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All Devices Cannot pair with Apple watch after updated to ios 13.5.1

D

dragonjinse

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 13, 2013
318
12
So I decided to update my XR to ios 13.5.1 from 12.4.1 last night. It was a bad decision....
My apple watch automatically unpaired with my iphone. I have tried countless of time to pair them together by restarting my phone and watch, deleting the watch app, reseting my phone and watch. Nothing works. I have contacted Apple since last night and a whole day today, but nobody can figure it out. The problem is when i try to pair my watch to the phone, it keeps asking me to update the watch OS. Then when i try to update, it pops up the message that the internet doesn’t work (actually it is working fine). After i talked with the apple support last night, the pop up was gone but the app stuck on the watch os update page even though it already showed me that the watch os was up to date. The only option to choose was cancel the pairing process.
I also tried to connect my watch with another ios12 iPhone and it paired and worked fine.
Then this morning, i talked with a senior Apple support. He can’t figure it out either. What he told me is the engineer team is aware of this issue and they are working on a new update...
So anybody have this issue? How you fix it?

thank you
 
Last edited:
I haven't updated to 13.5.1 and I haven't had this specific issue, but I have run into the issue where the Watch app complains about no internet connection when I tried to update, even there was one that worked fine.

If memory serves, I think I solved that update issue by changing the nature of the internet connection, it was either to connect to a hotspot made by another phone, or from toggling between 4G and WiFi on my phone (sorry that I can't be more precise).

Have you tried anything like that, already?
 
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i have tried using both home wifi and LTE but no luck :(
elbowrm said:
I haven't updated to 13.5.1 and I haven't had this specific issue, but I have run into the issue where the Watch app complains about no internet connection when I tried to update, even there was one that worked fine.

If memory serves, I think I solved that update issue by changing the nature of the internet connection, it was either to connect to a hotspot made by another phone, or from toggling between 4G and WiFi on my phone (sorry that I can't be more precise).

Have you tried anything like that, already?
Click to expand...
 
elbowrm said:
Dang, sorry to hear that!!

I guess one drastic path you could go down is to force restore to 13.5 firmware, it looks like it's still being signed: https://ipsw.me/iPhone11,8
You'd have to use iTunes (or the Catalina equivalent). But, there's no guarantee that the problem wouldn't be there, too...
Click to expand...

Thanks! I had the same problem with a series 3 and 11 Pro Max, restoring to 13.5 allowed me to update and re-pair my watch
 
Awesome, very glad to hear that!!

I wonder whether the anti-jailbreak security fix that was added in 13.5.1 might be related to this watch pairing problem??
 
dragonjinse said:
So I decided to update my XR to ios 13.5.1 from 12.4.1 last night. It was a bad decision....
My apple watch automatically unpaired with my iphone. I have tried countless of time to pair them together by restarting my phone and watch, deleting the watch app, reseting my phone and watch. Nothing works. I have contacted Apple since last night and a whole day today, but nobody can figure it out. The problem is when i try to pair my watch to the phone, it keeps asking me to update the watch OS. Then when i try to update, it pops up the message that the internet doesn’t work (actually it is working fine). After i talked with the apple support last night, the pop up was gone but the app stuck on the watch os update page even though it already showed me that the watch os was up to date. The only option to choose was cancel the pairing process.
I also tried to connect my watch with another ios12 iPhone and it paired and worked fine.
Then this morning, i talked with a senior Apple support. He can’t figure it out either. What he told me is the engineer team is aware of this issue and they are working on a new update...
So anybody have this issue? How you fix it?

thank you
Click to expand...
I’m having the exact same issue...Help? Not sure what to do.
 
MaraK said:
I’m having the exact same issue...Help? Not sure what to do.
Click to expand...
Hi, did you see earlier post abt using iTunes to force restore to 13.5? You'd have to download the correct firmware ipsw file from ipsw.me first. Google around for how to restore to a specific ipsw file, it involves holding down a modifier key (I forget which one) when clicking the restore button.

Also, now that 13.5.1 has been released, it's very likely that Apple will soon turn off code signing for 13.5 in a matter of days, meaning iTunes at that point will prevent manually downgrading to 13.5. Act fast, if you want to try that!
 
Last edited:
MaraK said:
I’ll try it. Thanks
Click to expand...
You're welcome! Keep in mind that restoring ends up wiping the existing apps & data. After doing the restore to 13.5, if you have an iTunes backup that was made prior to 13.5.1, you can restore that data (forward compatible). But any backup made from 13.5.1 will be too new to use (not backward compatible).
 
elbowrm said:
Hi, did you see the post lower down abt using iTunes to force restore to 13.5? You'd have to download the correct firmware ipsw file from ipsw.me first. Google around for how to restore to a specific ipsw file, it involves holding down a modifier key (I forget which one) when clicking the restore button.

Also, now that 13.5.1 has been released, it's very likely that Apple will soon turn off code signing for 13.5 in a matter of days, meaning iTunes at that point will prevent manually downgrading to 13.5. Act fast, if you want to try that!
Click to expand...
I can’t do this because my Mac desktop software is to outdated
elbowrm said:
You're welcome! Keep in mind that restoring ends up wiping the existing apps & data. After doing the restore to 13.5, if you have an iTunes backup that was made prior to 13.5.1, you can restore that data (forward compatible). But any backup made from 13.5.1 will be too new to use (not backward compatible).
Click to expand...
I can’t restore b/c my Mac desktop software is to old to support the new iTunes. Any other way to restore without connecting my iPhone to Mac?
 
MaraK said:
I can’t do this because my Mac desktop software is to outdated

I can’t restore b/c my Mac desktop software is to old to support the new iTunes. Any other way to restore without connecting my iPhone to Mac?
Click to expand...
No other way that I know of. What versions of macOS and iTunes are you running? Even with older versions of iTunes, even though it complains with an error about needing to update to a newer version when connect the phone to the desktop, you may be able to ignore that warning and do this restore procedure.

It could be argued that Apple's modernization campaign re iTunes has a bit of overzealousness/misinformation, esp when it comes to things like this.

IMHO, the "last good version" of iTunes was 12.6.3, wrt iPhone maintenance. Apple quietly makes this still available for download, because enterprise IT admins complained bitterly abt losing the ability to manage an iOS device's apps from the desktop. You can read more abt that here: https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...ersion-allows-for-app-management-installation
 
Seeing the same issue with my daughter’s Apple Watch. Upgraded her phone to 13.5.1 and numerous attempts to pair it fail when trying to “update” the watch to the most recent version. Keeps saying the phone’s not connected to the internet.
 
mcvaughan said:
Seeing the same issue with my daughter’s Apple Watch. Upgraded her phone to 13.5.1 and numerous attempts to pair it fail when trying to “update” the watch to the most recent version. Keeps saying the phone’s not connected to the internet.
Click to expand...
Hi Matt, did you see the suggestion above abt downgrading the phone to 13.5?
 
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elbowrm said:
Hi Matt, did you see the suggestion above abt downgrading the phone to 13.5?
Click to expand...

I did, but I think I’ll just wait for a fix from Apple.

FYI: installing 13.5.5 beta on my phone allows me to get the watch to pair properly.
 
Last edited:
Just got my replacement Series 4, had no problems pairing it to my iPhone X with 13.5.1. The watch came with 6.1.2 installed.
 
dragonjinse said:
So I decided to update my XR to ios 13.5.1 from 12.4.1 last night. It was a bad decision....
My apple watch automatically unpaired with my iphone. I have tried countless of time to pair them together by restarting my phone and watch, deleting the watch app, reseting my phone and watch. Nothing works. I have contacted Apple since last night and a whole day today, but nobody can figure it out. The problem is when i try to pair my watch to the phone, it keeps asking me to update the watch OS. Then when i try to update, it pops up the message that the internet doesn’t work (actually it is working fine). After i talked with the apple support last night, the pop up was gone but the app stuck on the watch os update page even though it already showed me that the watch os was up to date. The only option to choose was cancel the pairing process.
I also tried to connect my watch with another ios12 iPhone and it paired and worked fine.
Then this morning, i talked with a senior Apple support. He can’t figure it out either. What he told me is the engineer team is aware of this issue and they are working on a new update...
So anybody have this issue? How you fix it?

thank you
Click to expand...
I thought I had the same problem after the update, then from watch settings I saw that bt was turned off. Not sure if it was from the update or accidentally.
but worth to check
 
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mrwilly25 said:
Just got my replacement Series 4, had no problems pairing it to my iPhone X with 13.5.1. The watch came with 6.1.2 installed.
Click to expand...

How did you get the replacement? I tried pairing my apple watch with my old iphone 8 ios12 and it worked great! Then I unpaired the apple watch and tried to pair with my iphone XR ios13, BAM! Same issue :(
 
dragonjinse said:
How did you get the replacement? I tried pairing my apple watch with my old iphone 8 ios12 and it worked great! Then I unpaired the apple watch and tried to pair with my iphone XR ios13, BAM! Same issue :(
Click to expand...

Apple Care Express Replacement
 
So i have a series 2 and an iphone 8 plus. watch was is on ios5 and phone was updated to newest ios 13 and now the watch will not connect.

support said to find an old iphone and pair it to that and update the watch to ios 6 and pair it back to my ios 13...

i dont have my old phone anymore so they said no prob send it in and we will update it. i send it in and they go oh it is hardware that will be $250.. i read a bunch of forums where the same thing happened to others.

anyone know a work around other than downgrading firmware?
 
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