Based on the apple knowledgebase article this is just broken, not behaving as intended.
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Unpaired watch, still has activation lock?
- Thread starter blackjackmark
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This just happened to me after trying to send in my Series 4 for battery service. Went through all the unpairing steps directed by support, paid, boxed it up and shipped it out, and several days later got an email telling my the support request was canceled and the watch was being shipped back to me without repair. What a ****ing mess.
This has happened to me for both buying and selling and is a hassle. If the other party wasn’t cooperative, would be a headacheI unpaired my series 5 from my phone at home and prepared it for sale. Got a buyer for it and went to meet them at Starbucks. When I met the buyer, they asked if the activation lock was removed. I said, of course, it’s ready to pair, so it has to have had the activation lock removed. Well, guess what, it wasn’t. Sure enough, she was right. she tried to pair to her phone and the Activation Lock Screen popped up. When I looked at My Devices, it was still listed as attached to my Apple ID account!
per this support article, all one has to do is unpair from the phone, and that also releases it from your Apple ID, yet that didn’t work.
About Activation Lock on your Apple Watch - Apple Support
Activation Lock is designed to prevent anyone else from using your Apple Watch if it's ever lost or stolen.support.apple.com
So I logged into my Apple ID and I deleted it from my Apple account. However, I STILL had to enter My Apple ID and password into the buyers iphone to get it to pair. Once done, then we confirmed it was tied to her Apple ID and all was well. (Since the watch wasn’t a cellular model, I’m assuming this step was necessary since the watch had no way of knowing that I had deleted it from my Apple account).
Any ideas why the watch remained attached to my Apple ID, even though it was no longer paired to my iPhone?!?
apple needs to have a clean option to do this
What's confusing is the steps Apple lists are NOT enough.
support.apple.com
I followed them and was surprised when the person who got my watch told me activation lock was enabled. Had to go online and delete the watch from my list of devices.
What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Apple Watch, or buy one from someone else - Apple Support
Remove your personal information and settings.
I followed them and was surprised when the person who got my watch told me activation lock was enabled. Had to go online and delete the watch from my list of devices.
Fortunately, I've never had this problem when I sold my last watches, but reading this made me nervous.
I have a watch listed for sale and had unpaired it on my watch app on my phone.
I then went into my account/ID in settings and removed the watch there.
I also double-checked my account online on Apple's website.
Thank you so much for mentioning the Find my app. I just had a look there and indeed had to remove the watch there as well typing in my ID again.
Now that I've done all four of the things mentioned in this thread, I should be good. Or did I forget anything?
I have a watch listed for sale and had unpaired it on my watch app on my phone.
I then went into my account/ID in settings and removed the watch there.
I also double-checked my account online on Apple's website.
Thank you so much for mentioning the Find my app. I just had a look there and indeed had to remove the watch there as well typing in my ID again.
Now that I've done all four of the things mentioned in this thread, I should be good. Or did I forget anything?
Clicked on this thread out of curiosity - what a PITA. If I were in the position of having to give a buyer the password, I'd do what I think is the obvious thing: change my password to something simple, communicate that password to the buyer, then immediately change the password again to the old password or a new one. I think I'd do this on the phone or by FT or even text - something real-time so I knew when the buyer first had access and when the watch was unlocked. I wouldn't want the buyer able to roam around in my iCloud account for a day or two, or even an hour or two.
That is exactly what I did and I was secure again in a matter of moments. Good thing the sale was to a forum member on the Marketplace. He was very understanding especially when I linked to him MR threads on this subject.
Nope. You're good. I remembered this problem from previous years and removed the device from the website after I had followed Apple's steps. The person who got my S6 set it up just fine.
Had a similar issue when I unpaired my S7 in order to set it up again on the same iPhone. My phone complained the watch was already tied to an Apple account during the setup process. Once I entered my details or carried on just fine. Really Apple, why complain about it being locked to an account when it's the same damn phone and account I just unpaired it from 
As for selling Apple needs a far better way to 100% confirm that the device has no activation lock whatsoever because at the moment it's just crap. What if that was a watch I was about sell, I could have been really screwed.
Thankfully when I unpaired my S6 to sell that unpaired properly as the buyer was happy.
As for selling Apple needs a far better way to 100% confirm that the device has no activation lock whatsoever because at the moment it's just crap. What if that was a watch I was about sell, I could have been really screwed.
Thankfully when I unpaired my S6 to sell that unpaired properly as the buyer was happy.
What a mess! I passed on my old Apple Watch to my wife two days ago. Unpaired from iPhone as usual, but it asked for my Apple ID login to pair with her iPhone. I've sold 3 and bought 1 used AW and never experienced this. To add insult to injury: The watch still shows up in my iCloud devices, but not Find My. Instead, it shows up TWICE in her list of devices! Ugh!
Had this happen this year when I traded in my S6. I followed the instructions, the same as I always have and when they got the watch, it was still locked so they sent me instructions to unlock it remotely, which I followed, but then it said it couldn’t finish it until the watch was “connected”. Well I couldn’t reach that trade in company even when I called Apple Support so they sent my watch back. I then took it to the closest Apple Store an hour away. They said I had done it right and took the watch and gave me my credit. Grrrrrrr
was not happy!
was not happy!
Mine was showing the same screen as a new watch does. Guy at the Apple Store said it was fine and shouldn’t have been returned. I did not try to go through all of the steps you normally do when you get a new phone if that’s what you mean.
It is definitely a bug. Happened to me recently as well (for the first time). Deleting it from icloud.com did the trick.
Since the buyer was a forum member I had dealt with before, I provided the credentials and 5 minutes later, I changed the credentials. He was able to set up the watch on his account. It was do that or have him ship the watch back and issue a refund. Ut was very frustrating to have something like that happen after I made sure to follow the correct steps.
I have had this happen multiple times. I typically just look for the watch in FindMy or iCloud - wherever they are, I just remove them and it works. You can do this remotely without having to share your credentials.
Thanks for the reply. I had removed it from my account from AppleID.apple.com (along with following the Apple steps) prior to shipping and it still was a problem. If I do sell any of my watches again, I will do as you suggest.
This is a epidemic, just got one of these in today.
When I passed on my Ultra I specifically went into FindMy first and removed it there before removing unpairing it from the watch app. No complaints from that.
When I passed on my Ultra I specifically went into FindMy first and removed it there before removing unpairing it from the watch app. No complaints from that.
Has to be a bug as it is happening to too many people. If you unpair and remove from your account that should be enough. Apple needs to work on this process.
Nope. You just have to remove it from the Find My app and that should take the lock off.