Help syncing "Mark as Unread" messages between Watch and iPhone

[davagorn]

I have a new-ish Watch and new-ish iPhone, each on the latest OS.

I enjoy being able to read a message, mark it as unread, and respond to it later. I can do this on both the Watch and the iPhone.

Let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my Watch to unread, a badge immediately pops up on my iPhone's Messages app. That's good! They are syncing to each other, which is helpful.

But let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my iPhone to unread, my watch Messages complication continues to show no unread messages, and if I open the Watch's Messages app, that message appears to have been read, even though it is now unread on my iPhone.

Why does this only work for me in one direction? I bet I'm missing something...

 

[mcvaughan]

I have a new-ish Watch and new-ish iPhone, each on the latest OS.

I enjoy being able to read a message, mark it as unread, and respond to it later. I can do this on both the Watch and the iPhone.

Let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my Watch to unread, a badge immediately pops up on my iPhone's Messages app. That's good! They are syncing to each other, which is helpful.

But let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my iPhone to unread, my watch Messages complication continues to show no unread messages, and if I open the Watch's Messages app, that message appears to have been read, even though it is now unread on my iPhone.

Why does this only work for me in one direction? I bet I'm missing something...

It’s been that way for a long time, unfortunately.

 

[davagorn]

It’s been that way for a long time, unfortunately.

Like this is normal operation? That seems both pointless and easily fixable (on Apple's end).

 

[jz0309]

Like this is normal operation? That seems both pointless and easily fixable (on Apple's end).

As said above, it’s been like this for ages - you can always provide feedback to Apple

 

[jdb8167]

I have a new-ish Watch and new-ish iPhone, each on the latest OS.

I enjoy being able to read a message, mark it as unread, and respond to it later. I can do this on both the Watch and the iPhone.

Let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my Watch to unread, a badge immediately pops up on my iPhone's Messages app. That's good! They are syncing to each other, which is helpful.

But let's say I have no unread messages. If I swipe a message on my iPhone to unread, my watch Messages complication continues to show no unread messages, and if I open the Watch's Messages app, that message appears to have been read, even though it is now unread on my iPhone.

Why does this only work for me in one direction? I bet I'm missing something...

It seems to work fine for me. I don't see a badge on the actual Messages app in the Home Screen (press crown once.) But at least some complications show an unread count of 1 and the Smart Stack 3-widget featured apps also shows a 1 in the button. I'm on a Series 9 with the latest released WatchOS 10.0.2. iPhone 12 Pro with iOS 17.0.3.

Here is when I marked my latest Message as Unread: