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Series 3 can make calls on LTE, but no data

K

kyor4

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 27, 2011
23
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My Series 3 watch is connected to AT&T cellular. I leave my phone at home and turned on, and then leave the house with my Series 3. I can connect to LTE fine, and calls work great - I've had conversations on the watch.

I have not, however, ever had any semblance of data working on the watch when on cellular. No iMessages have come through, no apps have been able to pull data, and I have never been able to "talk" with Siri.

Has anyone had this issue?
 
kyor4 said:
My Series 3 watch is connected to AT&T cellular. I leave my phone at home and turned on, and then leave the house with my Series 3. I can connect to LTE fine, and calls work great - I've had conversations on the watch.

I have not, however, ever had any semblance of data working on the watch when on cellular. No iMessages have come through, no apps have been able to pull data, and I have never been able to "talk" with Siri.

Has anyone had this issue?
Click to expand...

Hmmmm I noticed the same thing last night.
When I got home and was Wi-Fi everything update.

I haven’t warn my watch today.
 
Yea - I've had it since day 1 and am now realizing that I've never gotten any data through. At first I chalked it up to the wifi bug/connection issues, but now I see that even when I can make calls clear as day over cellular, I can't pull any data over cellular.
 
Sounds like your Watch is not provisioned for Data over LTE. First question, did you use the Watch app to complete your Watch activation without any manual assistance from AT&T?

Does your Watch show up as a Watch when you use the myAT&T app?

Dave
 
Hi Dave. It does show up as a watch on the app.

There was a lot of manual intervention, however, when I setup. I had a lot of trouble getting the watch up and going.
 
OK, that's what I expected. Now let's drill into the myAT&T app further to see the actual "Data" settings for your watch.

Starting on the first page of the app, Tap the "Total balance" tab. On the Total balance Tab, chose the "Go to bill & payments" button. On "My bill", scroll down until you see the "Usage" section with a > on the right, Tap "Usage", on the "Usage" page, scroll down until you see the "Manage data" section with a > on the right, Tap "Manage data", you should see all devices on your account and a "Slide" to enable / disable "Data" for each line.

I am betting your "Data" slide for your Watch is Off. Note: once you make a change, wait 5 minutes and Restart your Watch.

Dave
 
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https://imgur.com/a/6zgte

I was hoping to see Watch Data = "off", but I saw this when navigating to the screen. It was on.

I called AT&T and they said it's provisioned for data. They suggested unpairing and repairing. Ugh.
 
I would suggest a couple of things before going through that step. Have you power-cycled both your iPhone and your Watch?

Have you tried removing the Cellular Plan from the Watch app? You will need to remove it, power-cycle your Watch and then run Set Up Cellular again, it is very quick (much quicker than unpairing and pairing).

Also just to be safe, did you check your iPhone' Cellular settings? Tap Settings, Tap Cellular, Tap Cellular Data Options and verify that you have "Enable LTE" Voice & Data selected.

Dave
 
Sure do something like check the weather or look up an address or ask Siri questions. Try sending a normal SMS Txt message from your Watch.

Dave
 
dave006 said:
I would suggest a couple of things before going through that step. Have you power-cycled both your iPhone and your Watch?

Have you tried removing the Cellular Plan from the Watch app? You will need to remove it, power-cycle your Watch and then run Set Up Cellular again, it is very quick (much quicker than unpairing and pairing).

Also just to be safe, did you check your iPhone' Cellular settings? Tap Settings, Tap Cellular, Tap Cellular Data Options and verify that you have "Enable LTE" Voice & Data selected.

Dave
Click to expand...

I've tried all three of these suggestions - even after unpairing and repairing, but no luck.

I've been trying the Maps app to check if the data is working, as well as Siri. Neither are working when the phone is not nearby.

I've also noticed that my Maps app doesn't pull data (the map doesn't load, only the GPS dot) even when connected with the phone, which seems odd... "Apple Watch couldn't connect because cellular data is turned off for "Maps""
[doublepost=1508118774][/doublepost]Nevermind - it just started pulling Maps data with phone nearby. But that's the message I get for Maps when on Watch cellular.
 
I’m having difficulty with getting my Watch setup with AT&T (grandfather plan). Is that why you had difficulty? If so, can you tell me what you did to get your watch setup (at least making/taking calls)?

Thanks!
 
Hey @minifridge1138, you can't setup the LTE watch on almost any of the Grandfathered plans without assistance. What exact plan do you have?

You will have to have a phone rep or a Corporate Retail rep assist you. You will have to convince them to simply add a special type of line to your Billing Account. Some will simply say, no they can't do it for your old plan and that you will need to move to a newer supported plan.

This is simply not a true technical issue but a "Policy" issue. First, you don't want the rep to make any changes to your existing plan. You are only asking them to add a Stand-alone $10 Unlimited Wearable plan to your Billing Account.

Tell the rep in to create a new group, Select individual plan vs mobile share plan and they will see the Unlimited Wearable plan for $10 as an option. They will also need to "Park" the EID and IMEI numbers from the bottom of your Watch's box on this new line. Once this is done, you can then run the Set Up Cellular steps from your iPhone's Watch app.

Dave
 
dave006 said:
Hey @minifridge1138, you can't setup the LTE watch on almost any of the Grandfathered plans without assistance. What exact plan do you have?

You will have to have a phone rep or a Corporate Retail rep assist you. You will have to convince them to simply add a special type of line to your Billing Account. Some will simply say, no they can't do it for your old plan and that you will need to move to a newer supported plan.

This is simply not a true technical issue but a "Policy" issue. First, you don't want the rep to make any changes to your existing plan. You are only asking them to add a Stand-alone $10 Unlimited Wearable plan to your Billing Account.

Tell the rep in to create a new group, Select individual plan vs mobile share plan and they will see the Unlimited Wearable plan for $10 as an option. They will also need to "Park" the EID and IMEI numbers from the bottom of your Watch's box on this new line. Once this is done, you can then run the Set Up Cellular steps from your iPhone's Watch app.

Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave,

I have a FamilyTalk Nation Plan.

I talked with 2 reps today. The first did most of what you said. Got to the part where they said I could keep my current plan and activate NumberSync, but that it would only allow me to receive calls on my watch, not make them. It took nearly 2 hours to get to this point. I said I’d do more research and call again later.

I read that NumberSync being active is what I needed, so I called back. This was a different rep who said it was not possible. I didn’t have another 2 hours to spend, so I thanked her and we ended the call.

It seems I was very close the first time, but was spooked by “you can only receive calls”.

I guess I need to try again when I have nothing to do for a few hours...
 
minifridge1138 said:
Thanks Dave,

I have a FamilyTalk Nation Plan.

I talked with 2 reps today. The first did most of what you said. Got to the part where they said I could keep my current plan and activate NumberSync, but that it would only allow me to receive calls on my watch, not make them. It took nearly 2 hours to get to this point. I said I’d do more research and call again later.

I read that NumberSync being active is what I needed, so I called back. This was a different rep who said it was not possible. I didn’t have another 2 hours to spend, so I thanked her and we ended the call.

It seems I was very close the first time, but was spooked by “you can only receive calls”.

I guess I need to try again when I have nothing to do for a few hours...
Click to expand...

So I called again and was told again that it was not possible. The tech said that if they created a new group then it wouldn’t be able to NumberSync with my existing phone/number. AND that I’d have to pay $60+ per month for that new group.

The tech was suspicious when I said other people had gotten this to work. Their best offer was to either change plans (which I don’t want to do) OR that if I could give them the phone number of someone that was setup then she could look at how that account was done and mirror that.

I think the real answer is I’m never going to get LTE on this watch.
 
minifridge1138 said:
So I called again and was told again that it was not possible. The tech said that if they created a new group then it wouldn’t be able to NumberSync with my existing phone/number. AND that I’d have to pay $60+ per month for that new group.

The tech was suspicious when I said other people had gotten this to work. Their best offer was to either change plans (which I don’t want to do) OR that if I could give them the phone number of someone that was setup then she could look at how that account was done and mirror that.

I think the real answer is I’m never going to get LTE on this watch.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear. Back to my original question... anyone have a similar issue?
 
I am having very similar problems with EE. My watch was working for several days and now not. I did call EE and went through the process of clean reboot and pair. The also reset the eSim plan. It still does not work without the phone. I will call them again later.
 
minifridge1138 said:
So I called again and was told again that it was not possible. The tech said that if they created a new group then it wouldn’t be able to NumberSync with my existing phone/number. AND that I’d have to pay $60+ per month for that new group.

The tech was suspicious when I said other people had gotten this to work. Their best offer was to either change plans (which I don’t want to do) OR that if I could give them the phone number of someone that was setup then she could look at how that account was done and mirror that.

I think the real answer is I’m never going to get LTE on this watch.
Click to expand...
That rep does not have a clue. You are not asking them to create a new Mobile Share Group. You want them to create a new Line Group on your billing account. Once this new line group is created they just need to chose an "individual" line and the $10 Unlimited Wearable plan will be available to select. The $10 Unlimited Wearable plan is a stand-alone plan, it has nothing to do with a Mobile Share Group.

What time of day are you calling? Yes, the time of day matters. Try first thing in the morning rather then in the evening. Now let's cover the NumberSync issue. You will complete the NumberSync from the Watch app on your iPhone. The phone rep can't do it unless you provide them with your login userid / password and they log in as you. NumberSync takes item to complete, you will receive an eMail or Txt message once it is complete. So for example; if you start NumberSync late in the evening, it may take until the morning for all actions to complete and you receive the eMail or Txt message.

The NumberSync is part of the Set Up Cellular function you complete on the Watch app on your iPhone. If they just setup a line with the $10 plan, "Park" the EID and the IMEI numbers on this "Reserved" line, you will complete the rest of the activation steps using the steps on your iPhone.

Have you considered taking time to go to a Corporate Retail location, it should take less than 40 minutes to complete the process.

Dave
[doublepost=1508437228][/doublepost]
bruinsrme said:
My question is how can we test to see if we truly have LTE data working
Click to expand...
Send an old fashion SMS Txt from your Watch. Also depending on your plan, you should be able to the "Data" usage on the Watch's phone line when you log in to your Carrier.

Dave
 
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