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1kmerenda

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 23, 2015
8
4
First, the tech specs:
Apple Watch Series 5 with LTE, watchOS 6.1.1
iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13.3

I'm posting this in hopes to hear that I'm not the only person with this issue.

I have a strange problem, where the native Calendar app on my watch will not display about 90% of my calendar events - it doesn't match my phone. For example, on my phone for 8 January, the Calendar app shows 5 appointments. For the same day on my watch, only one appointment is shown. For the next day, I have 6 appointments on the phone, but only two on the watch. For the day after that, 2 appointments on the phone and none on the watch.

My phone is configured with an exchange account that has 1 calendar, and my iCloud account which also has one calendar. The phone is configured to display both calendars and the Calendar app for watch is configured to mirror the phone. The problem impacts both exchange and icloud calendars. I looked for patterns among the missing events, like sender, repeating event, etc. but there was no common thread.

On days where my watch calendar is missing all events, I have tried using my Mac to add new events to both the iCloud and Exchange calendars. These new events sync to the phone almost instantly, but never reach the watch. I also tried creating a second calendar in iCloud via the Phone and adding an event to it. Again, the event never appeared on the watch (waited 24 hrs to confirm).

My Series 4 / watchOS 5 watch never had this issue, and it was configured the same as this one. I've had every generation watch, and never encountered this before. It seems specific to watchOS 6, and has been present since 6.0 GM.

The watch was working properly when I first got it on release day, but this issue popped up after a few weeks. Here is what I've tried to resolve the problem:
  • Confirmed calendar notification settings in Watch app are set to mirror my iphone
  • Reset sync data in watch app
  • power-cycled watch and phone
  • Unpaired watch, set it back up from backup (this resolved issue for a few days, then it came back).
  • Unpaired watch, set it back up as new (this resolved the issue for nearly two weeks, then it came back)
  • factory reset iPhone, set iPhone and watch from backups. (resolved for a few days, then issue returned)
  • factory reset iPhone, setup iPhone and watch as new. (resolved for a week, then issue returned).
When I find something that resolves the issue, it always returns, usually within a few days. When the problem returns, it impacts different events from the previous occurrence. To me, this indicates that it's not a problem with the specific event properties that triggers the issue.

I brought the watch to my Apple store and they witnessed the issue and agreed to send the watch to the repair depot. The repair depot returned the watch to me, stating that they could not replicate the problem. I set the watch back up as new when I received it, and it was good for 2 weeks, then the problem came back. I called Apple again, and they sent a replacement watch. I set the watch up as new and it was good at first, but the issue returned within 5 days. Since then, I have again wiped both my phone and watch, and set both up as new. I was good for 4 days before the problem returned.

I'm currently working with an AppleCare senior advisor and collecting information for their engineering team.

Is anyone else experiencing this?
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
11,033
5,493
192.168.1.1
First, the tech specs:
Apple Watch Series 5 with LTE, watchOS 6.1.1
iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13.3

I'm posting this in hopes to hear that I'm not the only person with this issue.

I have a strange problem, where the native Calendar app on my watch will not display about 90% of my calendar events - it doesn't match my phone. For example, on my phone for 8 January, the Calendar app shows 5 appointments. For the same day on my watch, only one appointment is shown. For the next day, I have 6 appointments on the phone, but only two on the watch. For the day after that, 2 appointments on the phone and none on the watch.

My phone is configured with an exchange account that has 1 calendar, and my iCloud account which also has one calendar. The phone is configured to display both calendars and the Calendar app for watch is configured to mirror the phone. The problem impacts both exchange and icloud calendars. I looked for patterns among the missing events, like sender, repeating event, etc. but there was no common thread.

On days where my watch calendar is missing all events, I have tried using my Mac to add new events to both the iCloud and Exchange calendars. These new events sync to the phone almost instantly, but never reach the watch. I also tried creating a second calendar in iCloud via the Phone and adding an event to it. Again, the event never appeared on the watch (waited 24 hrs to confirm).

My Series 4 / watchOS 5 watch never had this issue, and it was configured the same as this one. I've had every generation watch, and never encountered this before. It seems specific to watchOS 6, and has been present since 6.0 GM.

The watch was working properly when I first got it on release day, but this issue popped up after a few weeks. Here is what I've tried to resolve the problem:
  • Confirmed calendar notification settings in Watch app are set to mirror my iphone
  • Reset sync data in watch app
  • power-cycled watch and phone
  • Unpaired watch, set it back up from backup (this resolved issue for a few days, then it came back).
  • Unpaired watch, set it back up as new (this resolved the issue for nearly two weeks, then it came back)
  • factory reset iPhone, set iPhone and watch from backups. (resolved for a few days, then issue returned)
  • factory reset iPhone, setup iPhone and watch as new. (resolved for a week, then issue returned).
When I find something that resolves the issue, it always returns, usually within a few days. When the problem returns, it impacts different events from the previous occurrence. To me, this indicates that it's not a problem with the specific event properties that triggers the issue.

I brought the watch to my Apple store and they witnessed the issue and agreed to send the watch to the repair depot. The repair depot returned the watch to me, stating that they could not replicate the problem. I set the watch back up as new when I received it, and it was good for 2 weeks, then the problem came back. I called Apple again, and they sent a replacement watch. I set the watch up as new and it was good at first, but the issue returned within 5 days. Since then, I have again wiped both my phone and watch, and set both up as new. I was good for 4 days before the problem returned.

I'm currently working with an AppleCare senior advisor and collecting information for their engineering team.

Is anyone else experiencing this?
I’ve had the same problem on and off for years on multiple different phones, watches and OS versions. No fix yet.
 

DingleyDon

macrumors newbie
Feb 26, 2020
1
0
I too have had the same problem. My first-gen Apple Watch exhibited the behavior so I sold it off after trying just about everything above. I bought a 4th-Gen Apple Watch last year hoping those issues were resolved, but they are still there. I've done everything again that is listed above, and calendar events will sync for a couple weeks, and then start missing some events again. Very frustrating. We shouldn't have to erase and re-pair every couple of weeks just to keep things working.

I use the regular IOS Calendar app or Fantastical on my iPhone and never have a problem within missing events there. It's just something between the phone and watch that causes the missing events on the watch.

My primary calendar is sync'd with my work Office365 calendar. Not sure if that contributes or not. I'm also at all of the same tech specs as you minus being on an Apple Watch 4 instead of 5.
[automerge]1582737039[/automerge]
One other thing that works for me in addition to the list above, is to turn off calendars for the accounts I use on the iPhone, let those delete, hit Reset Sync Data in the Watch app, turn calendars back on, let them resync on the phone, and do another Reset Sync Data. Same results where it will work for a few days to a few weeks, but eventually start missing events again. Maybe a little easier than unpairing and re-pairing.

Still not a permanent fix...
 
Last edited:
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