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Ping my watch not working from control panel

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warrior30

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 20, 2014
74
35
Hi, wondering if anyone else out there is having this issue.

I migrated my phone from iPhone 14 Pro to iPhone 16 Pro yesterday (using the same AW Ultra 2). In the control panel 'Ping My Watch' is greyed out and says 'unavailable'. I've tried to restart my phone and watch multiple times, restart wifi, restart bluetooth, all without help. Still unable to 'Ping My Watch'.

Everything else is working fine on my AW, its definitely linked into my iPhone 16 Pro.

When I go into the 'Find My' app I'm able to ping my watch from there. Am I missing something? Happening to anyone else?
 
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FreakinEurekan

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,457
3,332
Watch didn’t connect to the new phone. Unpair the watch from the Watch app on the phone; erase the Watch; re-pair; restore backup.
 
T

TheBaron

macrumors newbie
Jan 24, 2023
7
12
That did not fix it for me. Nothing has. Seems over on Reddit people have this issue as well but no solution. Hmm thinking it’s a bug fix that will have to come from Timmmmy
 
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rdgfarias

macrumors newbie
Sep 21, 2024
1
0
I tried everything as well. I almost rebooted both, but after these reviews I will just wait the update haha
 
Theophil1971

Theophil1971

macrumors 6502
Mar 20, 2015
417
177
USA
Having the same problem with a new iPhone 16pro and Watch 10. The icon for the watch-ping widget is there, but greyed out and non functional.
‘the watch is definitely paired correctly. Restarting phone and watch has no effect.
 
Theophil1971

Theophil1971

macrumors 6502
Mar 20, 2015
417
177
USA
azhava said:
From another thread, courtesy of @CodeSpyder: Go into Settings > Control Center, turn off "Access Within App" and then turn it back on. Go into your Control Center, delete the Ping control and re-add it to the Control Panel. Mine was grayed out also, doing the above worked for me.
Click to expand...
Tried this, and still doesn’t work (Greyed out still).
Glad it worked for you!
 
CodeSpyder

CodeSpyder

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2010
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Orlando, FL
Everyone please contact Apple Support so they know that this is an issue that needs to be addressed and not some isolated event. I tried resetting the watch and phone, cycling WiFi, cycling airplane mode. I thought un pairing and re-pairing to be an extreme measure so I didn’t do it. During my session with Apple Support, the person recommended cycling the setting in Settings / Control Center. Then after I deleted and reinstalled the ping control, it was enabled.
 
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S

starkillers

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2015
83
48
What worked for me was turning access from within apps. Leave it off. Then remove the ping my watch and add it back. Note that the first time I added it back, it was still gray. Removed it again then added it back again and is now working. Turned access from within apps back on and still working.
 
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spankym

spankym

macrumors newbie
Sep 11, 2010
9
1
I'm on a call with support right now about this. They say no one else has reported it.
 
W

warrior30

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 20, 2014
74
35
andywaynebrooks said:
Yup. Deleting the ping watch button, Turning off access within apps, restarting phone, re adding the button. That worked after a few tries. Nasty bug.
Click to expand...
Thank god for these community forums! I've done as you said apart from turning off access within apps (as I didn't know what that bit was). So my steps were:

Delete the 'Ping my watch' button off control centre -> restart phone -> add button on again in control centre

That worked first time. Not sure why I didn't try that before, as if I had a problematic app on the home page I would have tried that.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that its a bug as a few of us on here have experienced it. I've sent a report back to Apple, hopefully they will fix and people who don't use these kind of forums get it back at some point (wonder how many of those there are who will just live with it in blissful ignorance)

Thanks all! Annoyance fixed.
 
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cavok76

macrumors newbie
Apr 7, 2021
1
0
Thank you for this forum! That worked! There are a few unresolved phone and watch issues, thought it was just me.
 
CodeSpyder

CodeSpyder

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2010
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Orlando, FL
I wonder what this feature is good for. If the Apple Watch is asleep because you just set it somewhere and then you try to ping it, it doesn’t ping until you move it.
 
W

warrior30

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 20, 2014
74
35
CodeSpyder said:
I wonder what this feature is good for. If the Apple Watch is asleep because you just set it somewhere and then you try to ping it, it doesn’t ping until you move it.
Click to expand...
Its pretty much the same usage as for the reverse when you ping your phone from the watch, if you've placed it somewhere nearby and forgotten where you put it. When you say 'asleep' what do you mean by that? The 'Ping my watch' feature will work even when your watch is charging / locked, as long as its powered on and connected via WIFI / Bluetooth then it should work regardless of what state the Watch is in. Unless I'm mistaken.
 
CodeSpyder

CodeSpyder

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Jun 23, 2010
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Orlando, FL
warrior30 said:
Its pretty much the same usage as for the reverse when you ping your phone from the watch, if you've placed it somewhere nearby and forgotten where you put it. When you say 'asleep' what do you mean by that? The 'Ping my watch' feature will work even when your watch is charging / locked, as long as its powered on and connected via WIFI / Bluetooth then it should work regardless of what state the Watch is in. Unless I'm mistaken.
Click to expand...
I tried it out. The watch was nearby but asleep. It did not ping until I moved the watch.
 
M

marenlasvenas

macrumors newbie
Sep 22, 2024
1
1
azhava said:
From another thread, courtesy of @CodeSpyder: Go into Settings > Control Center, turn off "Access Within App" and then turn it back on. Go into your Control Center, delete the Ping control and re-add it to the Control Panel. Mine was grayed out also, doing the above worked for me.
Click to expand...
This worked! Thank you for sharing!
 
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I

Interceptordude

macrumors newbie
Sep 25, 2024
1
0
I am having this issue. I was in contact with Apple support today and they advised me to reset my Apple Watch and re-pair it. That didn’t work and then I found this forum. In the survey I wrote that a bunch of people are having this issue and to please resolve it.
Removing the control, turning off access control center within apps and then restarting didn’t work for me (only tried one). I’m also not getting the “Apple Watch is fully charged” notification. Is that also an issue for you?

Updated: I got the ping my watch widget to work with the hack. Still don’t have the Apple Watch is fully charger notification. 1/2 way there!
 
Last edited:
CodeSpyder

CodeSpyder

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2010
1,949
1,959
Orlando, FL
Interceptordude said:
I am having this issue. I was in contact with Apple support today and they advised me to reset my Apple Watch and re-pair it. That didn’t work and then I found this forum. In the survey I wrote that a bunch of people are having this issue and to please resolve it.
Removing the control, turning off access control center within apps and then restarting didn’t work for me (only tried one). I’m also not getting the “Apple Watch is fully charged” notification. Is that also an issue for you?
Click to expand...
Try deleting the ping control and adding it back in again.
 
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