Other PSA - Turn off your old phone to get your watch to pair with your new phone.

[BrettDS]

So I transferred my data from my old phone to my new phone, but I didn’t wipe my old phone. I was struggling to get my watch to sync with my new phone. If you go into the watch app on the new phone it indicates that the watch is supposed to prompt you to pair with the new phone, but no amount of restarting the watch or the phone would make that happen for me. I was about to wipe the watch and re-pair it from scratch, but then I noticed that my watch was still connected to my old phone. I turned off the old phone and moments later my watch prompted me to pair it with my new phone.

I’ve seen a few other posts where people mentioned that they couldn’t get their watch connected to their new phone and I suspect this might have been the issue.

The moral is, if you’re having trouble getting your watch to recognize your new phone you should make sure your old phone is off first.

 

[seangrimes590]

Thanks boss, just saved me a headache.

 

[slippery-pete]

Also can unpair from old phone; that will allow you to pair to new watch.

 

[BrettDS]

Also can unpair from old phone; that will allow you to pair to new watch.

Yes, but unpairing the watch from the old phone wipes the watch and forces you to repair from scratch with the new phone. Doing it this way doesn’t require the watch to be wiped and retains all of the apps and settings on the watch.

 

[DDustiNN]

My watch just tapped me and asked me if I wanted to transfer it to the new phone, a couple minutes after the phone transfer was complete. Both phones were still on the whole time.

 

[carbphrek]

My watch just tapped me and asked me if I wanted to transfer it to the new phone, a couple minutes after the phone transfer was complete. Both phones were still on the whole time.

Yes my watched tapped to transfer. No issues but I turned my phone in at the apple store and went home to download iCloud back up.

 

[DDustiNN]

Yes my watched tapped to transfer. No issues but I turned my phone in at the apple store and went home to download iCloud back up.

Yep same here. After the transfer was complete, and the watch was paired, we wiped the old phone and they kept it. Now I’m home waiting for the iCloud download to complete.

 

[PeteLP]

When you say "turn off your old phone" so that you'll get prompted to pair your watch with your new phone, do you mean (1) Tap the power button to turn off the display or (2) fully power it down ?

 

[BrettDS]

When you say "turn off your old phone" so that you'll get prompted to pair your watch with your new phone do you mean (1) Tap the power button to turn off the display or (2) fully power it down ?

I mean fully power it down. For me it appeared that as long as my watch had a Bluetooth or wifi connection to the old phone that it wouldn’t find the new phone. However, it appears that at least some people were successful with both phones powered on.

 

[PeteLP]

I mean fully power it down. For me it appeared that as long as my watch had a Bluetooth or wifi connection to the old phone that it wouldn’t find the new phone. However, it appears that at least some people were successful with both phones powered on.

Thanks. If the hold up is simply due to the wireless connections, then I suspect that we might accomplish the same thing by putting the old phone into airplay mode and then turning off bluetooth. Which is quicker and has some advantages, such as the ability to continue to compare data between the two phones

 

[gigapocket1]

Had to do this as well

 

[PTVMan]

My watch prompted me during the transfer process and I had no issues.

 

[cannono]

My Watch asked if I wanted to transfer to the new phone but then it didn't actually do it...

Now I don't see an option to pair it on the new one even with the old one off.

 

[WilliamG]

My watch just tapped me and asked me if I wanted to transfer it to the new phone, a couple minutes after the phone transfer was complete. Both phones were still on the whole time.

Same. This PSA isn’t required for all.

 

[SisterBlue22]

I never shut my old phone down. Two of my watches politely asked me to pair them with the new phone, and the third watch was a bit more grumpy about it, but finally asked as well.

 

[SydneyAZ]

Thanks! PSA was helpful for us. My watched tapped me, but 2 hours later and my husband's hadn't. He'd forgotten about it, but when I read this I reminded him. He turned off the old phone and it immediately tapped him.

 

[moyjoy]

My Watch asked if I wanted to transfer to the new phone but then it didn't actually do it...

Now I don't see an option to pair it on the new one even with the old one off.

I had this issue. I went into my Apple ID in settings and my old phone was still there. I deleted it from there and reset then added my watch and restored from cloud and now I’m good (outside of the not able to reach to enable it to unlock phone when face is covered issue).