Force Apple Watch to Use Cellular

[makris0000]

I have an Apple Watch Ultra Series 1 (AWU1) with cellular service through Verizon. Every time I go to the gym, I have to connect Spotify on my AWU1 to my AirPods 3rd Gen (AP3). Half the time the APU1 will tell me to connect to them via Bluetooth, then the APU1 will say failed to connect to AP3, make sure device is turned on and in range. Once I eventually get the AP3 to connect to the AWU1, Spotify will skip sometimes and then when I am somewhat close to the phone, the AWU1 will try to connect to the phone instead of using cellular service, which causes Spotify to fail.

Anyone have a solution to make the AWU1 stay on cellular service or to limit the range to where my 14 Pro Max connects to the AWU1? I usually have to park my car far away from the gym because whenever I do cardio, the AWU1 will try to connect to the phone even though it's about 50ish-100ish feet away.

 

[Howard2k]

it’s nothing to do with cellular.

You have told your AirPods to use your iPhone by default so that’s what it does. It doesn’t know that you meant “do it except when I don’t want you to”

You can work around this by:

* closing the Spotify app on the phone.
* disabling BT on the phone (from settings, not Notification Centre!)
* moving your phone so it’s out of range.
* changing the “connect to this phone automatically” option.


I wait until my phone is out of range but from memory I’ve had success with just closing the Spotify app on the phone too I think.

 

[Howard2k]

Just double checked. Audio didn’t switch back to my phone when I came back into range. But as soon as I opened Spotify on the phone and started a song it grabbed the audio again, as it’s configured to do.

 

[makris0000]

I tried that yesterday and my AirPods connected quicker than usual to my AWU1. I have not been able to test if the APU1 will try to use my phone's cellular data when I get somewhat in range of it.

 

[Howard2k]

I suspect that one of us is having a material misunderstanding. It could be me.

What I'm describing is the issue when you want to use your watch to play from its own Spotify session sourced from either downloaded tracks on the watch, or from the cloud (via any mechanism such as Bluetooth, Wifi, or Cellular).

Instead, the phone will take over control of the AirPods and at that Bluetooth range border where they're in and out of range it causes the AirPods to not know who to talk to (watch or phone), interrupting your music service. BT is what your watch, phone, and AirPods are all using to talk to each other. The cellular on watch of phone is irrelevant I think. I don't spend time with that issue because the mechanisms I use seem to mean I never have it any longer.


If you're having a data issue that's a totally different problem. The watch won't use cellular unless it's a last resort. First choice is BT, second choice is Wifi, third choice is cellular.

You could turn off the BT on your phone (as I mention above) that should solve the issue. By turning off BT then the phone and AirPods will not try to connect to the watch and the Spotify session won't jump. But like I said, I just close the Spotify app on my phone.

For the AirPods, they will switch back to your phone if there is any media (not Spotify exclusively) that wants to play audio. That could be a phone call, or a text message notification, an advert on a webpage etc. An unlimited number of sources on your phone could want to play an audible notification and that might make your phone want to take control of your AirPods. But again, BT turned off on the phone will solve that issue. I don't take the step. I just close Spotify on the phone and then I'm out the door with my phone at home. If I'm at the gym I keep my phone with me and so use it for Spotify too. But if I was to leave it somewhere within BT range, I'd turn off BT to avoid this whole mess.


EDIT: For total clarity, since that’s a lot of reading, the only way to force cellular is to disable BT, but you need BT to have the watch talk to AirPods. That’s why instead you need to manage that BT relationship between the devices. You could probably do a shortcut to turn off BT on the phone for 60 minutes and then turn it back on.

 

[makris0000]

So far i've been trying to force quit Spotify on my iPhone and so far it's been working! I have not noticed any issues with connectivity except for the very beginning where it will start playing, then it will stop and I will have to click on play again.