Switch watch between phones

[Deep_Thought]

I have a 14 Pro and 13 Mini that I switch between using. I’ve recently got an Ultra which is setup on my 14 Pro with various watch faces etc. I know I have to unpair the watch to move to the 13 Mini, but is there anyway to restore from the backup taken on my 14 Pro?

Thanks

 

[mikedis]

Why not just buy a second watch? Series 7's can be found for under $250 on eBay.

 

[Bigwaff]

I know I have to unpair the watch to move to the 13 Mini, but is there anyway to restore from the backup taken on my 14 Pro?

Yes, but first backup the Apple Watch on the 14 Pro while signed into iCloud. Unpair and erase the Apple Watch and then pair it with the 13 mini as if the 13 mini were a “new” phone. You should then be able to restore from the backup in iCloud.

Pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone - Apple Support

Ready to get a new iPhone? Learn how to transfer your Apple Watch from your old iPhone to your new one.

support.apple.com

 

[iStorm]

Yes, but first backup the Apple Watch on the 14 Pro while signed into iCloud. Unpair and erase the Apple Watch and then pair it with the 13 mini as if the 13 mini were a “new” phone. You should then be able to restore from the backup in iCloud.

Pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone - Apple Support

Ready to get a new iPhone? Learn how to transfer your Apple Watch from your old iPhone to your new one.

support.apple.com

Just to be clear, Apple Watch backups only live on the iPhone and in iPhone backups. The Apple Watch backup itself does not go to iCloud. It’s contained within iPhone backups in iCloud.

You’d have to unpair/backup the Apple Watch, backup the iPhone, restore the iPhone backup on the other iPhone, pair/restore the Apple Watch backup.

If the OP is backing up and restoring the iPhone every time when switching between them, then yes, the linked article will work. However, if the OP is keeping the two phones separate and not restoring iPhone backups, then there is no way to get the Apple Watch backup from one to the other.

 

[Jared G.K.]

I have the same issue - a 13mini, a 14, and an AW.
An Apple support guy told me that when you unpair an AW from an iPhone, an automatic backup will be made.
I'm not so sure about that.
Sometimes, when re-pairing my AW with the other phone, only (sometimes weeks!) older backups are being presented to chose from.
I hav not yet found a way to reliably force a watch backup to be made.

Once I thought it will only backup if something has changed on the AW - but no. I intentionally changed something on the AW, then put them both on the charger next each other, 1m apart from the Wifi router, left them there over night, and no new backup was made.

 

[Night Spring]

Sometimes, when re-pairing my AW with the other phone, only (sometimes weeks!) older backups are being presented to chose from.

Were the two phones on the same OS version? I've found that sometimes upgrading the phone to the latest OS will get more recent watch backups to show up.

 

[Coconutx]

Why not just buy a second watch? Series 7's can be found for under $250 on eBay.

Hey can you more than two apple watches looking getting a new apple watch 9/Iphone 15 pro max this year and keep my old watch SE 2022 not worth training trading in.
I do have multiple iphones can your health sync/update between watches like to use different watches each day.

Setup will be Iphone 14 pro max + Apple watch se 2022
Iphone 15 pro max + Apple watch 9.

 

[Night Spring]

Hey can you more than two apple watches looking getting a new apple watch 9/Iphone 15 pro max this year and keep my old watch SE 2022 not worth training trading in.
I do have multiple iphones can your health sync/update between watches like to use different watches each day.

Setup will be Iphone 14 pro max + Apple watch se 2022
Iphone 15 pro max + Apple watch 9.

You can just pair multiple watches with one iPhone.

 

[Jared G.K.]

Were the two phones on the same OS version? I've found that sometimes upgrading the phone to the latest OS will get more recent watch backups to show up.

yes, everything always on the latest OS versions