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Apps Watch apps installing by default

T

twynne

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 21, 2006
807
46
London, UK
Not sure if this is unique to my watch, but it seems whenever an iPhone app that I already own releases a watch counterpart, the watch app installs automatically by default. I find this really irritating - no app should install itself without me choosing it. I can't find any way to disable/change this behaviour either.

As a complete aside, most of the apps installing on the watch seem to be getting 'stuck' installing. If I view the apps on the watch, the icon will show with a partial 'timer' overlay. I can only sort this out by going to the Watch app on the iPhone, toggling the app off and on again.

Anyone finding either of the above?

Thanks :)
 
twynne said:
Not sure if this is unique to my watch, but it seems whenever an iPhone app that I already own releases a watch counterpart, the watch app installs automatically by default. I find this really irritating - no app should install itself without me choosing it. I can't find any way to disable/change this behaviour either.

As a complete aside, most of the apps installing on the watch seem to be getting 'stuck' installing. If I view the apps on the watch, the icon will show with a partial 'timer' overlay. I can only sort this out by going to the Watch app on the iPhone, toggling the app off and on again.

Anyone finding either of the above?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
  1. iPhone > Watch App > General > Automatic Downloads > Toggle Off
  2. I've found when this happens, restarting my Apple Watch (pressing + holding down the digital crown and side button) fixes the problem.
 
timize said:
  1. iPhone > Watch App > General > Automatic Downloads > Toggle Off
  2. I've found when this happens, restarting my Apple Watch (pressing + holding down the digital crown and side button) fixes the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but that setting is already 'off' and has been from the day I got my watch. Any new watch app released (for an iPhone app I already have installed) automatically installs anyway.
 
Gav2k said:
You can toggle them off in the watch app
Click to expand...

The point is that this should not be (if it is) the default behaviour. Apps should not install unless I choose to install them.

Also manually uninstalling them from the Watch app is not ideal either. If you see a new app installed on the Watch that you don't recognise, you have to scroll through every app in the Watch app trying to locate it by it's icon. Repeat for every app installed. Very tedious.
 
Sounds like don't install new watch apps is buggy there. I think it asks you to set that up on pairing, so you might try unpairing and repairing, and select don't install new watch apps as the default to see if that fixes it (when you have a spare hour to let it re-setup.)

Or toggle that setting on and off, and see if that helps.
 
twynne said:
The point is that this should not be (if it is) the default behaviour. Apps should not install unless I choose to install them.

Also manually uninstalling them from the Watch app is not ideal either. If you see a new app installed on the Watch that you don't recognise, you have to scroll through every app in the Watch app trying to locate it by it's icon. Repeat for every app installed. Very tedious.
Click to expand...

Was giving the op an option to remove them nothing more!

As for manually searching it's hardly rocket science now is it
 
Gav2k said:
Was giving the op an option to remove them nothing more!

As for manually searching it's hardly rocket science now is it
Click to expand...

Let's set the context here... I came here to see if anyone else was experiencing the same behaviour. This isn't a debate about whether a workaround exists or how easy it may be.

That aside, searching 'by icon' isn't the simplest when there are *hundreds* of apps on my phone.

Whilst I appreciate your suggestion (and already knew it was possible to manually remove apps) it doesn't really address my point.
 
This happens to me too. I also have the automatic install set to off. And I also get the timer overlay on apps I've actually chosen to install. Very weird behavior.
 
The timer overlay is really a install progress overlay, from what I've seen. If you wait a few minutes, doesn't it go away, and leave just the app icon?
 
I also have this issue and I have mine set to not automatically install. I think its a bug in Apple Watch OS.
 
Mine is set to automatically install, but I have run into a slightly similar issue.
On the first sync, I let them all install to see what was available and what the functionality would be. Then I deleted individual apps that I found I didn't want.
Like you, I have HUNDREDS of app. I don't want every app that is available for Apple Watch.

Here's where I think our issues are similar, despite my "automatically download" settings:
Whether they're on the watch or not, all compatible apps are in the Apple Watch App on the iPhone. The ones I don't want are toggled off. However, every time one (of hundreds) of my apps is updated for the phone, it reinstalls on the watch (even though it's toggled off in the watch app). In my view, that's a bug. I don't care if the iPhone apps updates or not, because I toggled it "off" in my watch settings.
The issue with apps getting "stuck" baffles me as well. Anytime an app that I use gets stuck, I've found that it was automatically toggled "off" when it was updated.

Basically, apps that I don't want are overriding my "off" setting and installing when they update and some of the apps that I DO want are overriding the "on" setting and getting stuck when they update. :confused:
 
Last edited:
I get the same issue. My automatic downloads are off but apps when they release their watch app still automatically install the watch app on the watch regardless of the setting telling it otherwise.
 
Same exact issue. I have my automatic downloads disabled, and any new (or updated) app with Watch functionality automatically gets pushed to my Apple Watch (and even adds the Glances, which is how I first noticed).

I do not like that. I want to manually choose when to install an app to my Watch.
 
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