Watch won't pair

[mk313]

Hey guys, did a forum search but don't see any threads that match the issue I'm seeing. I'm trying to pair an old Apple Watch 2 for my wife. I reset the watch to factory settings, then go through the setup process. I select my language and my country, then I get that little ball of dots and line it up with my phones' camera , but nothing happens. So then I try pairing manually. On the phone, I select the code that pops up on the watch, and then I get a screen on the phone that says to type in the 6 digit code seen on the watch, but there is no 6 digit code.

I've tried pairing it with multiple phones running iOS 12.x & 13.x but to no avail. I'm assuming the watch is still on whatever OS it came with as my wife was never big on updating it. I'm not sure if the watch OS is incompatible with the newer phone OS's.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

 

[waw74]

Silly question,
and I'm not sure you can even do this with an unpaired watch
but airplane mode is off, and you have bluetooth and wifi turned on? on both your phone and the watch.

and you've tried rebooting both the watch and the phone?

The watch is charged over 50%, and on the charger?

you should be able to pair an older watch os, but it will probably immediately ask for an update.

 

[mk313]

Silly question,
and I'm not sure you can even do this with an unpaired watch
but airplane mode is off, and you have bluetooth and wifi turned on? on both your phone and the watch.

and you've tried rebooting both the watch and the phone?

The watch is charged over 50%, and on the charger?

you should be able to pair an older watch os, but it will probably immediately ask for an update.

Thanks for the reply/ suggestions. I haven't figured out a way to check for airplane mode, bluetooth & wifi on the watch. While it's in setup mode, it doesn't look like I can change any of those (I can't swipe up from the bottom or get to settings).

Airplane mode/ bluetooth & wifi are on on the phone & I think they are communicating, as if I try to pair them manually, I can see the watch's id pop up on the phone, it just doesn't produce a 6 digit code once I enter the ID.

I've also rebooted both watch and phone (well all phones that I've tried). And the watch is on the charger.

Thanks for taking the time to reply & Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[firedept]

Just a thought. Have you tried removing it from your list of devices and then try pairing it. Not sure that will work but might be worth a try. My wife who works for AT&T suggested it.

 

[mk313]

Just a thought. Have you tried removing it from your list of devices and then try pairing it. Not sure that will work but might be worth a try. My wife who works for AT&T suggested it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot. I could see how that might help

 

[mk313]

Just a quick update to say thanks for the advice & to advise that I was able to get it working. What ended up solving the problem is connecting to an iPhone 5s still on iOS 10.something. I was able to connect to the watch on that, and it immediately asked me to update the watch software, although it only went to 5.something. Once I was on that, then I Was able to start pairing on my wife's actual phone (running iOS 13). When it first paired, it asked me to update the software a second time, this time to version 6, and now all is well.

 

[firedept]

Excellent. Glad it all worked out for you. Sometimes the suggestions get you thinking and voila you get it.