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Messages remain unread on watch when read on iphone

Fixed mine. All good now.

I signed out of iCloud on all devices. Rebooted. Signed back in. Disabled messages in iCloud and then enable again. Now all my devices are marking messages read.

For you guys without messages in iCloud on just sign out and reboot on each device. Then sign back in and reboot again.
 
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Thanks for the tip I will give this a try, it seems to be worse than ever. It’s been doin it with iMessages now as well, And the other devices are treating MY response as a new message.
 
ajbkid said:
Thanks for the tip I will give this a try, it seems to be worse than ever. It’s been doin it with iMessages now as well, And the other devices are treating MY response as a new message.
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Yep that was my issue at some point. Totally do it.

Only thing you’ll need to redo is adding your cards to Apple Pay again. But that’s fine. Everything else will sync back.
 
I went ahead an did it. Logged my phone and iPad completely out of iCloud, rebooted, logged back in, still same issue. But I did some more experimenting and made some odd discoveries.
I have a spare iPhone 7 Plus, that is actually active on another line and still happens to be on iOS 13.0. I signed it in to my iCloud, and check-marked its phone number in my iMessage settingsand turned on send and receive from that phone, allowing it to be in the loop with my normal phone, watch, iPad , and Mac.
Heres the interesting part... while that phone/ phone number is check marked in my settings, everything works perfectly as it should! But if I remove that phone from the mix, it immediately goes back to not working correctly. I have now powered off that 7 Plus, but still have its number in my iMessage addresses, and everything is working as it should. I wonder if that phone still being on iOS 13.0 (not 13.2 which messed things up again) is the reason.
Im going to just leave it like this as a workaround, as ridiculous as it is. I wish I could get apples attention on this. I repeatedly submit feedback on the feedback site, but new updates come out and its never fixed.
 
I too have signed up because I am also having this problem... it has been happening for a while, but something I have just noticed is that when I read the messages on my macbook they clear on my watch. I am not sure if anyone knows what that means but I thought I would check since that isn't something I have seen or been able to solve with google.
 
teezer13 said:
I too have signed up because I am also having this problem... it has been happening for a while, but something I have just noticed is that when I read the messages on my macbook they clear on my watch. I am not sure if anyone knows what that means but I thought I would check since that isn't something I have seen or been able to solve with google.
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You mean deleted or marked read on the watch?
 
teezer13 said:
I will try that!
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Yeah. Just do it on the affected devices. Those that don’t mark it read on the other devices.

Example: read message on iPad. Still unread on phone. But if you read on phone, iPad shows read too.

In that case I’d sign out of the phone. Or both as an precaution. Reboot. Then sign back in.

Apple Watch solution would be the same here by just signing out and back in on the phone.

MacBook should work fine after this. But restart it too. If it’s still an issue then sign out of messages on the MacBook from that app settings and back in. If you have messages in iCloud on it will sync back all your messages.
 
I had this issue for a VERY long time. iPhone is an XR, and I had the problem with my previous series 2 watch and now my current series 5 watch. The problem happens specifically with received SMS text messages (not sent from an iPhone). It finally drove me bonkers to the point where I read every single forum and thread on this topic, that existed on the Internet. I literally tried everything. I toggled every setting, I messed with iMessage and iCloud with no luck. BUT I finally did fix it!!! I factory reset my watch first and then I factory reset my iPhone XR. Then, when setting my phone back up, I DID NOT import any settings or apps or anything from cloud or backup. Then I did the same exact thing with my watch and it worked!!! It was super annoying having to set my three-year-old phone up like it was my first phone ever but it was totally worth it!!!
 
Soundwave GI said:
I specifically signed up to comment on this thread as this issue has been a major pain in rear. I think this might be solved for me after spending about an hour with Apple in this. I previously had and Apple iPhone X, then moved to an XS Max. I don't recall if I ever unpaired the watch before resetting that the factory. However, when I got the new phone I paired to the watch no problem. This issue happened. I followed all kinds of suggestions, up to resetting the watch to factory and setting it up as a new watch (no restore from backup) to the new phone...still, the issue happened.
- First thing (I did not have this problem, but support suggested it) - Check to make sure you didn't block your own phone number. Some people do this after receiving spoof phone calls from their own number.
- Second thing (This seems to have fixed it for me) - On your phone, go to Settings -> General -> Reset and "Reset All Settings". This will not erase your account setup (you will need to setup passcode and faceid again) or text messages,emails or apps, photos, etc., but it will erase settings pertaining to WiFi, your background customization, and access for apps to cellular data.

I've only been messing with it for a couple hours, but have sent texts back and forth with people on sms texts and iMessage going both ways and checking my phone has marked it read on my watch and vice versa. I hope this helps. This is an ongoing issue and I don't think I've actually seen it figured out yet. I hope this works for everyone. Please reply if it solved it for you so that we can help other annoyed souls get their watch back in sync.
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You are a HERO! This was my exact problem. Happened after an upgrade to my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I didn’t unpair the watch before erasing the old phone, and while I was able to pair my watch with the new phone, the SMS text messages never synced. I tried multiple wipes of the watch, and nothing worked. I was reluctant to erase all settings, but like and behold it WORKED. This is the only forum out of anything I’ve read online anywhere, that correctly diagnosed the cause and the fix. Bravo!
 
CongressDJ said:
You are a HERO! This was my exact problem. Happened after an upgrade to my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I didn’t unpair the watch before erasing the old phone, and while I was able to pair my watch with the new phone, the SMS text messages never synced. I tried multiple wipes of the watch, and nothing worked. I was reluctant to erase all settings, but like and behold it WORKED. This is the only forum out of anything I’ve read online anywhere, that correctly diagnosed the cause and the fix. Bravo!
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I need to add, do NOT erase all CONTENT and settings (although that will work). Just reset the settings. It’s much less a pain than starting your whole iPhone from scratch. :)
 
SorsCode said:
I had the same thing. Power down both devices, bring up the iPhone X then, then bring up the Watch. The Watch will then start notifying of you of all your messages. Once it's up to sync, it should stay. Mine has.
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Just wanted to say that 4 years after you posted this it’s helped solve my issue. That was maddening! Thank you!
 
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