Let’s begin with a table showing the 8 most common problems you can encounter on an Apple Watch with their troubleshooting.
| Problem | Possible Solution | |
| 1. | Apple Watch Won’t Pair to Phone | Reboot both the Apple Watch and iPhone.Do a reset on your phone’s network. Bring the phone and watch close. Reset the Apple Watch |
| 2. | Apple Watch Won’t Charge | Clean the charging spots on the magnet charger and watch. Try a different charge. Reset Apple Watch. |
| 3. | Apple Watch Screen is Not Responding | Restarting the watch. Unpair then Pair the watch. Charge the watch. |
| 4. | Apple Watch Notification Problems | Bring the phone and watch close. Disable/turn off airplane mode. Grant apps permission. Reset the watch. |
| 5. | Apple Watch Update Problem | Manually delete the old software version and install the new one. Free up some space. |
| 6. | Apple Watch Won’t Connect to LTE | Set up your carrier plan once again. Update the software. Enable then disable airplane/flight mode. Restart the wearable. |
| 7. | Poor Battery Life on Apple Watch | Update the WatchOS. Restart the Apple Watch |
| 8. | Apple Watch Isn’t Tracking Activities | Check settings to ensure fitness tracking is enabled. Wear the watch properly. |
1. Apple Watch Won’t Pair with iPhone
Connecting your Apple Watch to your iPhone should not be hard. Even so, sometimes connecting Apple Watch to iPhone could be a problem.
Luckily, there are a number of ways you can troubleshoot the issue to get the devices working as supposed. The main reasons why your Apple Watch fails to pair with your phone include:
- The QR connection could have developed a problem.
- The two Apple devices are not in close range plus you could be having a Wi-Fi connection problem.
- Consider trying the following troubleshooting ideas to solve the pairing issue on your Apple Watch:
Solution 1 – Reboot both the Apple Watch and iPhone. After that try pairing the two devices. Reboot works for most tech devices and we are certain it could be the answer to the problem.
Solution 2- Consider performing a reset on your phone’s network. To do this reset, go to Settings, then General, then Rest, and then Network Settings.
Solution 3 – Make sure the iPhone and the Apple Watch are close to each other and in close range with Wi-Fi.
Solution 4 – If none of the solutions mentioned earlier take effect, you will need to reset the Apple Watch. Before resting remember to backup all your data to your iCloud account.
Also, see:
How you are supposed to pair Apple Watch to a new phone.
Find out why Apple Watch won’t connect to your phone.
2. Apple Watch Won’t Charge
Knowing whether your Apple Watch is charging is easy. Simply check the watch for a green lighting bolt once you plug in the Apple Watch charger.
When you connect the watch to the charge and to power and don’t see the green bolt charging sign consider doing the following:
Solution 1 – Start by cleaning the charger and watch, it is possible dirt is preventing the current from the charger to flow to the watch.
Use a soft brush and a few drops of home dry cleaner solution to clean these parts.
Don’t worry home dry cleaner is safe to use to clean any electronic. After cleaning, connect the magnet charger to the back of the watch to see whether the watch is charging.
Solution 2 – It is possible that the charger is damaged, to confirm this use a different charge to charge the Apple Watch.
Suppose the charger charges the watch that would mean that the charger was the problem.
If the switching chargers still don’t work then the Apple Watch charging problem lies somewhere else.
Solution 3 – System glitches could be the reason why your Apple Watch Won’t Charge so to clear these glitches, hold the digital crown and the side button altogether until the Apple logo is displayed on the screen (Factory Resetting the Apple Watch). With the rest process complete to try to charge the watch.
3. Apple Watch Screen is Not Responding
The Apple Watch screen plays a major role in the device’s daily operations. If the screen Apple Watch becomes unresponsive, then operating the watch to track vitals won’t be possible.
Although this is unlikely to happen it can happen. And if it does happen here are a number of things you can do to resolve the problem:
Solution 1 – Your Apple Watch screen could not be responding to touch because it is frozen.
The best way to deal with a frozen screen is to force restart the watch. To force restart the Apple Watch do this.
Long press and hold the digital crown and side button. Then the Apple logo will light up about 10 seconds later when it does release the buttons.
solution 2 – Consider unpairing the Apple Watch and iPhone if the force restart does not fix the problem. Since the watch isn’t sensing and touch use your phone to unpair it.
To unpair the watch from your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, select your Apple Watch from the ones paired and then tap the (i) icon. And then choose “Unpair Apple Watch“.
Solution 3 – If the screen on your Apple Watch isn’t turning on then it is possible that your battery is 0% of charge.
Patiently leave it at your charging station for a couple of hours. The watch is supposed to recharge and screen light after charging from 0%.
4. Apple Watch Notification Problems
Apart from just monitoring your health and wellness, Apple Watches can alert you every time when text messages arrive, calls are incoming, and emails hit the box, among other things.
That sometimes may not happen because of various reasons. Here are the reasons why your Apple Watch gets notifications plus fixes:
Solution 1 – The reason why your Apple Watch isn’t getting notifications is that it is not in range of your iPhone.
Fix this problem by making sure that the Apple Watch and the phone are in close range for better communication.
Solution 2 – You could have possibly toggled on the flight mode switch on the Apple Watch by mistake. Check the toggle and switch off the flight mode option if it is on.
With the flight, the flight mode disabled try sending yourself a message through text or email to check if notifications are now available on the Apple Watch.
Solution 3 – Notifications from the phone are yet to be granted permission to reflect on the Apple Watch.
It would help if you checked your settings to ensure that notifications from the watch app are enabled.
Solution 4 – A system problem might have arisen causing the watch to freeze hence failing to provide notifications, consider resetting the watch to clear system errors.
Doing a reset on the Apple Watch will refresh its memory and notifications will now get to you.
5. Apple Watch Update Problem
You probably have come across “Unable to Install Update” on your Apple Watch especially if it is old.
Before updating your watch it is advisable to have it at 50% battery life and make sure that both the watch and the phone are connected to a Wi-Fi network. Although optional, I would advise you to restart the watch before updating it.
Solution 1 – Start by erasing the software update file on the Apple Watch. You can do this by opening the Apple Watch app on the phone, heading to General > Software & Update > Delete. Now try installing the new Apple Watch update.
Solution 3 – Consider restarting your Apple Watch if none of the above solutions solve the LTE connection problem.
You can restart your Apple Watch by pressing and holding the Digital Crown together with the side button until the Apple logo appears.
Solution 2 – It is possible that the watch won’t update because you have insufficient storage.
Consider deleting some of your files and then try installing the new Apple Watch update again.
Don’t know how to delete files on Apple Watch to create space? Follow these easy steps to do the deletion:
Starting with apps, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch > Installed on Apple Watch, then tap the apps you would wish to stop showing on the watch.
6. Apple Watch Won’t Connect to LTE
Apple Watch Failing to connect to LTE is another problem you may encounter. Thankfully, we have fixes that have worked for most users who have had such an Apple Watch problem. To troubleshoot an Apple Watch that won’t connect to LTE start by:
Solution 1 – Updating software. To check or update your Apple Watch software go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Solution 2 – Turn the airplane mode off for a few seconds then back on for a soft reset to happen on the network. You can access the airplane toggle by opening the Control Center on your Apple Watch.
Solution 4 – Try setting up your carrier plan again if the watch still won’t connect to LTE after restarting.
On your iPhone open the Apple Watch app > Go to My Watch > tap (i) next to the carrier > then opt for Remove.
Now add your Apple Watch Cellular Plan once again. Restart the watch to see if things worked out.
7. Poor Battery Life on Apple Watch
Even though Apple Watch doesn’t come with good battery life they are supposed to last you at least a day or so.
Some have reported that the battery life on their Apple Watch has taken the worst turn.
Here, find out why your Apple Watch is dying so quickly. Even so, if you have Apple Watch battery problems:
Solution 1 – Try updating it to the latest software.
Solution 2 – Consider restarting it.
Solution 3 – If restarting does not work try resetting and remember to backup your data before doing that.
8. Apple Watch Isn’t Tracking Activities
The main reason why you spent so much money on your Apple Watch was to keep track of your vitals.
It could be disappointing if Apple Watch is not tracking activities. The good thing is that an Apple Watch that fails to monitor activities can be fixed. Here is how:
Solution 1 – Check your settings to ensure fitness tracking is enabled on the Apple Watch. You can as well turn off fitness tracking and then back on.
Solution 2 – Check how you’ve worn your Apple Watch. It is possible that it is loose and hence not in contact with your skin.
