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PepperIsBetter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2020
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Ever since upgrading to iOS 14 and Watch OS 7, my watch stops ringing when someone calls my phone. Nothing resolves this issue except rebooting my iPhone, but only temporarily. I originally had an iPhone X and now a 12 Pro, both had this issue. Software restore does not fix the issue. I eventually figured out this was caused by wireless CarPlay after reading a reddit thread on the issue. Once I travel somewhere in my car while my phone is using wireless CarPlay, after I get out of my car, my Apple Watch will no longer ring when I receive phone calls. It doesn't recognize a call at all. This seems to be a bug on the iPhone that causes it to be "stuck" in CarPlay mode to some degree and it stops telling the watch when it is receiving a phone call.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
 
Created an account just so I could reply to this thread.

This exact thing is happening to my Apple Watch 6ss. I contacted support yesterday and was on with them for 6 hours. I thought something was wrong with my watch as I just purchased it on Sunday. I worked with chat and they had me reset the watch. Everything worked, I thought great I’m glad its working and went on my way. Then today after driving (Bmw with wireless CarPlay) to work I realize my watch stopped ringing again. I reset the watch again and it worked. Drove home from work, took off my watch, took a shower, called my number to test and wouldn’t you know, it stopped working! I then contacted support chat, gave them the case number, and waited for a long time. Representative reviewed my case and started with, I will have to escalate your request to a phone representative. He proceeded to take my information and scheduled a call back on Saturday. I reset the watch again and began testing, I repeated everything I did this morning including getting in my car and starting CarPlay. Discovered the problem, googled it, and landed here.

I have an iphone 12pro and a 44 mm Apple Watch 6 SS.

I’m not hopeful the call from apple support will resolve the issue, but I’ll report back.
 
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Hey, I have same issue. I was upgrading my iPhone Xs to iOS 14 and series 3 watch to OS 7 and this started. I didn't realize, it is the BMW Carplay that breaks it. I am glad to tell you that you don't need to restart your iPhone to work it out. You can just disable and enable bluetooth to overcome this issue. However It is really bad thing that you need to do it.

I just upgraded to iPhone 12 Pro and Watch series 6. It didn't fix the issue. I am still waiting my new BMW, maybe that fixes it ;)
 
I have been having this issue for awhile now and could not figure out wtf was causing it. Just seemed like it would randomly stop working but now that I think about it this makes sense.... I really hope they get this fixed. I have missed a number of calls because of this. I too have wireless CarPlay.
 
Hey, I have same issue. I was upgrading my iPhone Xs to iOS 14 and series 3 watch to OS 7 and this started. I didn't realize, it is the BMW Carplay that breaks it. I am glad to tell you that you don't need to restart your iPhone to work it out. You can just disable and enable bluetooth to overcome this issue. However It is really bad thing that you need to do it.

I just upgraded to iPhone 12 Pro and Watch series 6. It didn't fix the issue. I am still waiting my new BMW, maybe that fixes it ;)
On the phone or watch? This doesn't work for me, have to power down and back on for it to ring.
 
Same. Issue seems to be tied to the phone. Once I restart the phone everything goes back to normal. Toggling bluetooth didn't fix it for me either.
You should try in phone. Do not rely on quick link. Go to settings => Bluetooth => disable/enable. That helped at least for me. Quick link did not make the trick
 
14.2 does not resolve this issue FYI. Just tested it. Watch was being notified of calls, then I ran out to my car to connect to CarPlay, came back inside and called myself again. No ring. Wildly annoying. Basic functionality is totally broken.
 
When will Apple release a fix for this issue? It was all working fine until iOS 14 and WatchOS7. I think we all need to call Apple Support, get it escalated, and get them all to investigate this issue.
 
When will Apple release a fix for this issue? It was all working fine until iOS 14 and WatchOS7. I think we all need to call Apple Support, get it escalated, and get them all to investigate this issue.
I reported it yesterday. I told them I have seen that it’s a widespread issue, but I didn’t have time to go through their typical troubleshooting (restoring and all that nonsense). I just explained what the issue was and how it gets fixed.
 
Ever since upgrading to iOS 14 and Watch OS 7, my watch stops ringing when someone calls my phone. Nothing resolves this issue except rebooting my iPhone, but only temporarily. I originally had an iPhone X and now a 12 Pro, both had this issue. Software restore does not fix the issue. I eventually figured out this was caused by wireless CarPlay after reading a reddit thread on the issue. Once I travel somewhere in my car while my phone is using wireless CarPlay, after I get out of my car, my Apple Watch will no longer ring when I receive phone calls. It doesn't recognize a call at all. This seems to be a bug on the iPhone that causes it to be "stuck" in CarPlay mode to some degree and it stops telling the watch when it is receiving a phone call.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

I have this same issue, but hadn’t connected it to CarPlay, although it makes sense! I need to verify. I’ve reported it to Apple and it shows “more than 10” for other reports.
 
I added more info to my feedback and included the link to this thread. Hopefully they fix it.
 
I’ve also just created a profile just to respond to this thread – I can’t believe how frustrating it is missing phone call after phone call when my Apple Watch doesn’t ring. I’ve tried all of the suggestions above and none of them have worked. I was happy that my watch would finally unlock my Mac again after installing watchOS 14.2 but once again completely frustrated by not getting calls on my watch… Apple please help! 😩😩
 
I'm so happy it seems like this is starting to spread so hopefully Apple will get it fixed. I was really unhappy when I installed the last update and it hadn't been fixed yet. This is basic functionality. I rely on the watch to alert me to calls, that was one of the biggest reasons I bought the watch in the first place!
 
deb5d32bf60384c76efd08842e36fd6b.jpg

Well this is somewhat enraging.

Edit: I submitted another bug report as the one pictured here was originally filed under watchOS before it was figured out that this is caused by the phone. New one filed under FB8904389 in case anyone wants to reference it in their own report.
 
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I contacted them again today about it and cited the thread posted in here a couple of posts ago. They asked me to fill out a product feedback thing explaining the issue which I did. If it's not fixed by the next update I'll be very upset. The picture above is from last month so that gives me hope that more and more people have complained since then. It doesn't have a ton of information either. Maybe the description went into more detail, but it sounds like if someone doesnt have CarPlay or wireless CarPlay they will not be effected by this.
 
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I contacted them again today about it and cited the thread posted in here a couple of posts ago. They asked me to fill out a product feedback thing explaining the issue which I did. If it's not fixed by the next update I'll be very upset. The picture above is from last month so that gives me hope that more and more people have complained since then. It doesn't have a ton of information either. Maybe the description went into more detail, but it sounds like if someone doesnt have CarPlay or wireless CarPlay they will not be effected by this.

I submitted a lot more info after I figured out what was actually going on and had linked to this thread. A few days ago it was listed as open, and now it’s closed. Hopefully resubmitting under iOS and with the right details from the get-go has some more impact.
 
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I contacted them again today about it and cited the thread posted in here a couple of posts ago. They asked me to fill out a product feedback thing explaining the issue which I did. If it's not fixed by the next update I'll be very upset. The picture above is from last month so that gives me hope that more and more people have complained since then. It doesn't have a ton of information either. Maybe the description went into more detail, but it sounds like if someone doesnt have CarPlay or wireless CarPlay they will not be effected by this.

In case anyone isn’t aware, you can access the built-in Feedback app on your phone to submit reports even if you aren’t running betas. Type “applefeedback://“ into Safari. It’s a great place to track everything you’ve submitted and you can see the investigation results.
 
In case anyone isn’t aware, you can access the built-in Feedback app on your phone to submit reports even if you aren’t running betas. Type “applefeedback://“ into Safari. It’s a great place to track everything you’ve submitted and you can see the investigation results.
Thank you for the advice. Now filling reports on my and wife's iPhones (we both have BMWs and both have the issue on our devices). I didn't fill before because many people already reported it, and I expected it is enough... But resolution on your screenshot is ... unbelievable. We all have to file.
 
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Thank you for the advice. Now filling reports on my and wife's iPhones (we both have BMWs and both have the issue on our devices). I didn't fill before because many people already reported it, and I expected it is enough... But resolution on your screenshot is ... unbelievable. We all have to file.

Glad I could help! Hopefully we get a fix sooner than later. I miss calls at work all the time because of this.
 
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Hey all, this morning I’m not having the issue. Drove to work (used Wireless CarPlay) and received a call after I got to work and my watch alerted me.

Before, it was 100% guaranteed to not work.

Can someone else test?
 
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