Upgrading Phone - Can I use my watch while it upgrades?

[dmccombs]

I am upgrading my phone tomorrow. I heard that you don't have to unpair the existing watch like you did in the old days. It is my understanding that the watch info gets migrated during the phone upgrade (like the sim info, etc.).

If this is true, will I be able to use my watch via wifi or cellular, while the phone is upgrading and migrating apps/data?

 

[Bigwaff]

During setup of your new iPhone, you'll be prompted to restore from iCloud backup. During iCloud backup restore, you should get prompted whether you want to use your Apple Watch. If you don't get the prompt, you'll have to unpair the watch from the old iPhone and pair it with the new iPhone once restore has finished.

How to 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

 

[dmccombs]

During setup of your new iPhone, you'll be prompted to restore from iCloud backup. During iCloud backup restore, you should get prompted whether you want to use your Apple Watch. If you don't get the prompt, you'll have to unpair the watch from the old iPhone and pair it with the new iPhone once restore has finished.

How to 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

Thanks for the reply. If I do the "restore form iCloud back-up", will I be able to use the watch for text/calls, during the (~45 minute) icloud restore process?

 

[Bigwaff]

Thanks for the reply. If I do the "restore form iCloud back-up", will I be able to use the watch for text/calls, during the (~45 minute) icloud restore process?

I'm not sure but probably not for the entire time. It probably depends on multiple factors... whether your Apple Watch is the cellular model... whether you are switching carriers... etc. Non-cellular Apple Watch models depend on paired iPhone for text/calls. How do you plan to "move" cellular service from old iPhone to new iPhone? Same carrier and swap SIM cards? Obviously, swapping the SIM card will render the old iPhone unable to send text/calls while the watch is paired w/ it... and new iPhone w/ swapped SIM card might be activated but watch hasn't been paired yet during restore. You get the idea.

 

[dmccombs]

I'm not sure but probably not for the entire time. It probably depends on multiple factors... whether your Apple Watch is the cellular model... whether you are switching carriers... etc. Non-cellular Apple Watch models depend on paired iPhone for text/calls. How do you plan to "move" cellular service from old iPhone to new iPhone? Same carrier and swap SIM cards? Obviously, swapping the SIM card will render the old iPhone unable to send text/calls while the watch is paired w/ it... and new iPhone w/ swapped SIM card might be activated but watch hasn't been paired yet during restore. You get the idea.

I will be staying with the same cellular carrier and my old phone and new phone are E-sim.

I guess I will find out tomorrow. After I scheduled my iphone pick-up time, I had some hard to reach contractors tell me I'd get call-backs right around the same time as my pick-up time. I prefer to do my new phone setup at the Apple store just in case I run into issues. The world won't stop if I miss the calls, but if I could take the calls on my cellular watch, it will make my day a little easier. 👍🏼

Thanks for your help @Bigwaff