iPhone 17 Pro Problems connecting Apple Watches to IPhone 17 Pro & Air

[flynz4]

Does anyone have difficulties pairing their Apple Watches during setup of iPhone 17 models?

Last night it took about a dozen attempts to connect my wife’s Apple Watch 8 to her new iPhone Air during setup.

This morning I’ve had no luck connecting my Apple Watch Ultra to my new iPhone 17 Pro.

If not, I guess I’ll have to try “forgetting” the watch and set it up as a new watch. I’d prefer not to do that… especially if I loose the history.

/Jim

 

[buruuburu]

I also have Apple Watch 8. I didn’t have any problems this time but I remember I couldn’t pair it with my 15 Pro Max. The health and activity data is stored on the phone, not the watch. As long as you’ve got iCloud turned on (and both health and watch are toggled on), you won’t lose your data. When you pair the watch with the new iPhone, your health and activity history will still be there

 

[goldmac2006]

Does anyone have difficulties pairing their Apple Watches during setup of iPhone 17 models?

Last night it took about a dozen attempts to connect my wife’s Apple Watch 8 to her new iPhone Air during setup.

This morning I’ve had no luck connecting my Apple Watch Ultra to my new iPhone 17 Pro.

If not, I guess I’ll have to try “forgetting” the watch and set it up as a new watch. I’d prefer not to do that… especially if I loose the history.

/Jim

Are you doing it as a direct transfer where the existing Apple Watch is connected to old iPhone, then after the iPhone is set up from direct transfer you bridge the connection over to the iPhone 17 Pro?

I typically do that when I did direct transfer on my iPhone 7 and the iPhone 15 Pro. I only do a complete unpair of the watch on the old iPhone and pair it to the new iPhone if I set up as new on the iPhone

 

[buruuburu]

You need to unpair it from the old iPhone and then pair it to the new iPhone. You can also try deleting the watch app on the new iPhone and reinstalling it from the App Store. That sometimes clears pairing glitches - worked for my husband last year.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

I had no issues connecting my watches.

 

[foggygray]

My Watch 10 wouldn’t connect my new 17 until I rebooted the watch then it connected right away.

 

[flynz4]

I did two things that resolved my issues.

1) shut down the old phone
2) shut down and restarted my watch.

Success!

Thanks for the feedback.

/Jim

 

[flynz4]

I also have Apple Watch 8. I didn’t have any problems this time but I remember I couldn’t pair it with my 15 Pro Max. The health and activity data is stored on the phone, not the watch. As long as you’ve got iCloud turned on (and both health and watch are toggled on), you won’t lose your data. When you pair the watch with the new iPhone, your health and activity history will still be there

I didn’t want to loose my sleep data or my exercise data from yesterday. When I setup my new phone I was short 2 hours of standing. I have a perfect history of closing all 3 rings since the original Apple Watch launch date in 2015.

/Jim

 

[A1000]

I had an issue with an old backup apple watch transferring and had to unpair in the end. My main AWU transferred ok and then today in upgrading my AWU I had to unpair it and then pair an new one and use the backup profile. This worked pretty seamlessly and in fact resolved a few niggly issues that had carried over from previous upgrades.

 

[flynz4]

Update. I’m still having problems. My watches are not syncing my activity circles. I upgraded my nighttime watch to OS26. My Ultra is not upgraded yet because the update app cannot connect to the ultra. I always shut down the other watch to avoid confusion in the app.

So now I have both watches paired to the iPhone 17 Pro. One won’t connect to be upgraded and neither will sync activity data.

/Jim

 

[terryw1]

Had serious problems with my ultra 2. After about 20 attempts of unpairing and pairing finally got it to recognize the watch. I have a new ultra 3 that I have not attempted yet. Have an appt today with an apple genius to see what is going on.none of my o,d faces or settings were restored. Not a happy camper, will report back after the Apple appt.

 

[Bako-MacAddict]

Yeah. My s10 failed twice before I successfully paring mine with the 17 pro.

 

[jz0309]

Update. I’m still having problems. My watches are not syncing my activity circles. I upgraded my nighttime watch to OS26. My Ultra is not upgraded yet because the update app cannot connect to the ultra. I always shut down the other watch to avoid confusion in the app.

So now I have both watches paired to the iPhone 17 Pro. One won’t connect to be upgraded and neither will sync activity data.

/Jim

well, I had trouble yesterday using migration from 13PM to 17PM via iCloud. I was in the store, tried 4 times incl turning BT and wifi off on my old phone, U2 paired to 13PM, both on 26. The guy told me the only thing he could suggest was to un-pair/re-pair, grrr. so I did, unpaired from 17PM then 13PM and it did pair to the 17PM after that.
it worked but was still acting wonky as I couldn't add/chage watch faces ;(
When I got home I tried to pair my S7 (on watchOS 18), didn't work the first try but on the 2nd try.

I cannot remember how I setup the U2 in the store, so this morning I unpaired it again and then setup as new.
Nowhere in this process did I loose activity updates or anything, but a very frustrating migration experience.

 

[Jackbequickly]

After doing a phone to phone wireless transfer from my 16PM to my 17PM I set up my S11 with not problems. iOS 26 on the 17PM did need an update before I set up my S11.

 

[cjsuk]

Yes had trouble in store today. Rebooting the watch worked.

 

[BigMcGuire]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/so-what-new-apple-watch-are-you-ordering.2464925/post-34158753

Hey, not just me!

I've owned Apple Watches since AW3. I've bought launch day Apple Watches before. I failed and tried to pair my Apple Watch Ultra 3 to my 15 Pro max 9 times yesterday. NINE times. I rebooted both still had problems. Did not matter if I restored backup or set up as new. When finally the watch paired, most of the complications would not work (just showed: Off) and I could not get anything to transfer between the watch and the phone (see pics in my post above) - it would just fail.

And then after 6 hours of failure, it ... just started working (I did nothing to make it work) and has been working since.

Very frustrating experience after having Apple Watch for many years with no issues. Thankfully I did not lose any awards or data.

My wife did some reddit searches and found I was not alone (my post below): https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/so-what-new-apple-watch-are-you-ordering.2464925/post-34160582

 

[johnparjr]

No issues thankfully

 

[ava_ati]

Ultra 2 watch will not connect to my 17 pro.
I unpaired
Deleted the app
Did a factory reset of the watch
Nothing worked
Haven’t mailed back my old phone, took it out and the watch paired immediately to it, going to try and update the software using my old phone then unpair and pair again to the 17, we’ll see

 

[4sallypat]

Still waiting for my Ultra 3 watch - this week will be the day to pair with my 17 Air!

 

[mguzman]

I went from the iPhone 15 Pro with paired Ultra to iPhone 17 using the phone to phone wireless approach, and had absolutely no problems with the Watch Ultra pairing. This is a huge improvement since I’ve had an Apple Watch continuously since pre-ordering the original, and pairing the watch to a new iPhone has usually been the most difficult part of the upgrade for me. Transferring the phone number has also given me problems in the past, but that was also flawless today.

 

[H_D]

Yes. Series 10. Had to unpair and set up as a new watch, restored via Backup. Part of the hassle of switching to a new phone.

 

[flynz4]

Update. I’m still having problems. My watches are not syncing my activity circles. I upgraded my nighttime watch to OS26. My Ultra is not upgraded yet because the update app cannot connect to the ultra. I always shut down the other watch to avoid confusion in the app.

So now I have both watches paired to the iPhone 17 Pro. One won’t connect to be upgraded and neither will sync activity data.

/Jim

Replying to myself:

Update: I went to the Apple Store in Tacoma WA as a walk-in with a two hour wait. I walked for those two hours registering time on the phone using the workout app.

We reset one watch updated my iPhone 17 Pro to the latest version of iOS 26 (note: I am ashamed of not thinking to do that... given that most of the times I got a new phone on launch day, the new OS was already out of date).

After a few attempts, I had my old Apple Watch 7 (my sleep watch) synced, and all of my activity circles were closed. Then we did my daytime watch (Apple Ultra) and we got that one going using the same procedures. When I got home, my Apple Watch 7 was not syncing, so I gave up on that. It is getting old enough that I will buy a new Ultra 3 watch and use my 1st generation Ultra as my sleep watch. In the mean time, with the Ultra's battery life, it will be easy enough to live with one watch until I get a new one in a month or so. Perhaps I'll save it as a Christmas present.

/Jim

 

[goldmac2006]

Replying to myself:

Update: I went to the Apple Store in Tacoma WA as a walk-in with a two hour wait. I walked for those two hours registering time on the phone using the workout app.

We reset one watch updated my iPhone 17 Pro to the latest version of iOS 26 (note: I am ashamed of not thinking to do that... given that most of the times I got a new phone on launch day, the new OS was already out of date).

After a few attempts, I had my old Apple Watch 7 (my sleep watch) synced, and all of my activity circles were closed. Then we did my daytime watch (Apple Ultra) and we got that one going using the same procedures. When I got home, my Apple Watch 7 was not syncing, so I gave up on that. It is getting old enough that I will buy a new Ultra 3 watch and use my 1st generation Ultra as my sleep watch. In the mean time, with the Ultra's battery life, it will be easy enough to live with one watch until I get a new one in a month or so. Perhaps I'll save it as a Christmas present.

/Jim

So the Apple Watch Series 7 had all the perfect activity rings up since the beginning right?

Did that one get paired first and transferred to the 17 then you paired the ultras after that?

 

[menist]

Face Unlock with a Apple Watch is not working even though in settings the button is green when you turn it on. Hope its not a N chip issue and they can patch this. Tried with both the SE3 and Ultra watch.

See pic below, and yes my WiFi i(full bars) and Bluetooth is on.

 

[soapropos]

I did two things that resolved my issues.

1) shut down the old phone
2) shut down and restarted my watch.

Success!

Thanks for the feedback.

/Jim

This worked great for finally getting my watch to pair with my new phone. I so did not want to have to go through the whole unpair/repair process.

Thanks!