iPhone 17 Pro Problems pairing a watch to iPhone 17,pro,max etc Bug disc between latest watch os and latest phone os

[terryw1]

I, like many others had problems pairing my ultra 2 to my new iPhone 17 pro. After many repeated attempts( approx 20) I was able to pair, but had lost data and my awultra2 behaved badly. Losing AOD, not getting notifications correctly and a host of other issues. I had bought an ultra3 but was afraid to pair due to my prior experience.

After 6 hours at the Genius Bar today I learned a few things. You must run the latest iPhone os, it evens asks you to upgrade while setting up. Do it.you must be at the largest watch os(26). If these conditions are not met, numerous pairing and repairing will be required. And should you get lucky like I did and have a successful pairiring, many features are gimped.

The nuts and bolts, there is a bug in the latest iPhone 17 software(pro or otherwise) and watch pre-26.
There are workarounds but they are painful and you will lose historical data.

Best Case..upgrade both watch and phone to latest release BEFORE pairing. This will require some patience as the downloading, preparing, intallation and updating take about 1-2hrs.

In some rare cases it ma be necessary to shut down
the watch completely a start a new.

I am exhausted with the trials and tribulations….. I have found workarounds that I would be happy to share.
There is a formal case open and given the significance Apple will need to address it.

iPhone 15 Pro, 17 Pro, Ultra 2/3, iPad Pro M4 2TB, numerous iMacs studio, airmac

 

[flynz4]

The nuts and bolts, there is a bug in the latest iPhone 17 software(pro or otherwise) and watch pre-26.
There are workarounds but they are painful and you will lose historical data.

I have a similar thread as well. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/problems-connecting-apple-watches-to-iphone-17-pro-air.2466814/

I my case, I now have one of my two watches working and paired. Luckily, it is my AW Ultra (my daytime watch) which has better battery life than my old AW7 (my sleep watch).

Until these problems are sorted out, I am going to not try and pair my old watch. I've had too many failures as you have had. My Genius Bar time was only 2 hours compared to your 6 hours.

I am also planning to get an AW Ultra 3. That will be my new daytime watch, and my AW Ultra 1 will become my sleep watch. Hopefully these pairing issues are cleaned up in the next month or two... I'll wait till then to buy my new watch.

/Jim

 

[jz0309]

I, like many others had problems pairing my ultra 2 to my new iPhone 17 pro. After many repeated attempts( approx 20) I was able to pair, but had lost data and my awultra2 behaved badly. Losing AOD, not getting notifications correctly and a host of other issues. I had bought an ultra3 but was afraid to pair due to my prior experience.

After 6 hours at the Genius Bar today I learned a few things. You must run the latest iPhone os, it evens asks you to upgrade while setting up. Do it.you must be at the largest watch os(26). If these conditions are not met, numerous pairing and repairing will be required. And should you get lucky like I did and have a successful pairiring, many features are gimped.

The nuts and bolts, there is a bug in the latest iPhone 17 software(pro or otherwise) and watch pre-26.
There are workarounds but they are painful and you will lose historical data.

Best Case..upgrade both watch and phone to latest release BEFORE pairing. This will require some patience as the downloading, preparing, intallation and updating take about 1-2hrs.

In some rare cases it ma be necessary to shut down
the watch completely a start a new.

I am exhausted with the trials and tribulations….. I have found workarounds that I would be happy to share.
There is a formal case open and given the significance Apple will need to address it.

iPhone 15 Pro, 17 Pro, Ultra 2/3, iPad Pro M4 2TB, numerous iMacs studio, airmac

I had problems pairing my U2 during migration (restore from iCloud, big mistake) from 13PM to 17PM. 13PM and U2 were on the latest OS versions, 17PM was updated during setup first thing.
I tried like 4 times, the Apple Store guy told me the best I can suggest is un-pair/re-pair. Fine, hate that but did it, and I think I did a restore from backup. It did work while still in the store but had trouble with watch faces and other things, can't remember everything. when got home I tried pairing my S7, failed the first time but was successful on 2nd attempt. This was on Friday.
Saturday I decided to un-pair/re-pair again but this time made sure to set as new. Of course I had to adjust settings and such and setup wallet again but have not had any issues since.
I also did not loose any data like health, fitness and such

 

[goldmac2006]

I, like many others had problems pairing my ultra 2 to my new iPhone 17 pro. After many repeated attempts( approx 20) I was able to pair, but had lost data and my awultra2 behaved badly. Losing AOD, not getting notifications correctly and a host of other issues. I had bought an ultra3 but was afraid to pair due to my prior experience.

After 6 hours at the Genius Bar today I learned a few things. You must run the latest iPhone os, it evens asks you to upgrade while setting up. Do it.you must be at the largest watch os(26). If these conditions are not met, numerous pairing and repairing will be required. And should you get lucky like I did and have a successful pairiring, many features are gimped.

The nuts and bolts, there is a bug in the latest iPhone 17 software(pro or otherwise) and watch pre-26.
There are workarounds but they are painful and you will lose historical data.

Best Case..upgrade both watch and phone to latest release BEFORE pairing. This will require some patience as the downloading, preparing, intallation and updating take about 1-2hrs.

In some rare cases it ma be necessary to shut down
the watch completely a start a new.

I am exhausted with the trials and tribulations….. I have found workarounds that I would be happy to share.
There is a formal case open and given the significance Apple will need to address it.

iPhone 15 Pro, 17 Pro, Ultra 2/3, iPad Pro M4 2TB, numerous iMacs studio, airmac

I had investigated @flynz4 ’s case regarding the improper pairing of his Apple Watch Ultra and Apple Watch Series 7. If you haven’t already read it, I recommend reviewing it.

The issue is indeed caused by a corrupted build of iOS 26, which leads to a mysterious bug in the pairing process. Depending on the pairing method used, the following steps can be taken:

1. If the watch is connected to an existing iPhone, it will be switched to the new iPhone that is already set up (without a full unpair).
2. If a full unpair is required, one watch can be paired to the new iPhone first, allowing it to set up and restore data. Then, the other watch(s) can be paired with data transferred from one of the watches.
3. If all watches are unpaired from the old iPhone, all Apple Watches can be paired to the new iPhone.

I also followed up with that case and provided a statement based on my review of the case with a former Apple employee’s perspective from the hardware side and the potential solutions we could have implemented to prevent accidental unpairs or syncing errors. Specifically, we aimed to prevent existing and new watches from being accidentally paired to the new iPhone 17 Pro at the same time. The corrupted build was attributed to Apple’s inability to review bugs for stabilization and its decision to release the software without addressing these issues.

Reference: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...es-to-iphone-17-pro-air.2466814/post-34175925