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Emergency SOS issue.. !! Keep sending SMS

This morning by mistake as my winter jacket sleeve was too tight, SOS was initiated on my Apple Watch. From that moment my contacts that are set on that feature started getting SMSes and this continued during all the day as I was moving to different positions.


My credit dropped down a lot!!


SOS Emergency explanation on the Apple Watch iOS app says that this can be disabled by going to Notification and deselecting "stop sharing". However there is no such feature under "notification"... why? Secondly even if I deselect SOS Emergency services, my contacts continue to receive SMSes... so I had to stop using my iPhone.


It is the first time that I need to consider iPhone an unreliable device and switch to other devices in order to continue working... so bad feeling... any help please?

Apple Watch

Posted on Dec 13, 2016 12:38 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 12, 2017 4:09 AM

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.

29 replies

Jun 27, 2017 12:54 AM in response to G Money 85306

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:



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

Aug 6, 2017 9:54 PM in response to Jet787

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.

Jun 14, 2017 8:51 AM in response to sarah_horn

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.

Dec 13, 2016 4:05 PM in response to Jet787

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.

Jun 27, 2017 1:51 AM in response to Jonathan UK

***
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...


<Edited by Host>

Dec 13, 2016 4:01 PM in response to Jet787

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

Jun 25, 2017 10:52 AM in response to G Money 85306

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.

Dec 13, 2016 10:51 PM in response to Jonathan UK

Tnxs. However I may have been not clear enough. I am not getting any recurrent notification on my Apple Watch and nothing on my iPhone status bar.

Everything is silent and not showing anything, but the SMS are sent automatically anyway. Is this a bug? I tried to restart both my iPhone and Applewatch and deselect the SOS Emergency feature without success.

Emergency SOS issue.. !! Keep sending SMS

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