Apple watch no longer controlling volume from now playing

Thanks....this all sounds very nice, but does not solve the problem. The greying out of the volume control on the Apple Watch is a random thing - I've been controlling playback of Spotify via Sonos through my Apple Watch without issue from months, then suddenly - volume control is greyed out. I can skip forward or back, pause or play, but cannot control volume. I had an issue with Spotify not playing through the Sonos app whereby it was playing on my iPhone, but no sound was coming out of the system - that's when the volume control on the watch first greyed out. I reauthorized the Spotify app in Sonos twice and on the second try, sound came back, but not the volume control on the watch. I've restarted the watch, restarted the phone, restarted the music apps....nothing works. The digital crown volume controls no longer works. Does not work for Spotify, for the Music App or from Sonos. I can still control volume from my phone but not my watch. My guess.....a problem with Watch OS 4.2 that Apple has not seen yet. With Watch OS 4.0 they changed how music on your phone is accessed from the watch (in order to work better for the Apple Watch 3's cellular capabilities) - the result is messed up functionality for those of us who (how dare we!) still have older versions of the Apple Watch.

As the OP said, this has been a nice feature to use, but it seems to not work sometimes now. I have the same issue. I'll lift my wrist, change the volume a little bit, and five minutes later I'll try to do the same thing and the circle around the volume graphic and the graphic itself is Grey. Touching it does nothing. Holding it starts air play. Switching music or audio apps doesn't fix it. Closing and restarting applications doesn't fix it. Then, at some random time are hours down the road, it works again.

Hi

Under watchOS 4.x, for controlling playback of music from your iPhone rather than the synced playlists on Apple Watch (for which Bluetooth headphones or a Bluetooth speaker are required), then - other than by using Siri - it is necessary to first start playback on your iPhone before being able to control playback and volume from your Apple Watch.

When you are already playing supported audio on your iPhone (whether via the Music app or a third-party app), the Now Playing app is shown automatically in the Dock on your Apple Watch and can be used to control playback on your iPhone. However, unlike under prior versions of watchOS, those controls no longer include the ability to browse or select playlists via screen-based inputs.

Now Playing can be configured to be shown automatically on Apple Watch upon raising your wrist when playing supported media on your iPhone. This is the default setting. To turn this feature off or on:

On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > General > Wake Screen > turn off Auto-Launch Audio Apps.

If desired, Now Playing can be added to the Dock permanently and/or added to a watch face as a complication. Follow the instructions here:

• Listen to music on your Apple Watch - Apple Support
• Now Playing
• Play music
• Change your watch face - Apple Support
• Use the Dock on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If the Music and/or Now Playing apps do not offer all of the features that you would prefer, then you can submit a feature request to Apple here:

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

So it’s been a month since this was posted so you probably figured it out by now but just in case you didn’t, here is the solution:

I just had this exact issue now and it’s probably because you, like me, leave your devices on all the time. Reboot both your phone and the watch and volume control will be restored. Don’t just do one. I had the volume icon and volume level greyed out on my watch, rebooting the watch restored the volume icon to normal but the level was still greyed and could not be controlled from the watch. Rebooting phone and watch fixed the problem completely