Is your Apple Watch not pairing to a new iPhone? Fix it!

One thing I really look forward to each year (or two) is upgrading my iPhone to Apple’s latest model! I love checking out all the new features and capabilities of the latest model.

But one thing I don’t look forward to is trying to get my older model Apple Watch paired with the new iPhone. Sometimes the process of transferring my Apple Watch from my old iPhone to my new one is seamless, but other times, it’s not!

This article focuses on problems you might encounter when you experience issues pairing your older Apple Watch when upgrading to a new iPhone model.

Related reading

• Unpair Apple Watch with or without your iPhone or Watch
• How to pair your Apple watch to a new iPhone without losing health data or any other data
• How to erase health data from Apple Watch and paired iPhone
• Getting a new iPhone or iPad? Use Apple’s Prepare for New iPhone feature

Pairing your Apple Watch with a new iPhone

Before you start, the key is whether you still have your old iPhone or not. You need to follow a different series of steps if you don’t have your old iPhone with you versus if you still have your old iPhone.

Before you start, make sure of the following:

1. Your Apple ID and password to turn off your Apple Watch’s Activation Lock.
2. Know your Apple Watch’s passcode (if it has one.)
3. On your old iPhone and Watch, check that Airplane Mode is off and that WiFi and Bluetooth are on.
4. Charge your Apple Watch and iPhone(s) to 50 percent or more before starting, and keep all devices on their chargers, so they are connected to power throughout the process.

We assume you are starting with a new, fresh from the factory iPhone that you have not set up. If you see the “Hello” screen when you turn on your new iPhone, then it’s in its factory setting.

If you already set up your new iPhone and cannot pair it to your old Apple Watch, we suggest you factory reset it and go through these steps again.

Upgrading to a new iPhone? Use Apple’s Prepare for new iPhone feature

If your old iPhone uses iOS15+, there’s an excellent checklist feature for iCloud called Prepare for New iPhone that automatically walks you through the steps of making sure everything is ready for when you get your new iPhone, including getting all your app data ready for transferring and checking your trade-in status.

Plus, it works even if you don’t have a paid iCloud subscription or enough iCloud storage to back up all your important data! This feature gives you free and temporary access (about 2-3 weeks) to enough iCloud storage to seamlessly back up and transfers your old iPhone’s data to your new iPhone.

This new feature makes switching from an old model to a new model even easier! 

Find Prepare for New iPhone in your iPhone’s Settings app

1. Tap General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
2. Select Get Started.
3. Your phone runs through a series of steps to prepare your phone for its transfer. If it discovers any issues like you aren’t backing up apps to iCloud, it lets you know so you can add those apps’ data to your iCloud backup.
4. Once complete, you see a message letting you know you’re ready for your new iPhone.

How to pair your Apple Watch with your new iPhone if you still have your old phone

1. Ideally, update your old iPhone so it’s on the same operating system as your new iPhone. Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
   1. If you are updating a much older iPhone, you likely won’t be able to update to the latest iOS version. In that case, update it to the newest version available for your iPhone model.
2. Using your old iPhone, update your Apple Watch to the latest watchOS available. Go to the Watch app > My Watch > General > Software Update.
3. Save your old iPhone’s health and other data to iCloud or your computer.
   1. If you back up using iCloud, go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud and make sure you allow iCloud to back up your devices. Also, review all the apps, including the Health app and any other apps you wish to save data from.
   2. If you back up using your computer, choose to encrypt your backup to save your Health data.
4. Backup your old iPhone using iCloud’s Back Up Now feature (Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now) or your computer (via Finder app or iTunes, depending on what macOS or OS X version your Mac uses.)
5. Transfer your date and set up your new iPhone using iOS Quick Start’s Automatic Setup.
   1. Turn on your new iPhone and place it next to your old iPhone. Wait for the Quick Start screen to appear.
   2. Follow the on-screen steps to start the data migration from the old iPhone to the new one.
      1. If your old iPhone uses iOS 12.4+, you can choose to transfer data via iCloud or connect a cable between the two devices for fast data migration (called device-to-device migration.)
   3. Follow the steps on the screen for your chosen migration method. When asked, choose to use your Apple Watch with your new iPhone.
   4. Keep your devices near each other and plugged in until the migration process is completed. 
   5. Follow the on-screen steps to finish your new iPhone setup.

Once this setup process is completed, your Apple Watch should work with your new iPhone.

Quick Start didn’t ask if you want to use your Apple Watch during setup?

Open the Watch app on your iPhone with your Apple Watch and iPhone close together and still on their chargers.

• If it asks you to confirm that you want to use your watch, follow the on-screen steps to finish setting up.
• If it asks you to Start Pairing after setting up your new phone, unpair your Apple Watch from your old iPhone and then pair it with your new iPhone using the Watch app.

Is your Apple Watch not showing up on the new iPhone? 

If your watch isn’t showing up as paired to your new iPhone, check your old iPhone to see if it remains paired there.

When it shows as still paired to your old phone, unpair the watch from the old iPhone and manually pair it with your new iPhone using the Watch app.

If that still doesn’t work, factory reset your Apple Watch via the watch’s Settings app > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

Then, unpair the watch from the old iPhone.

This process erases all your watch’s data so that you won’t have a recent backup. But you should be able to pair it with your new iPhone.

If you continue to have problems with pairing to your new iPhone, it’s likely that the Apple Watch still has Apple’s Activation Lock turned on. In that case, try to turn off your watch’s Activation Lock remotely.

Unfortunately, you must erase your Apple Watch to remove its activation lock.

1. Open Apple iCloud’s website on a computer and sign in with your Apple ID. 
2. Open the Find iPhone app.
3. Select All Devices and choose your Apple Watch.
4. Tap Erase Apple Watch.
5. Select the X button next to your Apple Watch to remove it from its activation lock and your Apple ID. This deletes the Apple Watch from your list of devices.
6. Open the Watch app on your new iPhone and start the pairing process.

How to pair your Apple Watch with your new iPhone if you don’t have your old phone

First, the good news: if you forgot or didn’t unpair your Watch from your old iPhone and no longer have the old iPhone or erased it back to factory settings, you can still get your Apple Watch paired and working with your new iPhone!

Now, the bad news: you must erase your Apple Watch, which won’t retain any of its data unless you already have a backup. That includes your health and activity data.

1. Erase your Apple Watch by tapping Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
   1. Cellular models must choose to keep or remove your cellular plan. We recommend keeping it unless you are changing numbers or carriers.
2. Turn on and start setting up your new iPhone. Sign in to your Apple ID and iCloud account and follow all the on-screen steps to complete your new iPhone setup.
3. Once you finish setting up your new iPhone, open the Watch app and pair your watch with your new iPhone.

   

4. See if you have a recent watch backup available and select that backup. If you don’t have a backup, set up your Apple Watch as new.
5. Follow the steps in the Watch app to finish setting up.

Can’t pair with your Apple Watch on the new iPhone? 

If you erase your Apple Watch but cannot get it to pair with your new iPhone, or it doesn’t show up, it’s likely that the watch is still tied to your old iPhone and has Apple’s activation lock enabled.

So we need to remove your watch’s Activation Lock remotely using Apple’s iCloud website.

1. Open Apple iCloud’s website on a computer and sign in with your Apple ID. 
2. Open the Find My app.
3. Select All Devices and choose your Apple Watch.
4. Tap Erase Apple Watch.
   
5. Select the X button next to your Apple Watch to remove it from its activation lock and your Apple ID. This deletes the Apple Watch from your list of devices.
6. Open the Watch app on your new iPhone and start the pairing process.

Try one of our reader’s tips

One of our readers, Murat, found this exact process worked for him, so if nothing worked so far for your iPhone and Apple Watch give Murat’s suggestion a try!

1. Remove your Apple Watch from your old phone (assume it uses the same Apple ID.)
2. Remove the Apple Watch from your Apple ID’s list of your devices.
3. Reset the Apple Watch back to its factory settings.
4. Delete all your watch backups from your old and new phones via General > iPhone Storage > Watch app > Remove All Backups.
5. Uninstall the Watch app from your old and new phones. Then, reinstall it via the App Store.
6. Power off your phone, then power it back up. Once back on, restart it.
7. Open the Watch app and pair your Apple Watch to your new iPhone. Then, set it up as new.

Wrap up

Hopefully, you successfully paired your Apple Watch with your new iPhone using these troubleshooting tips.

If things still aren’t working for you or if something else did the job, please let us know in our comments section. We love hearing from you and sharing what works with our readers.