All hope is not lost when your Apple Watch is stuck in pairing mode and fails to proceed with the pairing process. We know you won’t be able to pair your Apple Watch at the moment but there is a way around it. So, here we will walk you through how to fix an Apple Watch stuck in pairing mode.
If you are a novice or you won’t be able to pair your Apple Watch if reset at the end of this post you may want to check out our article on how to pair an Apple Watch.
How to Fix Apple Watch Stuck in Pairing Mode
While we can say precisely which of these methods will work for you. We are sure that after trying out these troubleshooting tips your Apple Watch should be able to pair with your iPhone.
Unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone
That is self-explanatory enough. Just disconnect your iPhone and Apple Watch. So, The first thing to do if the Apple Watch gets stuck in pairing mode is to disconnect the Apple Watch from the iPhone.
It’s possible that both devices are not successfully paired but indicated that they were paired.
- Keep your Apple Watch and iPhone close together as you unpair them.
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
- Go to the My Watch tab and tap All Watches.
- Tap the info button next to the watch that you want to unpair.
- Tap Unpair Apple Watch.
Check your iPhone and Apple Watch Settings
It is not always due to a software bug or a hardware issue that your Apple Watch disconnects from your iPhone. An Apple Watch not connecting to the iPhone could be caused by something as easy as a setting on your watch or on your phone, so let’s look at a couple of these that could be the source of the issue.
It could be that the Airplane mode may have been enabled on either your iPhone or Apple Watch. Bluetooth may also be disabled on your iPhone, you need to check to be sure. So, if any of these is disabled which is what both devices will use as a mode of connection it will be really hard to get past the pairing stage.
Reboot your iPhone
I’ll recommend this a thousand times. With just a reboot you can soft-reset your iPhone and clear all small fixes on it. However, you can follow the steps below to learn to reboot your iPhone.
- Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake symbol until the slide to power off icon displays.
You can also:
- Go to your iPhone “Settings.”
- Choose ” General”
- Select “Shut Down” from the bottom.
You should see your iPhone turned off. You can then turn it on after a couple of seconds. However, you can also use iPhone Siri to your advantage and tell Siri to restart your iPhone.
Reboot your Apple Watch
While you can perform these two actions in any sequence, it is normally preferable to reboot the iPhone first, followed by the Apple Watch. This ensures that no problems remain on the iPhone when the watch boots up.
- Press and hold the button on the Apple Watch right below the crown.
- Slide the Power Off icon to the right when prompted.
- After the display has gone dark for a few seconds, click the digital crown to restart the Apple Watch.
- The Apple logo should be displayed immediately on the screen. If not, wait a few seconds before clicking the digital crown again.
Once you are done retarting your Apple Watch you should consider pairing it with your iPhone. If all things are equal, your Apple Watch shouldn’t stuck on the pairing screen.
Update your iOS
If your iOS is outdated it can affect your iPhone or iWatch functionality depending on which of the devices that you need to update.
Therefore, we will walk you through how to check whether your iPhone is due for an update or not.
- Go to your iPhone “Settings.”
- Click on “General.”
- Choose “Software Update.”
- Tap “Download & Install” if there is an update available.
Your iPhone will download the update from the cloud and install it. Once the installation process is completed you can try to pair both devices again and see whether they are still stuck in the pairing mode.
Reset iPhone Network Settings
Here is another troubleshooting tip you should consider when fixing your Apple Watch stuck in pairing mode. It’s simple and straightforward. Meanwhile, you simply need to do this on your iPhone.
- Go to your iPhone “Settings.”
- Tap “General.”
- Click on “Transfer or Reset iPhone.”
- Tap “Reset.”
- Select “Reset Network Settings.”
- Type your “iPhone Passcode.”
The steps above will help to reset your iPhone network setting without resetting your iPhone itself. Doing this can help handle network-related problems between your iPhone and Apple Watch during pairing.
Reset your Apple Watch
If you can afford to do this it’s better to finally reset your Apple Watch if none of the above troubleshooting tips could help your Apple Watch out of the stuck mode during pairing proceed.
On Apple Watch:
- Press and hold the side button until you see the power button in the upper-right corner of the display.
- Press and hold the Digital Crown until you see Erase all content and settings.
- Tap Reset
- Tap Reset again to confirm.
- Wait for the process to finish
- Set up your Apple Watch again.
On iPhone:
- Open the Apple Watch app.
- Select the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose your watch at the top of the display.
- Click on the Information icon (the icon with the small “i” and a circle around it).
- Select Unpair Apple Watch and then click on it again to confirm.