Cannot answer calls on Apple watch

I had a similar problem -- When my iPhone would ring, it wouldn't show up on my Apple Watch. I discovered what was causing the problem.

My iPhone had three Bluetooth connections -- the Apple Watch, a Bluetooth connection to a cordless phone at home and a Bluetooth connection to our car. The iPhone was connected by Bluetooth to the Apple Watch. When the iPhone was connected to a second Bluetooth device (the cordless phone at home or when in the car) and the iPhone was receiving a call, it would connect to the second Bluetooth device and not the Apple Watch. So, I disconnected the second Bluetooth connection to the cordless phone and now, when I receive calls on the iPhone at home, it shows up on the Apple Watch as well, although it doesn't connect to the cordless phone anymore.

Thanks, that worked for me.

To things that I did prior to not being able to receive calls....

A) I enabled screen sharing between my phone and iPad.... Have now turned this off

B) I had phone pairs to car bluetooth and watch and answered a call using car bluetooth.... this might have been the culprit but I can't be certain.

anyway, factory reset and restore didn't work... closing iPhone apps and force closing phone, powering off watch and then turning them both on again did the trick.

cheers

debeads

I was having a problem answering incoming calls as well. I had turned off the raise arm feature to conserve battery life. I also have a password set. When I turned the raise arm back on it seemed to work properl. I amwondering if that was to many delays to be able to answer the call.

Or just disable bluetooth altogether, as long as you're on a stable wifi network (i.e., at home). It should work just fine over wifi (and in fact, better than bluetooth). Then, at least you know if the problem is inherent to the bluetooth connectivity issues (including what Gordon87 describes on page 2 of this thread) or if it's something else. I have been very happy since turning off bluetooth on my iPhone. The watch seems to work a million times better (possibly not even an exaggeration 🙂) over wifi than bluetooth.

So, just disable bluetooth and if that works, you're good to go! Note that you don't really need bluetooth whenever you're on a good wifi network (such as sitting on your couch at home, if you have wifi at home).

I completely recognize this is only a hack, because bluetooth is expected to work, and you absolutely need it the second you start moving and are no longer on a stable wifi connection. But it's worth at least testing it to see if bluetooth -> off actually solves the problem.

Hope this is helpful.

Steve

I was having the same issue. I think I know what the problem is. My Apple Watch doesn't ring when WiFi calling is turned ON. When I turn it off, it works like a charm. Probably something Apple will patch in the next iOS update.

Guys, I've been turned off the WiFi as well but the problem still persisting , i got the calls thru the watch but when i press the green button it says

call failed .... 😠 i don't why ?? paired unpaired not working also please help.

Dear all

After sufficient research, real life experience and chat with the apple customer care in Dubai I can confirm that making or receiving calls on Middle East iPhone models wont be possible. I'm able to make or receive calls flawlessly (even on the watch speaker) via a US version iPhone 6 with FaceTime. But doesn't work on the UAE version iPhone 6 plus without FaceTime which is blocked due to regional restrictions.

I understand from fellow community members in these forums that the call function (on non FaceTime devices) used to work on iOS 8.2 and this issue came up only after iOS 8.3. But the apple customer care mentioned that this has got nothing to do with software version and calling function won't just work with models without FaceTime

She was not able to confirm when asked whether this means that apple will never be able to sell the watch in Middle East. Any thoughts on this?

Dear all

I try everything and did't work for me I can confirm that making or receiving calls on Middle East iPhone

models wont be possible. i sell my UAE version iPhone 6 and buy new I phone 6 with Face Time

and its work for me from First try now i can making and receive calls from my apple watch smoothly.

Hope this is helpful

Mohamed Alketbi

Agree ekhaezz. Infact even in the apple feedback acknowledgemeant, they leave a caveat that a personal response may not be possible to our query and some expert may look into it. . I've also left a similar feedback to Apple.

Unlike many mainstream users, few like us share our experience to try to resolve amongst ourselves.

Cheers!

Yes mohamed, getting the US version seems to be the only way as of now.

Since few users say that calls used to work on non-facetime devices in ios8.2, I hope iOS8.4 will bring a fix.

Yeah jailbreak is an option but not sure if its worth the risk considering security and future software upgrades.

Cheers!

I've come to essentially the same conclusion through trial and error. At first I could not pick up incoming calls, it was driving me nuts. Eventually after tapping on the green accept call button several/many times I usually could get it to,pick up. It seems to be very sensitive to how hard (and exactly where) you tap on it (tap target smaller than usual buttons for some reason?), but do it right and it does work.

I'm going to test accepting calls again now that I've updated to Watch OS 1.0.1, maybe that'll help...

I was having this problem as well. After much frustration I realized I had my phone set to allow calls over Wifi. I turned this off and had a buddy call my phone and my Apple watch received the phone call.

To make sure this wasn't a fluke I turned Wifi calling back on and my apple watch once again did not receive the notification. Turned it back off and voila, it works.

It maybe just a simple fix for you all as it was for me.

Also, my carrier is T-mobile and I have a 128GB iPhone 6 plus.

Hope this helps.

Parker

I Had the same problem, and I am a controlled testing freak! 🙂

I had the same problem when I was in my home, or on wifi. I have the latest update on my 6 plus and my watch! and T-Mobile is my carrier. The resets are a waste of time, in my opinion. I did the following four tests and repeated them three times with same results each time;

1) Wifi on, wifi calling on, Bluetooth off = call doesn't work, call doesn't work, call doesn't work

2) Wifi on, wifi calling off, Bluetooth off = call works, call works, call works

3) Wifi on, wifi calling off, Bluetooth on = call works, call works, call works

4) Wifi on, wifi calling on, Bluetooth on = call doesn't work, call doesn't work, call doesn't work

Call works = Alerts and answers properly on Apple Watch

Call doesn't work = No alert at all on my Apple Watch

My conclusion, is my watch always receives the call when wifi calling is turned off. Now it should work, in my opinion, when wifi calling is on, so I have submitted this to Apple.

IF you are using wifi calling, try turning it off to see if that helps. You can still stay on wifi, turning off wifi calling doesn't affect that.

For me it did not work. I have two watches, one paired with an iPhone with 8.2, the other one with 8.3. the one with 8.3 does not work, the other one has no issue. Apple support guided me to re-initialize the iPhone, but problem still persists. I strongly believe that the issue is related to IOS 8.3 and Apple, obviously, will never admit.

I got the same problem. I even sent my watch back to,apple and went back with the same problem. in fact mine is rigging after a long delay 6 or 7 rings thus tou have a lot of missed calls. It seems that this is coming either: lot of contacts in tour phone or facetime settings

anyone can help?