My iPhone cannot ping Apple Watch

I fixed mine by following these steps

1. Head over to Settings > Control Center > Turn off “Access Within App”.
2. Then turn it back on. Now go to Control Center and delete Ping My Watch.
3. Then restart your device VERY IMPORTANT DONT SKIP
4. When iPhone restarts re-add Ping My Watch to the Control Center.

1. thanks to the dude that made this thread!! I thought I was going crazy.
2. thank you so very much to the person that found the solution! I missed this feature while it was gone!

Appreciate you both, you saved my night.

Thanks for this. I had to modify it slightly.

These steps worked for me:

1. Head over to Settings > Control Center > Turn off “Access Within App”.
2. Now go to Control Center and delete Ping My Watch.
3. Then restart your device VERY IMPORTANT DONT SKIP
4. When iPhone restarts re-add Ping My Watch to the Control Center then turn on “Access Within App” for Control Center in Settings.

This worked for me!

This worked for me!

Looks like many others are having the same issue. Some possible solutions (none of which worked for me):

MacRumors

Reddit and Reddit and Reddit

DroidWin

I'm using a Series 9 watch (watchOS 11.1) with iPhone 16 Pro Max (macOS 18.0).

Thank you for sharing, it was really helpful!

Glad it worked out.

I turned the option back on before the restart as mentioned in my steps, but I guess that part can be before or after.