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iMessages intermittently delivered

C

CloudChief

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 9, 2021
64
76
My watch hasn't been delivering iMessages to my watch reliably for the past year. All other notifications are delivered normally but sometimes an iMessage won't be delivered to my watch. Strangely, the notification centre on my watch will mirror that of my iPhone, only the iPhone having the iMessage.

Just to be clear, when this happens, notifications in the notification centre are the same on my iPhone and the watch but only the phone will show the iMessages.

I have checked my notification settings and everything is fine. It is set to mirror my iPhone. DnD is not enabled and I am using the latest WatchOS and iOS versions (at the time of this post).

Super annoying because I miss messages from my family.

Just wondered if anyone else is having the same issue?
 
I've had it intermittently, but not recently (within the past month or so). I have no idea what causes it or what fixes the issue. Agree, though it's very annoying.
 
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mk313 said:
I've had it intermittently, but not recently (within the past month or so). I have no idea what causes it or what fixes the issue. Agree, though it's very annoying.
Click to expand...
I'm glad it's not just me. I thought I was going crazy. Opening the messages app on the watch seemed to fix it for me today.

Hopefully WatchOS10 fixes this.
 
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So , I’ve made a reset of all settings and sent myself a few iMessages from my husband’s phone. So far they came through but who knows if it will last. I sure hope so because doing this is no fun 😤.
 
Anyone find a fix for this? I’ve recently switched back to apple and have a fancy watch ultra that only gets iMessages sometimes. Other times I open my phone and notice I have missed messages. I left apple for this reason a few years back. Is this seriously still an issue with apple and their $1000+(canadian) watch? Are you freaking kidding me?! The one thing a smartwatch is for, by the supposed best manufacturer and I still can’t get messages on my watch!!! Holy f apple. Haw is this even possible? Why do people put up with this? May have to bite the bullet and just not look back at apple ever again. Minor bugs I’m fine with, but this is literally the reason to have the watch.
 
I unpaired and re-paired my watch a month or so ago and haven’t had an issue.

It still happened on WatchOS10 (can’t remember which version). That’s the version my watch was on when I reset it.

I have no idea if the reset has fixed it permanently. I’ve had this issue in multiple WatchOS versions. It only happens with iMessage too.

Troubleshooting I would recommend:
1) Restart both your watch and phone.

2) Manually open the Messages app on the watch (after restart or noticing that messages aren’t being delivered to your watch).

3) Reset the watch if it keeps happening. Make sure you have a backup of your data if you do this. Then either set up as new or restore from the backup. (I restored mine from the backup.)
 
Nodnerb said:
Anyone find a fix for this? I’ve recently switched back to apple and have a fancy watch ultra that only gets iMessages sometimes. Other times I open my phone and notice I have missed messages. I left apple for this reason a few years back. Is this seriously still an issue with apple and their $1000+(canadian) watch? Are you freaking kidding me?! The one thing a smartwatch is for, by the supposed best manufacturer and I still can’t get messages on my watch!!! Holy f apple. Haw is this even possible? Why do people put up with this? May have to bite the bullet and just not look back at apple ever again. Minor bugs I’m fine with, but this is literally the reason to have the watch.
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Do the iMessages still appear in your phone’s Notification Centre? The notifications on my watch’s and phone’s notification centres would be exactly the same, but the iMessages would be absent from the watch.
 
Yeah they show up on my phone as normal and I’ve turned on my aod solely because of this issue so I at least see that my watch missed one eventually. Watch set to mirror iPhone and no focus set etc. but nothing alerts or shows in notification center on the watch. I don’t think so anyway, I’m not alerted of the notification on my watch and no red dot.
 
Nodnerb said:
Yeah they show up on my phone as normal and I’ve turned on my aod solely because of this issue so I at least see that my watch missed one eventually. Watch set to mirror iPhone and no focus set etc. but nothing alerts or shows in notification center on the watch. I don’t think so anyway, I’m not alerted of the notification on my watch and no red dot.
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Yeah that’s what was happening/happens to me. The quick fix is to open the messages app on the watch.

No idea why it happens. See my post above for the troubleshooting that has worked for me.
CloudChief said:
I unpaired and re-paired my watch a month or so ago and haven’t had an issue.

It still happened on WatchOS10 (can’t remember which version). That’s the version my watch was on when I reset it.

I have no idea if the reset has fixed it permanently. I’ve had this issue in multiple WatchOS versions. It only happens with iMessage too.

Troubleshooting I would recommend:
1) Restart both your watch and phone.

2) Manually open the Messages app on the watch (after restart or noticing that messages aren’t being delivered to your watch).

3) Reset the watch if it keeps happening. Make sure you have a backup of your data if you do this. Then either set up as new or restore from the backup. (I restored mine from the backup.)
Click to expand...

Sorry I can’t be more help. It’s a super frustrating big, especially because I don’t know if it will randomly start again. Though, resetting the watch has worked for now. I’m also running the latest WatchOS version.
 
Ok thanks a lot for your help. I appreciate it. I really want to just stick with apple but as before, this is one issue that is inexcusable. This didn’t happen with android, even with cheap watches. And the fact that it is still happening on totally different hardware 2 years later than before, i just can t believe it. Can it really only be happening to us very small handful of people, regardless of hardware? Or is apple so adored that people ignore a basic core function not working. Argghh. Thanks again.
 
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Nodnerb said:
Ok thanks a lot for your help. I appreciate it. I really want to just stick with apple but as before, this is one issue that is inexcusable. This didn’t happen with android, even with cheap watches. And the fact that it is still happening on totally different hardware 2 years later than before, i just can t believe it. Can it really only be happening to us very small handful of people, regardless of hardware? Or is apple so adored that people ignore a basic core function not working. Argghh. Thanks again.
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No problem! Glad to help.

Interesting that it was happening to you a couple of years ago. I’ve had the same experience.

I wonder, if it is more widespread, whether people just move on after troubleshooting because it occurs infrequently/irregularly (at least for me).

Personally, it’s not something that I would stop wearing my Apple Watch over. It’s also the only major issue I have had with it. But, I’m also all in on the Apple ecosystem and won’t move to Android any time soon. It definitely makes me hesitant to buy another one (among other things), and I will be using my current one until it falls apart (4 years and counting).

Edit: I’m not trying to dismiss how frustrating it is to have this happen with products that are supposed to be tightly integrated and cost a lot (especially the Ultra).

Honestly, I miss my Pebble. I’ve considered a Fitbit, but my mum has had three Fitbits (hardware failures) in the past four years whilst I’ve had one Apple Watch. I got my dad an SE for Christmas this year because I don’t think you can get a better smartwatch for iPhone.
 
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This has been happening for quite some time, well before WatchOS 10. I see some recent complaint threads, so I think it may have gotten worse in WatchOS 10.

Here is my post from last month. Not that my post in particular is "special" but you can see that it's in the middle of a large thread that shows that the problem is widespread and ongoing: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/watchos-10-messages-notifications.2403340/post-32759299

I'm still on version 10.1.1 and I just had a problem less than 8 hours ago. A message was delivered to both my iPhone and my Macbook Pro but not to my watch. Maybe the newest WatchOS will fix it, but I doubt it.

I'm just living with it. It won't make me move away from the Apple ecosystem.
 
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Phantom Gremlin said:
This has been happening for quite some time, well before WatchOS 10. I see some recent complaint threads, so I think it may have gotten worse in WatchOS 10.

Here is my post from last month. Not that my post in particular is "special" but you can see that it's in the middle of a large thread that shows that the problem is widespread and ongoing: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/watchos-10-messages-notifications.2403340/post-32759299

I'm still on version 10.1.1 and I just had a problem less than 8 hours ago. A message was delivered to both my iPhone and my Macbook Pro but not to my watch. Maybe the newest WatchOS will fix it, but I doubt it.

I'm just living with it. It won't make me move away from the Apple ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Thanks for linking that other thread, didn’t know it existed. Your comment in it is exactly what I have been experiencing.

What do you do when it happens? Do you restart the watch?
 
Thanks for your replies! I am absolutely stunned that this problem has existed for generations across different hardware and iOS updates for so many people, maybe all of apple watch users, and everyone is just ok with it. Wtf? It is literally what the watch is for. I haven’t seen an article about it or no fanfare to get apple to fix it. I’m embarrassed that this is just an acceptable thing we will keep paying for and it doesnt even work. It’s mind boggling. Other manufacturers get slammed and tons of attention and pressure to fix the tinniest of bugs but this core smartwatch function not working for years and its just fine? No other manufacturer would ever get away with this.

MacRumors, how about an article about this to draw some attention to the issue??! Is there a reason no one wants to touch this?
 
Lol you guys have cursed me. Picked up my phone to check this thread and saw an iMessage that hadn’t been delivered to my watch. As usual, all my other notifications were in the watch’s Notification Centre apart from the iMessage.

So it’s still happening on 10.2. I have a series 5.

Edit: The notification appeared in the watch’s Notification Centre after a restart.
 
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Sorry cloudcheif. Lol
I’ve sent an email to one of the MacRumors staff asking if an article can be written on this long ignored bug. Again, I’m still stunned no one that spends money on these watches seems to care. This would never fly in android world. I always got my sms and rcs messages on Samsung, mobvoi and garmin watches. If people didn’t there would be media coverage everywhere till it was fixed.
 
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Nodnerb said:
Sorry cloudcheif. Lol
I’ve sent an email to one of the MacRumors staff asking if an article can be written on this long ignored bug. Again, I’m still stunned no one that spends money on these watches seems to care. This would never fly in android world. I always got my sms and rcs messages on Samsung, mobvoi and garmin watches. If people didn’t there would be media coverage everywhere till it was fixed.
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It would be cool if MacRumors ran an article on this. Would be very interested to read the comments haha.
 
Happened again so I filmed a quick video to show what is happening, but it won’t upload. The notification is on the iPhone but not the watch. However, restarting the watch makes the notification appear.

Really frustrating because I missed a time sensitive notification. Think I might just turn notifications on the watch off and use my phone.
 
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