Can’t Set Up Apple Watch for Family Member

I was getting this same error trying to do Family Set Up for my husband's watch. He doesn't have an iPhone yet and because of that I sorted out all of the Apple ID requirements and got him into my Family group via my iPhone settings. That was a wild goose chase on its own.

After getting this error message over and over, I tried restarting/resetting, making sure the watch wasn't paired in any other of our apple accounts because it was linked to my son's account previously, and searched up the error code. I found this forum but didn't try logging into iCloud because I thought logging into appleid.apple.com was the same thing. Nope. Definitely try logging into iCloud.com with the Apple ID you want to use for the Apple Watch. I used my MacBook Pro for this. It worked immediately after doing that. I don't know why that worked but it did.

I ran into the same -2 error message. What ultimately fixed it for me was:

1) Creating a brand new Apple ID account for my child under my existing Family

2) Logging into that child Apple ID account on a desktop browser (to accept any required terms/conditions)

and 3) During setup of the child Apple ID account making sure to set it to NOT automatically share location with other family members.

Seems to me like there's some issue with the combination of child Apple ID accounts, cellular Apple Watches, and sharing location that causes this bug.

Everyone!!! THIS IS THE SOLUTION!!!! THANK YOU Chris!!!

I sell Apple products and this is so infuriating. I am a sales representative for AT&T. The issue only occurs when setting up a family Apple watch. I set it up as a personal watch, downloaded the software to the latest WatchOS, and then removed and erased the watch and attempted again.

Bottom line solution:

1. Pair up as a personal
2. Download the latest WatchOS Apple watch
3. Download the latest IOS on iPhone
4. Erase and reset watch
5. repair as a family watch

This is my !!SOLUTION!!

Had the same issue while connecting the watch for a Family member. I have a watch 4 for my son.

1. update the watch with the main account to the latest software version
2. erase and reset the watch
3. before connecting again, check all your accounts in the iCloud, that the device(watch) is not connected with any. Check it in the device area and delete it, if necessary.
4. start again the connecting process and sign up the watch for a family member

In my case the watch was already registered in both accounts and that seems to be a problem. I think it is a bug.

Hopefully it helps some of you

[Possible Solution] i had the same issue setting up family sharing of apple watch series 6 for my kids to my iPhone 14 pro max. I tired hundreds of times trying to pair, then fail with some error, - unpair and pair again with no luck.

Then, I logged into my kids icloud account. It was a relatively new account and had not logged in for a while. Once i logged in, it asked me to accept some confirmation stuff. Then, i went back and reset my watch one more time. After that i was able to pair it with no issue.

just for the heck of it, i tried unpairing and pairing it again it worked.

Not sure if i just got lucky there and same solution would work for you or not, its worth trying ..

Just adding my 2 cents here - I ordered an Apple Watch SE from Verizon for my daughter, which arrived yesterday. Trying to set it up as a "standalone" device (not connected to a phone with Number Sharing), I encountered the exact same error message mentioned here.

The steps outlined by TyMan777 in the pinned post worked for me also:

1) Logged into iCloud using my daughter's Apple ID. Accepted any remaining TOS. Verified her Watch was not listed as a device on the account.

2) Restarted the pairing and setup using my iPhone 13 and her Watch.

3) Navigated through all screens to Apple ID sign-in, entered her Apple ID & pw.

4) Success!

So the preliminary step of logging in to iCloud using the child's Apple ID first seemed to do the trick.

(NOTE: I do not have a Mac, so that suggestion mentioned elsewhere was not relevant to me)

I was having the same issues/errors mentioned in the multiple posts below. After a dozen times of pairing/unpairing/resetting, this is what ultimately worked for me. Turn off wifi, on iphone go to:

1. Settings
2. Apple ID
3. Family Sharing
4. Create new account for child and it will take you through a bunch of questions/approvals
5. If you've already created an account, click on icloud account you created for your child and go through each sub-tab and finalize settings

Once I did this, it allowed me to complete the setup and run a software update on wifi to 10.6.1.

I had the same error, then I logged in under just created daughter's account on the iPhone and disabled the sharing location. Then I logout on the iPhone (and logged in under my account) and tried to pair the watch. It helped.

But I couldn't setup cellular. The screen has shown the message that my subscription doesn't allow me to setup cellular. The support of cellular company didn't help of course (Elisa, Finland). After that I logged in on iPhone under my daughter's account and paired the watch as "for myself", it was paired at once and I could setup the cellular. Then I logout on the iPhone and login under my account.

A lot of time wasted, I think the product is not ready for the market

Ok I had the same issue as y’all. After updating iOS to 17.6.1 for my phone 15pro and my child’s SE watch to 16 I got a different error code “5501”. I worked on this for almost 7 hours today (on tech support with Apple for hours) I ended up adding my wife to my “family” on my phone. Then using her iPhone 13 (16.6.1 iOS) I paired the watch to my son’s iCloud account. Worked first time. This is clearly an issue with apple’s SW - their tech support does not have a handle on this problem at all. CDPStateError error -2. And CDPStateError error -5501 were the two errors I got. I don’t know how anyone else has this kind of patience.

it seems this is caused by a mismatch between the country you declare when setting up the watch and the national App Store that your account is set up in. You can see that in the settings. I said the watch country was France but my App Store account is American. Everything worked when I set the watch country to the U.S. I hope this helps

So after multiple hours on the phone, apple wanted me to sign in on a different device with the new username ( for my son), as they think during the watch setup it is trying to two factor authenticate a new user profile.

I made a new username because I couldn't remember his password, so i can't verify the above worked, but when I went through the password recovery process for his old username, it worked right away with the old username.

Finally fixed mine having trouble setting up the Apple Watch SE for my younger sister, the errors for me are CDPStateError and a certificate error at the same time. To fix the certificate issue, I updated the watch to the latest update but for the CDPStateError, I logged into iCloud and set it up for which I followed this guide steps Fix Issues Setting Up Apple Watch for a Family Member

hope you guys solve it too it’s annoying..

Greymittens, thank you so much for your comment. You have inadvertently pointed me to a solution (at least in my case). I was inspired by "and it tries to share location" and decided to pair the watch under my daughter's AppleID with the location sharing turned off and it worked without any problem. After it got past that part I was able to enable location sharing, tracking, contact sharing, the whole nine yards.

Thanks!

I ended up installing it under my account (no cell right away just wifi) and updated it to most current version. Unpaired it from me and repaired for my son. It worked.

i did specify to use location services and it still worked. Seems there are a few solutions people are finding works but not always the same.

good luck!

UPDATE: I got it to work! My most recent attempt was about 12 hours after I first started to attempt this whole process so I'm not sure if it had to do with the steps I took or it simply took time for the watch to show up under my daughter's apple ID. I logged on in the system preferences of our iMac (not just into her account on a browser, but actually on the computer's settings). Under the iCloud settings I disabled sharing on most categories (especially the Find My Mac location service). This is when I noticed the watch was listed as a connected device for her apple ID when it had never been before (so maybe this was actually useless since it was never showing up before when I logged in on a browser to her apple ID). I tried the process again and VOILA - it worked! I had tried everything under the sun that anyone mentioned as possibly working (updating my phone, setting up the watch for my phone and updating the software on the watch before erasing the watch/unpairing/trying to pair with my daughter's apple ID, disabling location services on her apple ID and on mine, etc). I am wondering if it just takes a certain amount of time before it processes correctly. This has been an incredibly frustrating day but I'm grateful it eventually worked. Hoping the same happens for everyone else out there!

Sidenote: when it came time to activate her cellular function I ran into the error: "Connection failed. Connection to the server was lost. Please try again later." Thankfully I saw a post somewhere online that said to get my phone off of wi-fi and use my data plan and then it worked. Fingers crossed for everyone else!