Emergency SOS issue.. !! Keep sending SMS

I've had this issue too. Keep sending location alerts to those in my SOS list after accidentally calling emergency service. I've actually deleted them all. This feature is more trouble than it's worth. But here are the instructions to totally turn off SOS location sharing.

Clear as mud. Finally found the notification. It is on the watch, not on the phone. You scroll top down from the clock screen. One of the notifications will be from the sos app and allows you to press a button to stop sending sma updates when your location changes.

Jonathan,

This is a bug, as others have pointed out, if the watch displayed to us it was in SOS mode and we could stop the texts we would, however the watch is not showing that and there is no way to cancel what it doesn't display its doing.

Apple advises that, after an Emergency SOS call has been made and the first text message has been sent to your SOS contacts:

• "If your location changes, your contacts will get an update, and you'll get a notification about 10 minutes later. To stop the updates, select Stop Sharing in the notification. If you keep sharing, you'll get a reminder to stop every 4 hours for 24 hours."
• From: About SOS on Apple Watch - Apple Support

If this feature is not working as expected, then I suggest that you unpair and re-pair your Apple Watch, which has resolved the issue (of alerts still being sent) for other users:

• Unpair your Apple Watch and iPhone - Apple Support
• Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you would like to send feedback to Apple regarding the feature's behaviour, then you can do so here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

I just did an update on my watch this week. Today was the first day I wore it since the update. It sent out the SOS Alert without me even pressing the button, I cancelled it but it still contacted my family. I shut down the watch & then it would not turn back on. When I arrived at my next location it turned itself on & contacted my family again. This continued all day long. The last couple of times it contacted my family it didn't even notify me. I found out from my husband.

I talked to an Apple guy at Best Buy & he thought it was my case that was making it go off. He said to take it off, which I did, and if it didn't stop, which it didn't, to contact Apple Support. It hasn't done it since I arrived home, but I also haven't gone anywhere. I turned off the auto contact & I'm going to remove the Emergency Contacts. I'll try all over again tomorrow.

I felt like I was crying wolf all day. What good is having Emergency Contacts in your phone if you have to remove them because of your watch.

The option to stop sharing is described as becoming available during the limited period of time when the Emergency SOS feature has been activated and updates are sent to your emergency contacts as your location changes.

Updates can be stopped by selecting Stop Sharing in the notification that is provided on your watch when this happens or by tapping the status bar on your iPhone and selecting Stop Sharing Emergency Location.

I had the same issue, This seems like a apple bug.
Here's my workaround to fix the issue

1. Go into the Health app > Medical ID and remove the emergency contacts from there.

2. Go to Watch app and turn off the "Hold to Auto Call" feature.

3. you can go back to Health app and re-add your contacts.

This either worked for me or magic happened.

I am having same issue!

It bothers me to read this whole thread without a response from Apple!

While the link does have good information, I had no option to "stop sharing," as the instructions say to do. Hopefully, Apple will fix the issue in the next update. I had to do a restore on my Watch - wiping it and setting it up from a backup it had made to my phone. It took a while but t fixed the issue.

***
what the manual does not cover is when the apple watch decides to go into SOS mode on its own, canceled on the watch by the user, but continues to send SOS location texts to the contacts in the health app anytime the watch is in a different location.

My watch has stayed on its charger now for 3 days because as soon as I leave my house it texts SOS text to my wife non stop about location changes, I have restarted the watch and it continues to send...please show me in the guide where that is covered and how to stop it.

I already turned off Auto Call which is the only thing that guide covers.I also tried fixing it the health app but my apple watch is listed in there 3 times and it won't delete the 2 that are no longer valid...

Hi

As the Emergency SOS feature has been activated accidentally, you may wish to consider turning off the "hold to auto call" function:

On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch > General > Emergency SOS - turn off Hold to Auto Call.

If you would like to submit feedback or suggestions to Apple, you can do so here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

G Money 85306 wrote:

Same issue, Apple a response here would be nice, I never put my watch in sos mode and I can't get to stop sending texts...what a great feature!

Information about the Emergency SOS feature - including instructions for stopping SMS updates - is detailed here:

About SOS on Apple Watch - Apple Support

Note that you are not talking to Apple here - this is a user-based technical support community.

Notifications - with the option to stop sending updates - are delivered to your Apple Watch, not to your iPhone.

Check in Notification Centre on your Apple Watch:

See and respond to notifications

(Note also that you are not talking to Apple here - this is a user-based technical support community).

This does not answer the question as it does not help us stop the SMS messages that keep being sent.