Beware

[sdp77]

Recently I have switched my cell phone provider to one that doesn't support Apple Watch. T-Mobile offered a stand alone plan for my watch series 5. Everything we tried did not work though, until I checked the watch app and discovered that the cellular connection section was greyed out. So, I called Apple support to see what's going on. I have AppleCare for my watch. Actually, the battery was dying so Apple replaced my watch with a "new" one recently. Initially I was told that the phone and the watch must be on the same network but then, turns out, if a family membre's watch is paired with the same phone, this watch may have a diferent carrier. So, we proceeded to erase all settings on my watch and try to pair it with the phone. For some reason, half way through the pairing process the phone would just start to unpair the watch. We tried maybe 5 times and got the same result. The support agent decided it was time to talk to a senior supervisor. We erased all settings again and tried to pair the watch with no luck. At that point I said well, let's get it back to repairing it without using the family member option. It would not work. At that point the supervisor said that he was sorry but there's nothing else he can do.
I said OK, but following your directions this watch is rendered unusable whereas it worked perfectly until we started resetting and pairing it over and over again. The supervisor said that, actually, my watch was declared vintage so I can only try a third party to fix it, since AppleCare only covers physical damage. He said that probably the old software on my watch is not compatible with the latest IOS. Guess what: it worked without a glitch up to that moment. I insisted that they have rendered my watch useless and he said that if I bring it up again he would just hang up.
Result: I'm left without a watch. I asked him where I can complain about this and he said the only way is to send a letter to Cupertino, there's no phone number or email address that can be used to complain.
Case closed.

 

[Bigwaff]

… and your iPhone is which and has what version of iOS installed?

 

[sdp77]

iPhone 15 Pro, IOS 26.3.1

 

[BigMcGuire]

Curious if turning off bluetooth on your phone would force the watch to use wifi? I had problems adding my AW3 to my iPhone when I initially got it. (Probably won't work but that's the only thing I can think of you trying). Once the pairing starts.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

1. You could set it up as an Apple Watch for Kids; that’s the only supported option to let it have a stand-alone cellular plan. not ideal; the watch loses a lot of features and isn’t directly paired to your phone any more which means no shared apps. I don’t recommend this but it’s “an option.”
2. You could set up a 2nd SIM on your iPhone with a carrier that supports Apple Watch. Of course that means paying for two cellular plans.
3. Of course, one option is switch back to a supported carrier. Pretty self-explanatory; I assume there’s a reason why this isn’t something you want to do.
4. Use the watch without cellular. Perhaps best option of the bunch? Millions of Apple Watch users do this every day; unless it’s an Ultra the watch is available in cellular and non-cellular versions.

Regardless of your choice, Apple.com/feedback & let them know you’d like the option to set up cellular on a different carrier than your iPhone. Presumably it “could” be done if they wanted to support it, but they need to know users want it.

 

[Happy_John]

Recently I have switched my cell phone provider to one that doesn't support Apple Watch. T-Mobile offered a stand alone plan for my watch series 5. Everything we tried did not work though, until I checked the watch app and discovered that the cellular connection section was greyed out. So, I called Apple support to see what's going on. I have AppleCare for my watch. Actually, the battery was dying so Apple replaced my watch with a "new" one recently. Initially I was told that the phone and the watch must be on the same network but then, turns out, if a family membre's watch is paired with the same phone, this watch may have a diferent carrier. So, we proceeded to erase all settings on my watch and try to pair it with the phone. For some reason, half way through the pairing process the phone would just start to unpair the watch. We tried maybe 5 times and got the same result. The support agent decided it was time to talk to a senior supervisor. We erased all settings again and tried to pair the watch with no luck. At that point I said well, let's get it back to repairing it without using the family member option. It would not work. At that point the supervisor said that he was sorry but there's nothing else he can do.
I said OK, but following your directions this watch is rendered unusable whereas it worked perfectly until we started resetting and pairing it over and over again. The supervisor said that, actually, my watch was declared vintage so I can only try a third party to fix it, since AppleCare only covers physical damage. He said that probably the old software on my watch is not compatible with the latest IOS. Guess what: it worked without a glitch up to that moment. I insisted that they have rendered my watch useless and he said that if I bring it up again he would just hang up.
Result: I'm left without a watch. I asked him where I can complain about this and he said the only way is to send a letter to Cupertino, there's no phone number or email address that can be used to complain.
Case closed.

Wierd. I’m on T-Mobile, but not in the USA - I presume you are. I would have thought this would be standard though T-Mobile’s network/infrastructure if it is a technical issue, but no problems for me. I have an AW10 with cellular, and have at times had it sharing my phone’s sim but also at other times on it’s own dediccated data-only sim (where I am based, if you have abusiness contract with t-mobile, you automatically get two sims - one for phone and one that’s data only). I had to go into a t-mobile store to get them to do whatever they need to on their system to put a dedicated sim on the watch, but still be thethered to the phone (but not the phone’s sim) and the same to switch it back, I couldn’t do it online or though the phone itself, but once done, no issues.