AW5 no access to cellular without iPhone

[JerseyDoug]

Perhaps I don't understand how this works, but my Apple Watch 5 GPS + Cellular does not appear to be able to access Verizon without being connected to my iPhone 11 Pro.

The watch is on my verizon account, but when I turn off my phone, disable wifi on the watch and the phone, the cellular icon on the watch does not change to green as it would if it were connected to cellular.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[xraydoc]

Perhaps I don't understand how this works, but my Apple Watch 5 GPS + Cellular does not appear to be able to access Verizon without being connected to my iPhone 11 Pro.

The watch is on my verizon account, but when I turn off my phone, disable wifi on the watch and the phone, the cellular icon on the watch does not change to green as it would if it were connected to cellular.

Any advice is appreciated.

Something isn’t working correctly — definitely not expected behavior. Doesn’t sound like the cellular is working (yeah, I know, obvious, right).

 

[perezr10]

Sometimes it take a few minutes. If you get the red disconnected icon at the top you can switch cellular off/on to jumpstart it.

Also, are you sure your plan is active? Like when your watch is connected to your iPhone, go and look at the cellular option in settings. You should see a green check mark next to your carrier. If its green than your plan is active.

 

[JerseyDoug]

Sometimes it take a few minutes. If you get the red disconnected icon at the top you can switch cellular off/on to jumpstart it.

Also, are you sure your plan is active? Like when your watch is connected to your iPhone, go and look at the cellular option in settings. You should see a green check mark next to your carrier. If its green than your plan is active.

Thanks for the info. I talked to Verizonwireless, (chatted, actually) and they didn't see a connection problem on their end. Unfortunately, I have decided to return the watch and get a refund. After having had the watch for a few days I realized I didn't really need it. For a watch, I prefer my Rolex and my iPhone handles everything else just fine.

I do appreciate your thoughts on the issue.

 

[JerseyDoug]

Just to close this out. It works! So, perhaps Ill keep it. LOL!

Thanks to perezr10, I gave it another try. This time I -
- Unpaired it from my iPhone.
- Removed my Verizon Plan
- Powered the watch off
- Reset network settings on my iPhone
- Paired the watch/phone
- Set watch up from scratch
- Connected to cellular account

To test, I turned off WiFi on the watch and turned off bluetooth on the phone. Still didn't work. So, I turned cellular off/on on the watch and the cellular indicator turned from white to green.

So, I'm good to go. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.