I tried calling my wife today. It was somewhat urgent but she didn’t answer. Called a couple times, no answer. Go home and ask her what happened. Phone was in the other room . . . Understood. As we talked, she wondered out loud why her watch didn’t ring. Looked into it and couldn’t figure it out. In my search for an answer I realized she had an update due on her watch. Because of the update requirement it wouldn’t even let me check the settings. So, we did the update and the watch started ringing again for incoming phone calls. Pretty upsetting that Apple would allow functions of the watch to be disabled until you update your equipment. Especially a basic function like ringing when your phone rings. That’s some big brother “stuff” right there. Totally unappreciated. One valuable function of the watch is to allow some distance between you and your phone.
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Big brother stuff not appreciated
- Thread starter ger19
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I don’t think it was the update that caused the watch not to ring. It was more likely the watch just needed to be restarted as they sometimes do to get it working right again. The update restarted the watch and fixed what was going on with it at the time.
I did a restart before I did the update. It was frustrating. Because of the update, I couldn’t even see any settings for the watch on my iPhone. It was basically saying, you must do an update to access anything related to the watch.
I have never seen an update waiting making the watch unusable and I’ve had a watch since 2015.
What version was it on and what’s the new version? I am going to guess that the watch had been in “update mode” for quite some time…
What version was it on and what’s the new version? I am going to guess that the watch had been in “update mode” for quite some time…
across various Apple Watches and watchOS updates from series 2 through series 10, I’ve never seen that occur.
...And tomorrow on "Things That Never Happened" we talk about alien abduction.
Well it did happen. The watch wasn’t unusable, but at least one piece of the functionality was not working. I’m no tech genius, but I‘ve worked with computers and now phones since they came out and am very comfortable with them. When the watch wasn’t working properly, I went into the watch app on the phone and there were no functions showing in that app. Just a picture of the watch face and a link to update the watch. As mentioned, I too assume my wife had not done an update or a reset in quite awhile. Doing a reset did nothing and then finally doing the update brought everything back to normal. The function worked and the app on the iPhone showed all the other options once again.
I’m sure the forced update was necessary and the DW should do her updates on time, but I still think it was odd and a bit upsetting that she lost some functionality. If the update was that critical, it should have shut down the entire operation. BTW, I also had her do her phone updates but that was after the watch was working properly again, so I don’t think it was a phone update issue.
I’m sure the forced update was necessary and the DW should do her updates on time, but I still think it was odd and a bit upsetting that she lost some functionality. If the update was that critical, it should have shut down the entire operation. BTW, I also had her do her phone updates but that was after the watch was working properly again, so I don’t think it was a phone update issue.
I hold Off on updates for a few days and have never seen it disabl my hardware in any way.
I’m assuming my wife held off for a long time before what I saw happened. I wish I would have thought to look at what version she was on. I bet she was at least two updates behind.
compatibility issues. It's bad if the feature is disabled if not updated, but this is another case: if the iPhone is updated and watch is not updated, there might be bugs and something else not getting along because they are not designed tested to work in harmony.
Agreed. I've been getting the WatchOS 11 nag screen for a while now. Everything still works though.
What a weird bug. Has it happened since then?
I've personally noticed that WatchOS is more bug-laden than other Apple OSes.
I've personally noticed that WatchOS is more bug-laden than other Apple OSes.
is the watch a cellular watch or did it rely on a wireless connection to your phone for calls?
if cellular, that is curious. If wireless... I have seen it before with apple devices, that if they are linked, and you update one, you have to update the other. My theory is your wife's phone was updated to the latest version and the watch needed to match it.
Big brother stuff... bit of a stretch I think. Probably just a bug. Also, you couldn't see the settings due to the update? That is very strange, as all settings are normally available, pending update or not.
The watch is WiFi only. Interesting theory. Seems plausible.
Agree, a bit of a stretch but I was quite frustrated. I was at the bank and really needed something from her. Thankfully, it got handled.
It was locked. It was in the other room and it time out (and locks) after a few minutes. Interesting though, I’ve never noticed that before.
Updated her watch and that fixed everything. Updated her phone after that. Tried to relay to DW that updates are good. Please do them. 👍The beginning is intriguing, but what happened next?
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Something similar happened to me just now - all of a sudden my phone wanted me to update all my email account passwords and looking in settings there was an alert saying I had to accept new terms and conditions or iCloud would not work and now weird stuff is happening with Facebook on Safari despite a reboot of my Mac.
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Quite frankly, if you are concerned about "big brother" listening in, you probably shouldn't have a mobile phone.
Apple Watch is too reliant on updates. Turns out because I didn’t install the update it stopped receiving calls and working as a camera shutter button. What a gimmicky device. And it is not mine – I got it for free but can’t find a single reason for it to be useful, it just collects dust at the moment