Apple Watch loses connection to iPhone if it's disconnected from Wi-Fi

[Marlo Morgan]

Hey everyone,
I was setting up an Apple Watch for a relative and for some reason Apple Watch doesn't receive any notifications if it isn't on Wi-Fi. The red disconnected from iPhone icon also appears when it isn't on Wi-Fi.

I tried pairing from scratch with a back-up again which didn't seem to help, and also tried forgetting iPhone from the list of devices shown on Apple Watch's Bluetooth menu. But I may have played myself since iPhone doesn't show on the Bluetooth devices list on Apple Watch anymore.

Considering I paired the two devices from scratch again, what else can I do? Is this how Apple Watch supposed to work? Does it always need a Wi-Fi connection to function?

The iPhone can still detect the watch since it can be seen on its Bluetooth list, sometimes it connects, sometimes pressing on it to connect doesn't do anything. But in either case if the Wi-Fi is turned off, the watch prompts me with the red disconnected logo.

Considering the person who'll be using this will be out and about most of the time, the Watch can't stay on Wi-Fi all the time, should I try a factory reset by erasing all data?

 

[waw74]

it feels like you're overthinking and making something way more complicated than it should be.
Apple has made the paring very simple, and if you're having to go into settings menus, and toggle random things... you're doing it wrong.

pairing shouldn't be handled in the bluetooth settings menu on either device, it's a special pairing, and only handled in the watch app on the phone.

literally hold an unpaired watch close to a phone, and when the popup happens on your phone, hit the button, and then aim the camera at the watch's screen. Pairing done, you shouldn't ever have to think about it again.

the phone shouldn't show in bluetooth settings on the watch.
It will show in the menu on the phone, but you can't interact at all.

if the watch and phone have been paired properly, both have bluetooth powered on, and are in range they should just connect.

if they're connected via bluetooth, the watch's wifi will not even be turned on. (it might be enabled, and show as on in the control center, but the radio is powered down or in a low power state)
same if you have cellular, the cell radio is off until the watch can't establish a bluetooth or wifi connection.

unless you have a very good reason to manually turn the radios the radios on or off, you shouldn't ever really touch them, unless you're enabling airplane mode, for .... getting on an airplane.
Apple engineers have done all they can to lengthen battery life, so the radios are powered down as much as they can be.


not sure if you're doing this remotely from your relative or not, but is there a chance they're turning off bluetooth on their phone? thinking it's not needed
other than that I really have no clue, and suggest calling apple.


you don't need to do a factory reset on the watch, when you unpair and re-pair in the watch app on the phone, all of that will be done automatically.

 

[Marlo Morgan]

it feels like you're overthinking and making something way more complicated than it should be.
Apple has made the paring very simple, and if you're having to go into settings menus, and toggle random things... you're doing it wrong.

pairing shouldn't be handled in the bluetooth settings menu on either device, it's a special pairing, and only handled in the watch app on the phone.

literally hold an unpaired watch close to a phone, and when the popup happens on your phone, hit the button, and then aim the camera at the watch's screen. Pairing done, you shouldn't ever have to think about it again.

the phone shouldn't show in bluetooth settings on the watch.
It will show in the menu on the phone, but you can't interact at all.

if the watch and phone have been paired properly, both have bluetooth powered on, and are in range they should just connect.

if they're connected via bluetooth, the watch's wifi will not even be turned on. (it might be enabled, and show as on in the control center, but the radio is powered down or in a low power state)
same if you have cellular, the cell radio is off until the watch can't establish a bluetooth or wifi connection.

unless you have a very good reason to manually turn the radios the radios on or off, you shouldn't ever really touch them, unless you're enabling airplane mode, for .... getting on an airplane.
Apple engineers have done all they can to lengthen battery life, so the radios are powered down as much as they can be.


not sure if you're doing this remotely from your relative or not, but is there a chance they're turning off bluetooth on their phone? thinking it's not needed
other than that I really have no clue, and suggest calling apple.


you don't need to do a factory reset on the watch, when you unpair and re-pair in the watch app on the phone, all of that will be done automatically.

Hey there, thank you for your reply!

I was turning of Wi-Fi manually just to test how the watch would function when they were out. The fact that the watch lost connection to the phone when I turned off Wi-Fi manually worried me, but they confirmed that the Bluetooth connection between their phone and the watch was stable when they were taking a walk.

Considering all seems well when they're outside, I guess It didn't matter at all.

You're right about not being able to see the phone through the watch's Bluetooth list, I could see it when I first set it up, but after I made it forget, it never came back. And I didn't really have a chance to test things after the second pairing.

Thanks again for the detailed reply, the fact that the watch is working properly and your through explanations gave me the ease of mind that I didn't mess things up ^^

 

[Night Spring]

I was turning of Wi-Fi manually just to test how the watch would function when they were out.

This doesn't replicate the condition the watch would be in when out for a walk with the phone. As I understand it, the watch and phone use both Bluetooth and WiFi to communicate with each other, even in the absence of any WiFi network. So as the other poster said, just leave the radios alone, and it'll work fine.