Siri problems Apple Watch series 4 after watchOS6 update

[NewsView]

Me too, and that's part of why I signed up for Mac Rumors. (And I, too, own an SE.)

I just bought my first Apple watch toward the end of October and after going through a lot of troubleshooting with Apple, I returned it (one of the chat reps suggested I take it back). I got another Series 5 GPS thinking the first one was just a lemon. Unfortunately, Siri is just as unreliable and placing calls on the watch almost always results in "I can't complete that request".

Once the watch gets in its electronic brain that it can't complete a request, like place a call, it tends to keep on behaving that way until I do multiple on/off toggles of the Bluetooth, WiFi and reboot the watch and the phone multiple times (if not also force-restart the watch). Then it works okay for awhile until I don't interact with my phone in any way. It seems like when the watch/phone are idle it goes back to having connectivity problems. Eventually Siri completes a connection/request but it is SUPER annoying to have Siri preface everything with "working on that", "let me try that again" or "please try again later".

I am seeing a modest improvement — might just be my imagination though! — with the latest watchOS update but still nowhere near what I would expect based on my experience with how Siri works on the phone.

My take on it is that the Bluetooth and WiFi aren't playing nice with each other and if Bluetooth doesn't have a good connection to the phone it's not "deciding" quickly enough to use the WiFi connection vs. Bluetooth. That would explain why Siri eventually completes a response but there is a LOT of lag time while it keeps trying the Bluetooth. Sometimes I even go into WiFi on the watch and see that my network has moved down into the list of local networks (neighborhood). So that would seem to suggest the watch is logging off the WiFi — maybe to conserve battery? — and not reconnecting fast enough. That's my theory anyway…

 

[Illusion500]

All,

I have started a thread in the Apple Discussions to increase the visibility of this issue. Please see, comment, and select "I have this question too" to keep it on the radar.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250944717

 

[Saludos]

Do we have news? On my part...
I’m (again) into the Apple Support procedure, they reached me 2 days ago by phone: I had to reproduce the issue, note day and time when the issue occurred, upload diagnostic files, send them to a specific link. It’s the 3th time I do this, because of this issue, every single new update since WatchOS 6.
No, I can’t say I’m happy about this.
They evidently are just taking time, while I’m waste my time.
What can we do?

 

[Steveatesh]

There is another similar thread running too, but I also encourage everybody to post on the official Apple Support page!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250695961?answerId=251766750022&page=1

 

[FerMadrid]

As I commented in that forum, Unfortunately bugs appear again although I didn’t update the iPhone, AW S4 6.1.1 with iPhone SE 13.2.3 = the same bugs reported.
My last contact with Apple support was an inbound call the past 5th of december telling me that engineers not yet answered.
I will call again these days for at least take out all my anger with a poor operator.

 

[Saludos]

As I commented in that forum, Unfortunately bugs appear again although I didn’t update the iPhone, AW S4 6.1.1 with iPhone SE 13.2.3 = the same bugs reported.
My last contact with Apple support was an inbound call the past 5th of december telling me that engineers not yet answered.
I will call again these days for at least take out all my anger with a poor operator.

Oh no. Leave the guiltless operator in peace 😊😓 APPLE has to hear us! Seriously: it’s good to let them know that even the last update didn’t solved, so you call! But we should also bring this case to un upper level, i don’t know how (in my country there’s no class action). Apple has to understand this is not a minor bug. Has to give us an official answer, and after 3 months a compensation and a serious promise to fix it ASAP

 

[spartan1967]

SE and AW5 with GM 13.3 & 6.1.1 = still F'ed up with same problems for me.
Even if it works once in a while for some reason = unreliable.

 

[Steveatesh]

Quick follow up from my visit to the Apple Store (in the U.K.) which was the recommendation of my last call to support (“you will come out with a working watch and phone combination”) .

the Apple store we’re unable to do anything at all (and were unsympathetic too). She said it was pointless sending the watch back for testing as they would test it with a new watch rather than an SE so the fault would not be replicated and the watch would be returned in order.

she disregarded the existence of other similar issues saying forums were not a true reflection of reality.
she blamed my wifi connection or my mobile provider, ignoring the fact everything worked perfectly until OS6 was installed.

so a couple hours and a long journey wasted, her only suggestion waS to go back to support and ask for escalation to engineers.


I am resigned to this not being fixed before I get another phone next year

 

[Saludos]

Quick follow up from my visit to the Apple Store (in the U.K.) which was the recommendation of my last call to support (“you will come out with a working watch and phone combination”) .

the Apple store we’re unable to do anything at all (and were unsympathetic too). She said it was pointless sending the watch back for testing as they would test it with a new watch rather than an SE so the fault would not be replicated and the watch would be returned in order.

she disregarded the existence of other similar issues saying forums were not a true reflection of reality.
she blamed my wifi connection or my mobile provider, ignoring the fact everything worked perfectly until OS6 was installed.

so a couple hours and a long journey wasted, her only suggestion waS to go back to support and ask for escalation to engineers.


I am resigned to this not being fixed before I get another phone next year

Sorry to say that. BUT...: I don’t want to accept such abuse of power from Apple. No!

 

[anzio]

I find they usually dismiss forum posts for most issues like this. I can understand why, I guess. She’s likely right though that the posts may not be a true reflection of reality. It’s likely much more widespread than what we are seeing posted here.

Case in point: my mother (who is the one experiencing the issues and has this hardware/software combination) would never have posted here or anywhere else online.

 

[Saludos]

Apple has to be fair . 2 different Apple supports told me they ARE aware of the problem. One in my country, another from US since I emailed Tim Cook as someone in the apple discussion page suggested (2 days after apple support US contacted me)
That’s way I ask all of you to insists. I can’t believe I have to spend money in order to fix an issue caused by an apple’s update. No way

 

[Steveatesh]

My call was finally escalated to an engineer this evening who has taken responsibility for the problem I am experiencing. He has asked if it’s possible to pair the watch with a different iPhone. I have done so this evening with my wife’s SE and the exact same problem was experienced on the second use of Siri. I will try and pair the watch on a different type of iPhone over the next day or two and see what happens then.

 

[Steveatesh]

Was able to pair my watch with an iPhone 8 this evening, discovered everything worked perfectly exactly as it should. Went back to the iphone SE and al the symptoms came back. So testing suggests the problems are experienced when using an iPhone SE only. I have updated Support, awaiting their response!

 

[FerMadrid]

I talked again with support, long conversation but not productive at all, more than an hour and just explaining all the bugs again, no news from the engineers. Support doesn’t allow me to talk directly with engineers, neither Support can’t talk with them, Support just request info from clients.
I’ve also asked for a compensation, but support has to talk with a manager cause they are not allow. An ideal compensation could be an exchange of our iPhone SE for another iPhone model, reconditioned or new or discounts.

 

[AME77]

Short Info: I resetted the SE and my Watch 4 to factory defaults and restored all data and settings manually. The only thing that has changed is the language of Siris error message, now it's in german.

 

[Saludos]

So, again. No significant updates about our issue. I’m still in contact with Apple support, I sent diagnosis files, as request, again. Hey! It’s 3 months!! Since 3 months our devices are more than halved in functions, it’s a real shame. We fully payed our devices. Even worst: apple advertises Apple Watch as “saving life device”: sounds like a joke for us, since we can’t call directly from our watch anymore. Not to mention all the other bugs like Siri (impossible to dictate messages), Airpods disconnection... I’m really angry! I also posted on the apple Official discussion page. What can really we do? At this point I not only want they fix the issue, but also give us a compensation. It’s mandatory at this point. Otherwise it’s an unacceptable arrogance from apple.

 

[kartana]

I got a AW Series 5 at Christmas and have an iPhone SE as well. I experience the same slow Siri responses.
Most of the time it goes like this:

1. ask Siri to add a alarm
2. Siri takes 5-10 seconds to respond
3. Siri does the thing I asked her but responds with "Ok. Uh oh, lost the connection. Let me try this again. Ok, I set the alarm".

Or sometimes Siri cuts off mid sentence.

Siri works flawless on my SE though.

 

[Steveatesh]

I got a AW Series 5 at Christmas and have an iPhone SE as well. I experience the same slow Siri responses.
Most of the time it goes like this:

1. ask Siri to add a alarm
2. Siri takes 5-10 seconds to respond
3. Siri does the thing I asked her but responds with "Ok. Uh oh, lost the connection. Let me try this again. Ok, I set the alarm".

Or sometimes Siri cuts off mid sentence.

Siri works flawless on my SE though.

have you reported it to Apple Support yet? The more users that report it the more likely Apple will do something about it.

i provided video files of the exact same problem last week, it was escalated to engineers and I’m expecting a call back on Friday 3rd with an update. I’ll post here if I get anything worthwhile.

 

[kartana]

have you reported it to Apple Support yet? The more users that report it the more likely Apple will do something about it.

i provided video files of the exact same problem last week, it was escalated to engineers and I’m expecting a call back on Friday 3rd with an update. I’ll post here if I get anything worthwhile.

I will do that for sure since at the moment it doesn't even work at all. I get the "can't take that request right now".

 

[Saludos]

I will do that for sure since at the moment it doesn't even work at all. I get the "can't take that request right now".

Wellcome to the club! 😓
And... enjoy endless sessions at the phone with Apple support! This case is a real shame for Apple. Please do what all here recommend to do: call Apple support, ask for help to Apple support Twitter account. And please use the official Apple discussion site. The more we are the sooner they resolve. It’s 3 months, 3 MONTHS. So please, let Apple know that this is a huge and spread issue!

 

[kartana]

I didn't read the whole thread but is this a iPhone SE only problem or do more iPhone have the same problem?

 

[Saludos]

I didn't read the whole thread but is this a iPhone SE only problem or do more iPhone have the same problem?

The issue seems to impact mainly on iPhone SE or iPhone with same hardware (like iPhone 6s). It doesn’t regard “only” iPhone SE, but certainly “mainly”.

 

[Saludos]

Ok. This case has officially became a case of study: “how to destroy a brand reputation”. There’s clearly an issue affecting iPhone (mainly) SE and Apple Watch after WatchOS 6 and iOS 13. Big issue. We can’t use our AW as advertised, almost 50%of functions don’t work anymore. Calling from Apple Watch is impossibile (ohh how many times Apple PR does spread the news that Apple Watch saved lifes?!! Well our life count less, apparently.
We all, kindly (I see good persons here in this forum) asked Apple for solutions. I’ve collected more than 10 hours in three months spending time at the phone with Apple support. They even promised a “small compensation” (like a AW band) for my time spent. My update? They are all disappeared. A scheduled phone call was missed by Apple. Another specialist who told me about “small compensation” disappeared: I wrote to her like she told me to; no answer).
Twitter support page ignore Tweets where customers talk about this issue (please, go on the Apple twitter support account and see it in person). I can’t accept such a form of arrogance. I ask macrumors to dedicate an article about this case. As loyal reader of this site I recognize a “sane” independence in all your articles. This case certainly deserves an in-depth article.
Yes, it’s a case of study.
Please, if you read this and are in my same boat, write a tweet on Apple support. I’m curious to see if they continue to ignore the issue there.
And Please ask -like me- macrumors (and/or other tech-sites) to follow-up this case.

 

[Steveatesh]

I was expecting a scheduled call back from Apple support on Friday but it didn’t happen. I’ve sent in an email asking for an update, see what happens. If nothing over the next couple days I’ll go back onto support by phone and keep pushing....

it would be really good if the macrumours site did an article on this.....

 

[EM2013]

I have a XS Max + cellular series 4 & this happens to me too. Siri won’t work. When I don’t have my phone, my watch doesn’t receive any notifications even though it’s connected to cellular. Happens a lot.

Both on latest firmware.