Apple Watch no longer rings when iPhone does

[AMACL]

One of the features I liked about the Apple Watch - I have had an Apple Watch 2 since December - was that it would ring with an incoming call and I could answer on the watch without frantically looking for the iPhone.

Two days ago I upgraded to WatchOS 3.1.3. The watch no longer rings with an incoming call.

I may have changed a setting somewhere, but don't recall doing that.

Anyone else having the same issue?

Ann

 

[lclev]

I have an Apple Watch 2 and it is running 3.1.3. I always leave it on silent mode but I just tested it to see if it would ring. On the watch I went to settings -> sounds & haptics -> and turned Silent Mode off. I called my iPhone and the watch started to ring audibly. So mine is working fine. Also my iPhone is always set to vibrate only so while the watch was ringing the iPhone was not. Are you getting haptic feedback when you get a call?

Now if your watch is not set to silent mode or you did not mute it, then you could try first a soft reset and if that does not work try a hard reset. Neither will erase your data on the watch. This article will tell you how to do both:

http://www.cio.com/article/2936139/smartwatches/how-to-hard-reset-your-apple-watch.html

Also how to check to see if your watch is muted:

http://www.imore.com/how-mute-ringer-and-alerts-your-apple-watch

Lisa

 

[MacInWin]

Try rebooting and re-pairing with your iPhone. I have seen some folks who needed to do that to get it going again after the update.

 

[lclev]

Yes that would be a good third option as un-pairing then re-pairing wipes the watch back to a new setup. But if it won't ring you might have to go that route. I guess I have been lucky as I have had a S0 and S2. Neither have had any update issues. The S2 even made it through the 3.1.1 update that killed a lot of watches.

One good caveat - it is still under applecare. If you can't get it to start ringing again the next suggestion would be taking it back to apple.

Let us know how things turn out.

Lisa

 

[AMACL]

Thanks, Lisa and MacInWin. This problem appears to be off and on, and the basic issue may be with the iPhone itself - several times recently it has failed to ring and I missed calls - and the Watch did not ring either at those times, but if it is connected to the iPhone it can't be blamed, right?

It's not life-threatening, but if one can't depend on the machines, one takes other measures...

I'll let you know if I can tinker with the two devices to get them back to normal.

 

[lclev]

You might try resetting your iPhone. I had to do that once when my phone quit audibly ringing. It would vibrate but no sound and it was not muted. I did a reset by going to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset all Settings. That does not erase all your contents but it resets a bunch of settings.

Lisa

 

[chscag]

@Lisa:

How's the battery life on your new 7+? I have heard mixed results from owners of the various models. You have the Sprint model which supposedly has the better radio and better battery life. The T-Mobile and AT&T model use a different set of radios and are not world-wide compatible. The reason I ask is my son sent me an Apple gift card to buy a new iPhone. My carrier is T-Mobile but I could buy the SIM free model which is the same as the Sprint and Verizon model but can be used on any network.

 

[lclev]

Yes I have a Sprint iPhone and I have good battery life. I can get 18 hours easily and 24 hours if I don't run the Waze app. I have a 25 minute drive to work on the highway. I run the waze app to keep me updated on traffic issues. It eats battery and I never remember to plug it into the car charger but I can remember to put it in the hands free holder - go figure. I am fanatical about hitting the button to sleep it when I am done using it which helps.

It is perhaps a bit better on battery life when compared to my iphone 6+. I will say it has better reception. As you know I live in a rural area which has limited service and this iPhone 7+ gets much better reception. I also have had very few dropped calls which use to happen frequently at home. That was the main reason I upgraded my husband phone from a 5c to a 7. He has much better reception now.

I plug my iPhone every night and always have at least 50% left. My husband remembers to plug his in every couple of days. I have picked his up to see 20% on it and it has been three days since he plugged it in. He uses it to make only calls - no texting or app usage. But he can spend hours talking on it!!

At this time I could not use a T-mobile phone as the company has not found my area on the planet. Reception would be terrible. Verizon would work but they are more expensive and actually their service is not as good as Sprints. So I guess in the grand scheme of things I got luck in the iPhone 7 shuffle this time.

Lisa

 

[IWT]

@chscag

I know we live in different countries with all that implies.

But I have had iPhones since the 3, all with the same provider (British Telecom). For me, at any rate, my new iPhone 7 has a much extended battery life compared to my i6 under identical-use circumstances.

I can manage 48 hours, at least, between charges compared with 30-36 on the i6.

Don't know if that info helps you, but no harm done anyway

Ian

 

[chscag]

Thanks to you both. My iPhone 6+ was getting around 48 hours on a single full charge, however, now that it's almost 18 months old it has diminished to 30 hours or so. Still very useable. Since my generous son sent me an Apple gift card to buy a new phone I want to make sure I can get the same type of usage. I need good battery life because I use my phone to read off in front of an audience. I also need good cellular reception which is why I prefer the sim free model that Apple sells rather than that of my carrier.

 

[chscag]

Well, I finally cashed in the gift card my son sent and got an iPhone 7+ at our local Apple Store yesterday afternoon. I opted for the sim free version which can be used world wide on any network. Was easier to switch from the 6+ than I thought. The genius at the Apple Store removed the sim from my 6+ and put it in the 7+. I had to update the 7+ to 10.2.1 before it would allow me to restore from backup. (My backup was made using 10.2.1 on the 6+.)

Not sure I like the new haptic feedback home button though. Guess I'll have to get used to it.

 

[IWT]

@chscag

Good for you. Enjoy.

You make an important point in reminding folks that when they get a brand new iPhone, it is rarely running the very latest version of iOS 10 and, if one keeps one's backups up to date, these are likely to be a version or more above that of the iPhone. As you reported, this requires that that you update the iPhone first before you can restore from BU.

As regards the haptic feedback Home Button, I had a lot of difficulty getting the pressure right (brought up Siri most of the time). After much experimentation and against my intuition, setting 1 proved to be the easiest to manage. (Settings > General > Home Button > Choose Your Click > 1).

Ian

 

[chscag]

Thanks Ian. I believe that setting #1 is what I'm currently using. Now if I only could get that nosey "Siri" to mind her own business.... LOL.

 

[AMACL]

Hello,
Sorry to have been silent so long after all your helpful posts.
And a bit sheepish about the problem I reported.
At some point last weekend I became aware that the Apple Watch was set to "do not disturb" , which prevented all incoming calls during certain hours.
I was innocently wondering what that pretty moon meant that appeared on the watch face along with the time and whatever else was on the watch face.
Once I turned off the moon = do not disturb, the watch dutifully rang when the phone did.
How it got turned on, frankly I have no idea. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has turned things on or off without realizing it.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, which will come in handy in the future for sure!

Ann

 

[IWT]

Ann

Thank you for posting back and for your honesty and openness. We've all done this, or similar, at one time or another.

Ian

 

[lclev]

Yeah, it's no big deal. You are now a member of a very large club which includes everyone on this forum - and the planet for that matter! I have worked on a problem for hours, reformatted, reinstalled, only to find the problem was something very simple that could have been fixed in 5 minutes.

Lisa

 

[AMACL]

Thanks, Ian. In fact the thread turned into a fairly useful conversation after all .
Ann

 

[rfomlover]

Mine does this if the phone is connected to another bluetooth device such as my car stereo.