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croco_dile

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 3, 2016
206
191
Hi,

I am not sure if this has been asked previously, could not find any thread after a 5 mins search.

In situations when I have my AW3 tethered to my iPhone, but the iPhone is not close by (ie. still in the same house, but could be a few rooms away or in a different floor), when I try to use feature such as Siri on the AW3, it becomes very unresposive and I would get a message on the AW3, saying "Hold on... I'll tap you when I am ready...". In most cases, it would display that message indefinitely.

I am thinking the behaviour I am seeing is because the AW3 is trying to connect to the iPhone (via bluetooth) and is struggling with the connection.

Do you guys experience the same thing? If so, I feel this is bad design. AW3 should be smart enough to switch to the most reliable connection. In this case, it could be the WIFI inside the house, or 4G data.

Thoughts?
 
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I agree, the “gray area” of connection strength is frustrating. Might be worth turning off Bluetooth while you’re home and relying on the wifi connection if you’re constantly a fair distance away from the phone.
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I agree, the “gray area” of connection strength is frustrating. Might be worth turning off Bluetooth while you’re home and relying on the wifi connection if you’re constantly a fair distance away from the phone.

Actually, putting your phone in Airplane Mode is the only way to force wifi, but at a certain point it’s just easier to keep your phone with you.
 
Actually, putting your phone in Airplane Mode is the only way to force wifi, but at a certain point it’s just easier to keep your phone with you.
This is not correct. If you want to force Wi-Fi on the watch, just use the Settings app on your iPhone to "disable" Bluetooth. The issue where the Bluetooth has a new behavior is since iOS 11, when you use the iPhones Control Center, your don't get reall control over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Disconnect from Bluetooth accessories
Open Control Center and tap
ios11-control-center-bluetooth-inline-icon.png
only temporary blluooh The icon will dim and your device will disconnect from any accessory it's connected to, except for Apple Watch, Instant Hotspot, Apple Pencil, and Continuity features, like Handoff.

If Bluetooth is turned off, you won’t be able to connect your iOS device to your Bluetooth accessories until:
  • You turn on Bluetooth in Control Center.
  • You connect to a Bluetooth accessory in Settings > Bluetooth.
  • It's 5 AM local time.
  • You restart your device.
Also in your testing please make sure that you are actually controlling Wi-Fi on your watch using the Settings app and not the Watch's Control. This will allow you to verify that you are actually connection to a valid Wi-Fi 2.4. GHz connection that is already a "know" network on the iPhone.

I always test the Settings app to verify that you are completely connecting to a "known" network your iPhone had already used before and your iPhone is also connected to the same 'known' Wi-Fi network. While this is great to testing Bluetooth coverage, it is not a long time 'Known" Wi-Fi connection. Using just Wi-Fi networking instead of Bluetooth, you actually limit the Bluetooth coverage that is actually used conserve battery service,

Dave
 
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Turning off Bluetooth in iPhone setting kind of works, as it forces the watch to use Wifi, which obviously has a greater coverage than bluetooth.

However, this doesn't solve the original problem. Imagine:
1. iPhone sittingon my bedside table
2. I walk into the garden and wanted to set timer to turn off the watering system. "Hey Siri, set timer for 30 minutes".
3. Siri: "hold on... Ill tape you when I am ready..."
4. Do I now go back inside the house to turn off bluetooth on my phone?

AW3 is supposed to be freedom... I am not getting much when I move around the house!
 
Turning off Bluetooth in iPhone setting kind of works, as it forces the watch to use Wifi, which obviously has a greater coverage than bluetooth.

However, this doesn't solve the original problem. Imagine:
1. iPhone sittingon my bedside table
2. I walk into the garden and wanted to set timer to turn off the watering system. "Hey Siri, set timer for 30 minutes".
3. Siri: "hold on... Ill tape you when I am ready..."
4. Do I now go back inside the house to turn off bluetooth on my phone?

AW3 is supposed to be freedom... I am not getting much when I move around the house!
Strange. Not saying your issue isn't real, but I don't have the same issues at my home.
Do you have any kind of internal firewall or port control on your wifi at home? Perhaps the watch is unable to communicate with the phone via wifi when out of BT range due to some internal network restrictions.
 
but I don't have the same issues at my home.

Really... perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I don't have any special rules set up in my wifi router at home. If I switch off bluetooth on my iphone, AW3 would connect to wifi and would work fine around the house where there is wifi coverage.

I just shot this video, standing in my backyard where the AW3 would be struggling with connecting to my iPhone (in my study room) via bluetooth...

 
Really... perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I don't have any special rules set up in my wifi router at home. If I switch off bluetooth on my iphone, AW3 would connect to wifi and would work fine around the house where there is wifi coverage.

I just shot this video, standing in my backyard where the AW3 would be struggling with connecting to my iPhone (in my study room) via bluetooth...

Could be enough interference from neighboring homes (both BT, as well as wifi which can interfere with BT) that your watch doesn't know to drop BT in favor of wifi.

Not sure if it'll help, but might want to try wiping the watch and re-pairing to see if that clears anything up. Also, make sure you remove from your phone any wifi networks that you're not using in case the phone is trying to pick up on a weak or non-functional "xfinity" wifi or something like that.
 
Could be enough interference from neighboring homes (both BT, as well as wifi which can interfere with BT) that your watch doesn't know to drop BT in favor of wifi.

I live in a low density neighbourhood, so not convinced the cause is interference, or if it was, then alot more people would also experience it. So if it was true, it would still come down to bad design...

I think I should visit the genius bar.
 
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I live in a low density neighbourhood, so not convinced the cause is interference, or if it was, then alot more people would also experience it. So if it was true, it would still come down to bad design...

I think I should visit the genius bar.
Wipe the watch and start as new before you drag yourself to Apple. They'll probably just make you do that first before replacing the watch (which they don't do in-store anyway).
 
My wife and I both have this issue, both with iPhone X and S3 watches. We also had this issue with our iPhone 7 + S0 watches. My iPhone can be 30 feet away down a corridor in a different room and Siri takes forever/fails on the Watch.

Bottom line is the Watch holds on to a weak BT connection far too long. Just the way it is.
 
I have come across a similar situation (AW3 and IPhoneX) but then when being called. Phone is on ground floor, I am on second. Phone rings (on watch), I want answer and watch shows “connecting” for a long time. I have had this couple of times, every time the other side has already disconnected before “connection” was established. Do you have it when calling too or only when using Siri?
 
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And with watchOS 4.2, if you have a Series 3, you can no longer silence the Siri Watch feedback when doing stuff like using Siri to turn on/off lights with HomeKit. It’s supremely annoying. She now always blurts back her acknowledgment over the Watch speaker.

Wish Apple wouldn’t let such obvious issues plague their software.
 
Hi,

I am not sure if this has been asked previously, could not find any thread after a 5 mins search.

In situations when I have my AW3 tethered to my iPhone, but the iPhone is not close by (ie. still in the same house, but could be a few rooms away or in a different floor), when I try to use feature such as Siri on the AW3, it becomes very unresposive and I would get a message on the AW3, saying "Hold on... I'll tap you when I am ready...". In most cases, it would display that message indefinitely.

I am thinking the behaviour I am seeing is because the AW3 is trying to connect to the iPhone (via bluetooth) and is struggling with the connection.

Do you guys experience the same thing? If so, I feel this is bad design. AW3 should be smart enough to switch to the most reliable connection. In this case, it could be the WIFI inside the house, or 4G data.

Thoughts?
I have experienced this. Instead of saying hey Siri, I just hold the crown until I get Siri then speak a command.
 
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