Can’t send text messages on Apple Watch 3 when iPhone is not near.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

If you are not able to send text messages from your Apple Watch Series 3, take a look at the troubleshooting steps outlined in the resource below:
Read and reply to messages with your Apple Watch

Get help if you can't send or receive messages

After each step, try to send or receive a message again:

1. See if you can send and receive messages on your iPhone.
2. Make sure that your Apple Watch can connect to your iPhone or Wi-Fi.
3. If you have Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) and it's connected to a cellular network, you can check the signal strength in Control Center. To send and receive SMS or MMS, your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular, but it doesn't need to be nearby.
4. Make sure that you signed in with your Apple ID on your iPhone and Apple Watch. On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app, tap the My Watch tab, then tap General > Apple ID.
5. If you see on your watch, turn off Do Not Disturb.
6. Check the person's phone number or Apple ID to make sure that it's correct.
7. Sign out of iMessage on your iPhone. If you're signed in with your Apple ID, tap it, then tap Sign Out.
8. Turn iMessage off on your iPhone, then turn it back on again.
9. Sign back in to iMessage on your iPhone.
10. Restart your Apple Watch and iPhone.
11. Unpair your Apple Watch, then pair it again.

Take care.

hello everyone. i just got the watch series 3 with cellular in mid december and had the same problem of not being able to send or receive sms or imessage when away from my phone. i could send and receive calls but not messages. even though my phone is signed in on my apple ID on all places, imessages is on and all the other trouble shootings set out here, and my phone is on and connected to a network.

After a month of trying to figure this out, having gone through a watch replacement, many attendances at apple stores and telus stores, many hours of a wasted time online and on chat and on phone with engineers at both apple and telus, missing work, spending time driving to cities over 75km away from my home to meet with people who may know more, i finally solved the problem myself today and I am happy to report that my sms messages now go through and my imessages now go through when away from my phone. This is how i achieved it.

when you want to go away from your phone with your watch you have to do this:

- turn wifi off on your phone (like button off, not just disconnected from a wifi source)

- turn wifi assist off on your phone

- turn wifi off on your watch

- wait for your watch to connect to cellular (it will have the antennae green with green dots for connectivity strength)

- go leave your house away from your phone and guess what your sms and imessages will work, it takes a minute or so for the cellular to kick in, but they work

i think there is an issue with the phone that it can't go between wifi and cellular when a watch is trying to go between a data message and an sms. so with the phone and watch having no connection to a wifi type influence and just soley being linked with celluar pathways the watched worked as it said it should!

I hope this helps you all out as i know how frustrating it is when you can't get answers and spend a lot of money on something that doesn't work. and i'm not sure why me (a lady from canada who works in the legal field and pushes paper all day) figured this out, but i'm glad i did as I didn't want to have to return yet another watch and spend more of my valuable time on this. Maybe apple and telus can pay me some kudos :-)

please let me know if this worked for you!

Hi jermaine a,

I had this problem and after days of agony and tier-2 tech support I've got it fixed. Here is what I did:

STEP 1: Go into iPhone under Settings, "Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store". Make sure under "Reachable At" you see your apple id and your cell phone #. Doesn't matter if you have extra stuff, just need those 2.

STEP 2: Go back to Settings, "Messages". Make sure iMessage is turned on and then go into the submenu "Send & Receive". In there under "YOU CAN BE REACHED BY IMESSAGE AT" you should see your cell # and your apple id. Make sure both have check marks beside them. Under "START NEW CONVERSATIONS FROM" make sure your cell # is there with a check by it as well.

TEST: To test it do the following:

a) Turn off wifi and Bluetooth on your iPhone, it will then just be connected to the cellular network.

b) Now turn of wifi on the Watch so that it is only left connected to the cellular. Wait for the Watch to shows at least 2 bars of cell signal.

c) Send an SMS text from the iPhone to your own cell number (e.g. 541-XXX-XXXX). If it shows up on both the iPhone and Watch then you are in business. This was the key to get this working on my Watch.

Remember, the Watch requires the iPhone to be connected somewhere to the cellular network. The watch is not operating independently when sending SMS, it has to have the iPhone connected to cell network even though it may be 100 miles away. This is not the case for phone calls.

Note 1:
The easy way to test if the watch is set up correctly to send SMS is to turn the bluetooth off of the connected iPhone, and then turn of wifi on the watch. Wait for 2 bars of cellular and then try to text a non-iMessage number. If it hangs as undeliverable then it is not configured correctly.

Note 2:
To send SMS messages the Watch must communicate with the iPhone. When not tethered to the phone by bluetooth it communicates with it over the cellular network. The iPhone is really sending the SMS message – it just communicates with the Watch so it seems like the Watch is doing it to the user. This explains why the iPhone must be connected to the cellular network somewhere in order for SMS message to be sent
from Watch. iMessage to other iMessage users works from the Watch even if iPhone is off.

The 3gps+cellular can send iMessages fine without the iPhone being on and connected to the cell network somewhere. It absolutely requires the iPhone be on and connected to cell network somewhere before it can send SMS messages (e.g. text's to non-imessage users).

Hi

The functions that are available on your Apple Watch when it is away from your iPhone depend on various factors including:

• Your Apple Watch model - Series 3 (GPS) vs Series 3 (GPS + Cellular):

  Apple Watch - Compare - Apple

• The features of your carrier service plan:
  • Apple Watch - Carriers - Apple
  • Make a call with Wi-Fi Calling - Apple Support
• The type of connectivity that is available to your Apple Watch at the time:

  About Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Features and requirements that apply under various circumstances are detailed here, including within footnote #1 in respect of text messages:

How to use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby - Apple Support

I’m sorry to hear that you’re still having trouble, but you are incorrect. You have to have LTE enabled on the watch. Check the exolorer face to be sure you have cellular connection.

You may need to check to make sure you are also up to date on watch os.

This is the answer to this question found in the article :How to use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby - HT205547

"To receive SMS, MMS, or push notifications from third-party apps on your Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular), your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular, but it doesn't need to be nearby."

This is expected behavior, not a glitch.

- Thanks

Alright i spent all day trying to figure this out and what worked for me was going to settings on iphone then down to messages-send/receive-signing into my apple ID so that its an option as well as my number being an option. Then i unchecked everything except my number. Then go turn off imessage and turn it back on. It should say activating. Then you should be good to text and receive text using the cellular data on your watch. Hope this helps.

This fixed it for me and I believe the key was the settings/messages/send-receive from and signing in and making sure the start new convo from had my number checked.

I turned my phone off, not just Bluetooth and WiFi so not sure if that keeps the cellular going or not but it worked with it off. My watch now sends text messages. I’m going to test more tomorrow but this makes me happy so thank you.

I also had the same problem. I got my apple watch and one for my husband and ran into the same problem. no one was able to help me until today. They told me that I cannot send msj on my apple watch with out it being on Bluetooth from my phone. I was so disappointed until i ran across here and started reading the same questions from other users. so i tested something that I haven't tried and it worked. Just by simply turning imessage of and then turning it back on, on your phone. Then it would appear as 3 or 2 different devices on the device column then turning Bluetooth off on your apple watch until it gets service. I tested it out texting my husband and it worked.

YES This worked for me.. I have Verizon and I went through the same hassle of going into the store and exchanging the watch for anther one. Nothing worked. I turned off my wifi on my phone and also on my watch. Went outside down the street and took a bit for my network connection to kick in but it did. I tried texting from the watch and it WORKED!!! So the only bummer is that I have to remember to turn both wifi connections off before I leave my phone at home.. Hopefully there is a update that will fix this really soon... Thanks for the help sir!

For those still having issues sending text messages from the Apple Watch 3, the steps described in the following thread worked for me : Apple Watch not sending messages (answer from 'foxfold').

If you make sure to turn the "Send as SMS" option ON in your iPhone settings (follow the other steps in the thread above), then you will be able to send text messages with the phone turned off (or away from watch) and the watch on the LTE network.

For AT&T you need to make sure you have NumberSync configured first (don't know about other carriers).

HTH,

N.

My convert to sms was on and that still did not fix it. Only thing that worked for me was what I posted above about turning off wifi on watch and turn off wifi on phone and turn off wifi assist on phone. Then I could do iMessage and sms while away from my phone.

Hi I have had this problem for a long time and I was able to solve it so what you need to do it go to settings < imessage then send and receive and click enable massages with Apple I. Last go to the i

Watch app and unpair or reset the Apple Watch. Than wait for it to erase everything than re pair it

I recommend clicking keep plan but you can’t get it from a back up but you lose everything on the I watch but it’s Worth it hoped I helped😀

Hey I had the same issue. I realized in order to send text on Apple Watch 3 with cellular you have to have iMessage on! I’ve been able to make calls but no texts, makes no sense to me that I need to have iMessage on when the watch has cellular capabilities but that’s how it’s set up. Hopefully that helps.