Mike Kelley

Q: My watch doesn't know what my phone does

So if I start a Siri dialog with my watch it acts brain dead -- I say, for example, "Send a message to my wife" and it says it doesn't know who my wife is.  Okay, so I say, send a message to Annie Kelley and it says there is no Annie Kelley in My Contacts.

 

The same Siri request works fine either way on my phone -- are there TWO different set of contacts between the watch and the phone?  I didn't think it worked that way (and, if so, WHY so?  That seems remarkably stupid, considering the watch cannot on its own send a message anyway but has to go through the phone.  So it should also use exactly the same set of contacts).

Posted on Jul 31, 2016 11:27 AM

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Q: My watch doesn't know what my phone does

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  • by Jonathan UK,Helpful

    Jonathan UK Jonathan UK Jul 31, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Mike Kelley
    Level 7 (30,158 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 31, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Mike Kelley

    Hi

     

    The following steps may help:

     

    • On your iPhone, in the Contacts app:
      • Check that there is a single contact card for you and that it contains your name, Apple ID email address and phone number. Remove any of your wife's information that may appear in your contact card.
      • Check that a single, separate contact card exists for your wife and that it does not include any of your contact details.
      • In your own contact card, tap on Edit (upper-right) > tap on "add related name" (you may first need to tap on "add field" to select this) > select "spouse" > tap on the "i" icon to select your wife's contact card > tap on Done (upper-right).
    • On your iPhone, go to: Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > in the Contacts section, check that My Info is using your contact card.
    • On your iPhone, go to: Settings > General > Siri > My Info - check that your contact card is selected.
    • On your iPhone, go to: Settings > iCloud - enable Contacts.
    • On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch > General > Reset > tap on Reset Sync Data.
      • Nothing will seem to happen, but the process will run in the background (invisibly to you), so allow a minute or so.

     

    It may then also help to restart both your iPhone and your watch:

     

  • by Mike Kelley,

    Mike Kelley Mike Kelley Jul 31, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Jonathan UK
    Level 7 (29,288 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 31, 2016 2:13 PM in response to Jonathan UK

    Well, since everything worked on my phone I wasn't about to do anything like the first three or four steps.

     

    And while I was real skeptical that resyncing data on the watch would do anything (particularly since my watch otherwise has calendar information up to date all the time) I did press this.  It didn't seem to do anything at all (there's no indication it works, not even any feedback you've pressed that button) but now all seems to be well.  So, thanks (although for others I would say I would be careful about offering advice to start over on a relationship when things are working otherwise -- don't fix what isn't broken, IOW).

     

    That's one reason I'm not going to mark this as having solved my problem -- just don't want other people to think that the first step is something they should do if their phone is otherwise working (they can check things out, of course, and make sure all the other parts are correct).