Apple Watch WiFi Connection Series 0

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Level 1

8 points

Apple Watch WiFi Connection Series 0

Hi All,

I am still sporting an Apple Watch Series 0 connecting to an iPhone 6s+ both running the latest iOS and watchOS. I have a question regarding how the Apple Watch and iPhone communicate to each other over wifi when on the same network that I hope someone can help answer.

My house has quite thick walls so there are areas where the bluetooth connection to the iPhone is poor and the watch has to use wifi. There are also areas where the wifi signal is poor and therefore the watch may disconnect from wifi and then re-connect (all without a bluetooth connection being available).

I live in the UK and I'm not on EE Mobile which means that the Apple Watch always uses my phone for a connection to make a phone call over the carrier network (there is no support for Wifi Calling using connected iCloud devices).

Using a bluetooth connection to the iPhone this works flawlessly on my watch and I can make calls.

When my bluetooth connection is poor the watch jumps onto wifi and again I can make calls and the connection to the iPhone is fine (tested by pinging the iPhone from the watch).

If the watch becomes disconnected from wifi and then reconnected a few minutes later (all without bluetooth being available) the watch will work fine and wifi services i.e. Siri etc will be available but it is hit and miss whether or not my watch actually reconnects to my iPhone (again, checked by pinging the iPhone from the watch) and as such I may or may not be able to receive and make calls using my carrier. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

I hope I've explained the above scenario clearly and what I'm trying to understand is how the watch and iPhone communicate to each other when solely using wifi. Can they lose contact and reconnect purely using wifi? I've demonstrated that this happens sometimes but not others and I trying to understand the conditions for this? Is this issue specific to the Series 0 (poor wifi and perhaps a bit too old) and therefore a Series 3 would resolve this (I don't want to pay for the cellular version ideally though).

I hope someone can help with the above and clarify for me.

Thanks in advance,

Justin

Apple Watch, watchOS 4

Posted on Jul 3, 2018 4:19 PM

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Answer 1

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,892 points

Jul 5, 2018 8:02 AM in response to Juzza10

Understand you better now. There's still a negotiation process, the connection is 2-way rather like Bluetooth. Thinking about that I wonder if this might be due to the Bluetooth priority I mentioned. I have certainly seen the distant tail of weak Bluetooth and WiFi inhibit a cellular connection, but not good enough themselves to maintain proper communication on my watch. Try testing with Bluetooth disabled on your iPhone (use Settings, not from Control Center) and see if that gives any clues.

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Answer 2

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,892 points

Jul 5, 2018 9:32 AM in response to Juzza10

OK. Another idea, you said some areas of your home have low WiFi signal. Put both devices somewhere with a strong WiFi and see if behaviour changes when Bluetooth is not available. They can be in the same room and close to your router if you wish so you can see both screens.

I have another question to which I don't know the answer - How can we determine if the failure to connect promptly is in the watch, or the iPhone, or the router which sits between them?

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Answer 3

Branta_uk

Level 7

32,892 points

Jul 5, 2018 5:47 AM in response to Juzza10

Your watch should be able to connect to a known WiFi without human intervention, but it might be seeing occasional activity from Bluetooth if your iPhone is just on the edge of working range. Bluetooth has higher priority so this could cause the WiFi to yield to Bluetooth, which then fails to complete the connection as you move around your home.

The process of negotiating a WiFi connection on any device seems to be a black art, local RF interference and the base router may have a big part in delays. Even with a perfect signal (router within 2m) my laptop sometimes connects within seconds on the office network, sometimes it needs several minutes and a few pokes at the Connect button. At home this variability is simply not there.

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Answer 4

Juzza10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 5, 2018 6:17 AM in response to Branta_uk

Hi

Thank you for your response. The problem isn’t the watch connecting to the WiFi. It is the connection of the watch to the iPhone using the WiFi connection. It does not always get back into communication with the phone when WiFi connection is regained on the watch (by checking if you can ping the phone).

Thanks

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Answer 5

Juzza10 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 5, 2018 9:13 AM in response to Branta_uk

Thanks for getting back to me.

That is exactly what I try. I turn the Bluetooth off on the iPhone in settings. It just seems a bit hit and miss whether the watch reconnects to the iPhone once the WiFi connection is established.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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Apple Watch WiFi Connection Series 0

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