iPhone “This Apple Watch is no longer paired with this iPhone”? How so?

[rmoliv]

That message appears in the Health app. However, how is that possible when the Watch is still collecting health data? I want that message to go away given the Watch is actually paired. How do I get this sorted out? I’ve already paired/unpaired the Watch, factory reset the iPhone and Watch, deleted backups from both devices... What’s going on? Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mollyc]

I am sure you want this fixed immediately, and I know that this is an international forum, but for the Americans, it's only 8:15 on a Saturday morning on the East Coast. Lots of people either not up yet, or getting their coffee. Hopefully someone will answer soon.

In the meantime, have you rebooted your phone and watch?

 

[rmoliv]

Hi, thanks! Yes, I have.

 

[dave3x]

I am having the same issue.

Apple Watch Not Pairing After Changing To New Device

Just got my iPhone 11 Pro a few hours ago and did an iCloud and iTunes backup of my old phone, Xs Max. I also unpaired my S4 Apple Watch, since I thought that was the correct way to go about it, so I could re-pair with the new phone. Once I got everything setup, when I am looking in the Health...

forums.macrumors.com

Apple Watch No Longer "Pairs" with iPhone after setting up new iPhone

Just got my iPhone 11 Pro a few hours ago and did an iCloud and iTunes backup of my old phone, Xs Max. I also unpaired my S4 Apple Watch, since I thought that was the correct way to go about it, so I could re-pair with the new phone. Once I got everything setup, when I am looking in the Health...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[rmoliv]

I am having the same issue.

I contacted Apple Support and they’ll get back to me as soon as they have figured this out. But it can take days. In the meanwhile I’d like to get this resolved on my own. Could it be a bug? iOS 13 surely feels a bit unstable. Not liking the experience so far.

 

[ribbon]

Same issue here! I actually opened a new thread on the Apple Watch forum before I saw this.

 

[dave3x]

There are a few threads over on Apple's Community Forums with this same issue, some as far back as a couple of years, so I don't think it's iOS 13/WatchOS 6 related. I've literally tried everything I can think of -- same issue on my wife's phone now, as I gave her my Xs Max, and when I paired her watch hers says the same thing. I'm debating un-pairing both watches and pairing hers to my phone and vice versa and see if that changes anything. It seems pretty odd that you wouldn't be able to use your same watch again with your phone, and not have the message saying it's no longer paired, when it clearly is, as it's grabbing all my activity data, etc.

A few of the posts one as far back as 2015, so certainly/likely not an iOS/WatchOS 6 issue --

Health app says my watch is no longer pai… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

Activity updating, but Health App says Ap… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

"This Apple Watch is no longer paired… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

this apple watch is no longer paired with… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[rmoliv]

Then I guess you’re right. What’s odd though is that none of the answers have provided a solution to fix this. And after these many years no one at Apple seems to know how to do it. How can it be? I’m furious at them!
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Same issue here! I actually opened a new thread on the Apple Watch forum before I saw this.

Let us know if you or someone comes up with a solution.

 

[dave3x]

Then I guess you’re right. What’s odd though is that none of the answers have provided a solution to fix this. And after these many years no one at Apple seems to know how to do it. How can it be? I’m furious at them!

Most of them have all been to unpair and repair the watch, which I've done many times. One suggested doing an unencrypted iTunes backup to not backup Health data, and then DFU the device, and restore from that backup -- I did that as well, and even when I paired again it's still doing the watch not paired with this phone BS. I'm going to try pairing my wife's watch to my device later today, we both have S4 so if we have to swap each other if it works that's what we'll do. Pain in the rear end to say the least.

 

[rmoliv]

It is. Last try. Deleted all Watch and iPhone backups, unpaired the Watch and deleted
the Watch from my iCloud account. Will wait and repair it tomorrow. If it doesn’t fix it I’ll just wait for Apple’s call.

 

[dave3x]

This is also causing some major battery drain on both our watches, which is odd as we both had the GM of iOS 13 installed along with WatchOS 6 GM on our devices -- only change since was my Xs Max going to wife, and me getting 11 Pro Max, not sure if the whole "this watch no longer paired to iphone" issue is what's causing it, but it's getting ridiculous. Also unpaired both watches and paired mine to wife's phone to see if it would "pair" properly, and it still did the "watch not paired to this iphone" message so I give up. I also read over on Reddit that someone who got a S5 is having the same issue.

 

[ribbon]

dave3x — I just got a new iPhone 11 and went to pair it with my watch: same thing. I have the “normal” record that remains empty and the one that keeps getting all the data from the watch with that annoying message. Since it’s working properly and all the data is being synched I’m planning on letting it go.

 

[Fantasigraphic]

It’s an error within ios13, nothing affecting performance. Was on there during all the betas as well.

 

[rmoliv]

It’s an error within ios13, nothing affecting performance. Was on there during all the betas as well.

Hope they fix it soon. It affects my OCD.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Hope they fix it soon. It affects my OCD.

13.1 is releasing in about 3 days. That might have the fix for it. I don’t own an Apple Watch so I can’t confirm that it is fixed, but let’s hope it is.

 

[rmoliv]

13.1 is releasing in about 3 days. That might have the fix for it. I don’t own an Apple Watch so I can’t confirm that it is fixed, but let’s hope it is.

Hope so otherwise they better prepare to deal with my anger. Anyway, I’ve reported it to Apple already, told to wait a few days because their “engineering” team is going to look into it... Boring!

 

[TheSkywalker77]

Hope so otherwise they better prepare to deal with my anger. Anyway, I’ve reported it to Apple already, told to wait a few days because their “engineering” team is going to look into it... Boring!

Please keep in mind that this is a x.0 release and won’t be perfect. By the way you’re talking it sounds like you’re expecting perfection from this very new software.

 

[Broken Hope]

How many watches does it show under devices on the health app? You'll see one for each time you've unpaired/paired, it's normal and how it's always been, those devices will show as not paired, but they need to be there to hold all the health data they collected during their time paired to your phone. I have like 5, the current one will be the one that doesn't display the message about no longer being paired.

 

[rmoliv]

How many watches does it show under devices on the health app? You'll see one for each time you've unpaired/paired, it's normal and how it's always been, those devices will show as not paired, but they need to be there to hold all the health data they collected during their time paired to your phone. I have like 5, the current one will be the one that doesn't display the message about no longer being paired.

Two, the thing is, the one that is collecting health data is the one that displays the message. The other one has no data at all. Moreover when I set up my new Watch and iPhone I did it from scratch not from a backup so under devices it should show only one watch. No matter how many times I delete backups, factory reset, unpair/repair there are still these two watches in the Health app. I deleted my previous watch from iCloud about two weeks ago so it can’t be that.

 

[dave3x]

This is getting aggravating. My Watch (S4) and iPhone (11 Pro Max) still show the "this watch not paired with device" message, as does my wife -- however her issue is even worse -- she is getting the mega battery drain that was going on with the earlier betas - her watch has been lasting at most 8-9 hours before it's dead, it's losing a percentage of battery every few minutes -- also, for some reason, the watch app is showing that she has 15 photos synced to her watch (when she has zero synced, and never has). I've paired my watch with her phone as well, and the exact same results (15 photos, showing synced to the favorites album -- and I've even created a new folder in the photos app on her phone, and told the watch app to use that folder). It still shows 15 photos. If I copy a photo to her favorites folder the # of photos on the watch goes up by that # (if I copy one, it goes to 16 -- once I remove the photo from favorites folder, it goes back to 15) -- so it's got 15 "ghost photos" somewhere.

I've reset/wiped her phone and the watch at least six times now, set her device up as new with NO data (no iCloud restore, etc.) and paired the watch, and still get the "watch not paired with this phone" (which I expected), plus the mysterious 15 "ghost" photos that the watch thinks are synced to it.

I am HOPING (but about 5% confident) that iOS 13.1 will fix that, but what's odd is I have the same exact setup (complications, watch face, etc.) 100% spot on with her watch -- mine shows 0 photos, and mine is working fine. Also hers is doing the thing where the number of standby and number of minutes used are exactly the same (hence why I mentioned it was similar to the issue with the earlier Betas of iOS and WatchOS). No matter how many times I pair it, reset it, wipe it, etc. it keeps doing it. I've set it up with NO apps (other than the stock ones) and just sat the watch on the desk for 10 minutes, and when I check usage and standby both show 10 minutes.

I'm going to call Apple tomorrow and see if they have any ideas. I've paired her watch with my phone, my watch with her phone -- my phone/watch work great (aside from the not paired message), and usage/standby are just fine, hers, no matter which watch we pair gets the ghost 15 photos, and usage/standby stays the same.

🤬

 

[rmoliv]

That’s just terrible. Hope it all gets fixed tomorrow.

 

[rmoliv]

Now my iPhone just disappeared from the device list in the Health app. I didn’t do anything, it just isn’t there anymore, and it was yesterday because I checked! Only the two watches are there now. Has this happened to anyone else? This new redesigned app and iOS 13 are not worthy of my money!!!

 

[rmoliv]

Great, called Apple Support a few moments ago to update them on this issue and now all they say is to wait for iOS 13.1 tomorrow. I’m not confident at all that it’ll fix these issues. Terrible...

 

[dave3x]

I figured out the issue with the phantom photos her watch was "seeing" - we deleted all her photos from iCloud so it could rebuild whatever it needed to, and now it shows 0 photos, but the usage/standby times are still exactly the same. Went to bed about 10 PM and at 5 AM this morning it was at 7% (with theater mode on) -- so had her leave her watch home today, hoping iOS 13.1 fixes the battery drain -- at this point the whole "watch not paired" message is of lesser concern than the battery drain, but I'm still baffled since I didn't have the issue (it was my Xs Max she has now) and I'm not having battery drain. Hoping Apple figures this out fast.

 

[rmoliv]

I figured out the issue with the phantom photos her watch was "seeing" - we deleted all her photos from iCloud so it could rebuild whatever it needed to, and now it shows 0 photos, but the usage/standby times are still exactly the same. Went to bed about 10 PM and at 5 AM this morning it was at 7% (with theater mode on) -- so had her leave her watch home today, hoping iOS 13.1 fixes the battery drain -- at this point the whole "watch not paired" message is of lesser concern than the battery drain, but I'm still baffled since I didn't have the issue (it was my Xs Max she has now) and I'm not having battery drain. Hoping Apple figures this out fast.

Glad you figured the photos issue out. As to the stand-by/usage data mine isn’t even showing them, there’s only a dash in front of each parameter. Did they replace their software engineering team or what? Can’t wait for 13.1...