Apple Watch Faces missing? Try these steps

Some Apple Watch users have reported a weird issue related to integrating their Apple Watch and iPhone. This problem is related to Apple’s own Watch’s faces. 

Many users customize their Apple Watch faces based on the types of activity they perform or their personal preferences.

Therefore it can be annoying to find that your Apple Watch faces are missing from your phone, and you have limited ability to edit them on your Apple Watch.

Related reading:

• How to change the order of Apple Watch faces
• How to pair your Apple watch to a new iPhone without losing health data
• How to change your fitness goals with the Activity app on your Apple Watch
• Strength Training Using Apple Watch, A Quick Primer

Is your Apple watch missing one, some, or all watch faces?

First of all, if you are missing one or just a few watch faces, remember that not all watch faces are compatible with all watch models. Like the popular Pride watch face, many require a Series 4 and higher. And some work only with the latest watch model.

Check out this Apple guide on watch face support by model.

If you are missing supported watch faces or not seeing any at all, read on!

Users who report this problem note that it’s just not a single watch face that appears to have vanished, but the entire set of loaded watch faces goes missing.

The section under ‘My Faces’ simply appears to be empty.

Are you suddenly experiencing this problem with your Apple Watch? Try these steps and check if it fixes your problem.

How to recover missing Apple Watch Faces from your device

Before troubleshooting, make sure your devices run the latest software versions and update them if available. Once checked, power off and on (restart) both your Apple Watch and paired iPhone. See this that’s all that you needed.

If those steps don’t work, follow these troubleshooting steps.

1. Close any open apps on your iPhone 
2. Unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone. Learn how in this article.
3. Start with a forced restart of your iPhone
   1. To restart, press the Volume button up and then down, and next press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo on your iPhone
4. Once you have performed the reset on your iPhone, move to Apple Watch (you must follow this sequence in order)
5. Press and hold both the side button and Digital Crown for at least 10 seconds, then release both buttons when you see the Apple logo
6. Pair your Apple Watch to your iPhone again
7. Now check and see if your Apple Watch faces are available
   1. Tap on the Watch app on your iPhone 
   2. Tap on ‘My Watch’ at the bottom left corner of your screen
   3. Look for your Apple watch faces in the ‘My Faces’ section

Once your Watch faces are available, you can test them out by trying to create a new version of the face by customizing

1. Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to open up the synced Apple Watch faces. Press on the display, swipe all the way to the right, and tap on the ‘+’ icon.
2. Turn your digital crown to choose the face that you want to customize.
3. Press firmly on the watch display and choose ‘Customize’ to change complications et al. 

You can also change your watch face using the Watch app on your paired iPhone.

Once you have saved your changes, you can restart your Apple Watch and iPhone to ensure that the newly customized watch face is available on both devices.

We hope that you found this helpful. Please let us know in the comments below if you have any questions.