Widgets added on Sonoma saying "open app on iPhone to continue"

I fixed it with turning off/on Use iPhone widgets switch in System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Widgets.

Turn it off, wait a minute, and then turn it back on again.

During this process, all of the iPhone widgets disappear from my desktop and then reappear and start to show what they are supposed to show.

Of course, not all of the iOS widgets are ready to be used on MacOS. Some of them that are capable of interacting with the user can't do so on MacOS. Others, like Spotify, don't even show up in the widget chooser. For example, I can view my note list on the Simplenote widget, but I can't edit it without the iPhone. The Google Search widget also does not work for this reason.

Some widgets you add on MacOS that weren't previously added on iPhone won't work until you give them permission: open your iPhone, wait for a prompt, and confirm.

I got these black boxes that told me to open the corresponding app on iPhone as well. What worked for me is to turn the iPhone completely off and back on again. You should see the widgets start displaying stuff. If it isn't fully showing, maybe try to trigger something on the app. Like for spotify, the logo popped up for me but the rest was blurry. I opened the Spotify app on iPhone and played a song. Then the full widget on the desktop showed up.

My solution was: on iPhone (14 pro) I went to "screen time" / "content & privacy restrictions" and allowed "password changes" and "account changes".

After switched to "allow", half a second later the information was on my MacBook.

only thing is i open it on my iphone and it still doesn't work on the mac..... do i have to also install it on the Mac and if so how do I do that. plus it offeres it in the list of widgets on the Mac so it would seem it is already available..... this is baffling

Yes, you would have to install a widget the app developer made for the Mac. The iOS widgets may open on an Apple Silicon Mac but that doesn't mean it will "work." The data displayed in the widget may be stored in the iPhone so there is nothing on the Mac to show--you have to open the iPhone app/widget to see the data.

I'm just guessing that there might be some mechanism to go fetch the data from the iPhone, but if the app doesn't know about this mechanism, you will get the blank screen on the Mac until the app developer updates the app/widget to respond to the request from the Mac.

There are widgets that display data from the web. These may display that data on the Mac because it can go out and retrieve the data from the internet and doesn't need to contact the iPhone.

When selecting a widget from the available list, look in the upper right corner of the box where you select the size and variation you like. If it is from iPhone, it will say so. If it is from loaded on your Mac, it doesn't say anything. If the app is loaded on both Mac and iPhone, you will have a choice which version to select.

Bottom line, for the widget to work on Mac, it needs that app loaded on Mac to work on it...on the Mac.

So I just added the Spotify widget on my Mac. I have the app installed on both my Mac and my iPhone, but the Mac widget just tells me to open the app on my iPhone. Either I did somethign wrong, or these widgets are a bit pointless.

update: I just spotted the tiny greyed out text telling you whether a widget is iphone or mac. shame most of the good ones are iphone only. when will they actually do something useful?

I may have just figured out at least part of the problem. I added the widget for the "Be Focused" app on my iPhone to my MacBook desktop. I get the "open app on your phone" message whether the app is open on my phone or not. I dug into the app's settings on my phone and found that only the pro (paid) version includes "sync across devices & focus matrix." So it seems that the widget will not work on my MacBook unless I upgrade the phone app. Pretty sly, app developer, pretty sly.

I hope this helps someone.

This worked for me as well. I got a new iPhone and they were both showing up under Settings > Desktop & Dock > Widgets > iPhone. So I did what this comment said and also toggled to the other iPhone that was showing up and then my widgets started to load Google Calendar.

I had the same problem, but I solved it. I switched off the VPN on my iPhone.

For the heck of it, have you rebooted since updating to Sonoma? Or better yet, have you tried safemode then boot back into your default login and test again.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support (English)

pkalellis wrote:

The only purpose for adding the Google widget, for example, is to be able to type a search word. This goes for any widget which requires input from the user. What would be the purpose of that widget if it is not interactive (as opposed to a NYT widget, for example, which loads the breaking news)?

It wasn't written for macOS. It was written for iOS. It doesn't know how to do anything on macOS.

pkalellis wrote:

My settings show the iPhone option also enabled. This is very strange. I have still not found a single iPhone widget which works on the desktop. Has anyone else? Someone above suggested MyRadar ….

In addition, I found that TP-link’s Deco widget works on the Mac. It was one that required I open the app on the phone as opposed to MyRadar, which gets its info from the Internet.

I think that sort of indicates it will be up to the developers to make their widgets actually work on the Mac.

I can confirm all the ones form Iphone on my desktop work for me.

I saw this morning that one of them was not, but my phone was not close to the mac.

After putting the iphone beside, after some time, I got beck the widgets info.

So do you have both iphone and Mac beside ? Did you have them together a few hours ?

OK that's good reasoning, you may be right... But, in that case why are they showing up in Sonoma if they are not supposed to be work, if they were written for iOS. Nobody was there from Apple to test them before releasing Sonoma?

They work when they connect back to the app on the iPhone or iPad. There are many iOS widgets that don't need connectivity to the app. Apple doesn't test third-party software. That's up to the developer.

Despite that, I remember that in one of the Sonoma presentations from Youtube, someone was saying that the iPhone, or iPad widgets can work now in Sonoma...

They do work. But if the widget needs input from the parent app, they will only work when you have a Continuity connection back to the app on the iOS device.

pkalellis wrote:

I haven’t found any that work. Which ones work for you? Just curious …

MyRadar. Any widget that does not depend on data from the app should work. MyRadar widget gets the data directly from the internet, not through the app.