch

Then the next best step would be to contact Apple Support, if the issue remains: Get Support

They will need to take it from here.

Take care.

Even more, face gallery is not in the watch app at all now we are on 10.1

You’re most welcome! Thanks for feeding back.