Hi there, I’ve been having ongoing issues with my Apple Watch. Last week I updated it to watchOS 26.3. The next day it accidentally ran out of battery, and since then it has been randomly restarting, showing an overheating message. I suspected it might be related to the update, so I researched online and on the official Apple forums. People recommended resetting the Apple Watch and unpairing it from my iPhone. I did both procedures, but the problem persists, even when the watch is in a cool environment. I’ve been using it normally, but it still restarts multiple times a day. Yesterday I even updated to the public beta of watchOS 26.4 hoping it would fix the issue, but it didn’t help — the random restarting continues. Today I also unpaired and paired it again with my iPhone, and the problem is still happening. This has been very disruptive and frustrating. I’m following up on my previous message because I’ve found additional diagnostic information that may help identify the cause of the issue. I accessed the Apple Watch analytics logs and noticed that the restarts appear to be associated with a system process crash, specifically the ActivityMonitorApp (com.apple.ActivityMonitorApp). The log shows an EXC_RESOURCE exception with subtype MEMORY and the message “(Limit 35 MB) Crossed High Water Mark.” Based on this, it seems the system process exceeded its memory limit and was terminated by the system. This happens shortly before the watch displays the overheating icon and restarts. This makes me suspect the overheating warning may not be caused by actual temperature, but instead may be related to a software or system issue introduced after the watchOS update. For reference, the watch is currently running: watchOS 26.4 (build 23T5209m) I’d also like to share that I’ve performed some additional troubleshooting steps to help isolate the issue. Based on the crash logs referencing the ActivityMonitorApp, I removed the Activity rings complication from my main watch face and disabled Activity app notifications as well. I’ll be monitoring the watch closely today to see if this resolves the issue. If the restarts happen again, I will also try to capture additional logs to provide you with more information.

.navigationDestination(isPresented) hangs after reboot (when called within 2 minutes of reboot) in watchOS when destination view contains @Environment(.dismiss). Feedback: FB21077151 Second button hangs after reboot. Hangs in watchOS 26.0 and 26.4 on a physical device. struct ContentView: View { @State var presentView1 : Bool = false @State var presentView2 : Bool = false var body: some View { NavigationStack { VStack { Button("Show View 1") { presentView1.toggle() } Button("Show View 2") { presentView2.toggle() } } .navigationDestination(isPresented: $presentView1, destination: {TestView1()}) .navigationDestination(isPresented: $presentView2, destination: {TestView2()}) } } } struct TestView1: View { var body: some View { Text("View 1") } } struct TestView2: View { @Environment(\.dismiss) var dismiss var body: some View { Text("View 2") } }

I am trying to develop a Watch and iOS app as companion. It is beyond stupid how I can not keep the watch connected to Xcode to develop. I have tried all the so-called tricks. Why is this so fragile? The phone is USB connected to my Mac I have tried turning off the wifi on my Mac and have the phone and watch on the same network. Nada I have tried just having everything on the same network. The watch is connected maybe 20% of the time. I have tried creating a hotspot network with my phone. The watch is connected maybe 50% of the time. This is truly an awful experience. Am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be grateful.

Hey all, I am a first time publisher navigating the App Review process. I want to publish a watchOS only app, but keep getting this feedback: Regarding 4.0, Apple Watch app icon's background color is still black. Based on our investigation, you have included plain black icons. To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to modify your app's Apple Watch app icon to include a lighter background color to ensure that it is recognizable and appears circular on Apple Watch. I set the following configs: Project -> Targets -> Apple Watch App -> App Icons & Launch Screen -> App Icon set to my Icon Composer file. Checked App Icons Source. I was able to install my build through TestFlight and successfully install on my watch, and the App Icon displays properly there. I also saw a recent Reddit post from another developer facing the same issue. I can't link that post, but will share this post with the OP. I attached what the reviewer sent me with the rejection.

Hey, I am looking to participate in the upcoming SSC 2026. I am confused whether I am allowed to submit an idea which is for watchOS. I know the fact that submission would be xcode project and playground correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know, we can develop prototypes for watch on playground. If anyone of you knows about this, please let me know!

I'm currently using Swift to write an independent Apple Watch app for watchOS 7+. My app uses Location Services, and in case the user doesn't allow that at first, I'd like to have a button inside my watchOS app to send my user to the part of the Settings app (inside watchOS) where he can give the appropriate permissions for the app. I know that in iOS/macOS you can use the openSettingsURLString string from UIApplication to do what I want, but it's not available in watchOS and I haven't found any equivalent resource inside the WKExtension class (normally the equivalent for UIApplication in the watchOS environment). Does anyone know if there's any way to programatically open the Apple Watch Settings app from my watchOS app? I'm asking since as far as I understand asking for Location permissions again would not work since the user has already refused to allow the permissions before, making the authorization status "denied". I understand as well that there's the possibility of showing a modal and directing the user to go to Settings and allow the use of location services (as in "Please go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > [AppName] to allow the use of location services") but I'd like if I could direct the user there instead as one might do in iOS. The code below is what I'm trying to do - but (of course) it crashes since I'm not actually passing any system URL. .alert(isPresented: $alertVisible) { Alert (title: Text("Please allow our app to use location services in order to get Weather Data"), message: Text("Go to Settings?"), primaryButton: .default(Text("Settings"), action: { WKExtension.shared().openSystemURL(URL(string: "")!) //UIApplication.shared.open(URL(string: UIApplication.openSettingsURLString)!) }),

I had a Watch-only app on the AppStore, and decided to add an iOS companion app now. Technically this was very easy, adding just an according target to my project. TestFlight tests where successful, IAPs remained valid for the whole setup etc., watch app could remain standalone as well -- so everything looked "Go" for release. But now customers that already previously downloaded the watch app just see "Purchased" in the AppStore for the app, and they neither automatically get the iOS companion through the update process, nor can they force a download (as there is no cloud icon to explicitly do so -- just the greyed-out "Purchased" button). The watch app updates automatically to the new version, but it seems impossible to initiate the iOS app download. The initial download of the watch-only app also doesn't show up in their list of purchases/download (only on the watch AppStore app, but from there, the iOS app won't be forced to install either). Did anyone face this also and can recommend a solution that can be communicated to affected (i.e. all so far...) customers?

I've ran into an error with the insertRouteData function of the HKWorkoutRouteBuilder that I can't seem to find any information on. The error is "Unable to find location series 1A193D3B-AFF5-41D8-A967-B1BE08D9F543 during data insert.". It seems to only happen when trying to insert very long routes, in the most recent case it was a 5 hour bike ride with 5900 samples. I save all the route data in a sqlite table as backup and after checking out the data there isn't any red flags as to why it would not insert correctly. Has anyone seen this before and could offer some insight or point me in the right direction to find the source of the error?

I'm developing an iOS app that needs to continuously inform a server whether the user's paired Apple Watch is currently reachable for interactive messaging. If this reachability is lost unexpectedly, the server should be alerted within seconds. This is a safety-critical feature where reliability is essential. The goal (abstractly): The iPhone app needs real-time or near-real-time awareness of whether the paired Apple Watch is reachable. The specific mechanism doesn't matter - I'm open to any approach that achieves this reliably. Context - what already works: The iPhone app successfully maintains continuous server connectivity using an NEAppPushProvider network extension. In practice, this runs reliably in the background and sends periodic heartbeats to the server regardless of main app state. This pattern works well for the phone component. I need to extend this to include the watch's connectivity status in those server updates. Note: WCSession APIs are only available in the main app process, not the Network Extension, so any watch connectivity information must be bridged via the main iOS app (e.g. shared UserDefaults and Darwin notifications). What I've tried: 1. Companion watchOS app sending heartbeats to iPhone via WCSession This was my primary approach: a watchOS app sends messages to the iPhone at short intervals using WCSession.sendMessage(). The iPhone forwards this to the server. If heartbeats stop, the server raises an alert. (I tested various intervals from 2-15 seconds; the specific interval doesn't matter because the fundamental problem is that the watch app is suspended regardless.) Problem: The watch app is suspended almost immediately when: The user presses the Digital Crown The user switches to another app The watch screen dims and shows the clock face (even without explicit backgrounding) Once suspended, Timer.scheduledTimer() stops firing and no heartbeats are sent. 2. WCSession.isReachable monitoring on iPhone I hoped the iPhone could monitor WCSession.isReachable to detect when the watch becomes unreachable. Problem: isReachable indicates whether the counterpart app is reachable for interactive messaging, not the underlying physical connection. It returns false for many reasons - watch app suspended, backgrounded, or various system conditions - making it unreliable as a proxy for actual watch connectivity. The iPhone cannot distinguish "watch app not ready for messaging" from "watch physically disconnected". 3. WKExtendedRuntimeSession on watchOS Problem: Only available for specific scenarios (workout, mindfulness, etc.). My use case is general activity, not fitness tracking. Misusing workout sessions would likely be rejected by App Review. 4. WKApplicationRefreshBackgroundTask on watchOS Problem: These tasks are system-scheduled with timing that varies from minutes to hours depending on system conditions. Far too slow and unpredictable for second-level detection. 5. BLE advertising from watchOS app Problem: BLE advertising stops when the watchOS app is suspended. Same fundamental limitation as the timer approach. 6. Server directly pinging the watch (ICMP or similar) Problem: While Apple Watch can have an IP address via Wi-Fi or cellular (on LTE models), inbound connections to the watch aren't feasible - the watch is behind NAT with no public address, and watchOS doesn't support inbound server sockets (especially in background). This approach isn't practical regardless of connection type. 7. CoreBluetooth scanning from iPhone Problem: Apple Watch doesn't advertise as a discoverable BLE peripheral to third-party apps. The system-level pairing isn't exposed. Why this works on Android/WearOS: On WearOS, a Foreground Service continues running in the background regardless of UI state or screen status (subject to standard OS background limits, but in practice it works reliably). The service sends heartbeats via MessageClient consistently. This "always-on background execution" pattern has no equivalent on watchOS. Questions: Is there any mechanism for an iPhone app to have continuous or regularly-updated knowledge of whether a paired Apple Watch is connected and reachable for interactive messaging - ideally without requiring a watchOS companion app to be in the foreground? Are there any system-level APIs or entitlements (perhaps requiring special approval) that expose watch pairing/connectivity events to iOS apps? Is there any watchOS background execution mechanism I've missed that could keep code running reliably when the app isn't in the foreground? Has anyone solved a similar "detect wearable connectivity loss in real-time" problem on the Apple platform? I understand Apple designed watchOS with aggressive power management for good reasons. If continuous connectivity monitoring truly isn't possible, I'd appreciate confirmation so I can set appropriate user expectations. But given this is a safety-critical use case, I'm hoping there's an approach I've overlooked.

Apple son güncellemeden sonra saatiyle bağlantı kurmuyor bu çevremdeki herkesin yaşadığı bir sorun

Regarding App Update Synchronization During Workout Mode: My watchOS app has workout mode enabled. When I update the app from the App Store on my iPhone while a workout session is active on my Apple Watch, the update does not sync to the watch. Why does this happen, and when can I expect the watch app to be updated? Regarding Automatic App Launch After a Prolonged Shutdown: I would like my watchOS app to launch automatically on my Apple Watch after it has been powered off for an extended period and then turned back on. Is this functionality possible to implement? If not, please provide a definitive answer regarding this capability.

I'm currently collecting real-time heart rate data using HKWorkoutSession. I want to track when the Apple Watch is physically removed from the user's wrist during an active workout. However, I've noticed that workoutBuilder(_:didCollectDataOf:) continues to be called even after the watch is removed from the wrist. Is there a way to detect when the Apple Watch is removed from the wrist during an active HKWorkoutSession? Or is this tracking not possible through the HealthKit framework? Any guidance or alternative approaches would be appreciated.

Since watchOS 26, watch face sharing has stopped working completely. I tested the following: Sharing via CLKWatchFaceLibrary Other public APIs Sharing via iMessage In all cases, the watch face cannot be reinstalled after being shared. This issue is not limited to my app. Large third-party apps such as Facer and other major watch face platforms are also affected, which suggests this is a system-level change or bug. Everything worked correctly before watchOS 26. Has Apple officially acknowledged this issue? Is there a recommended place to report or track this bug?

Hi Forum I am working on an ios app with a companion watchos app. The watchos app was made in 2018, it uses watchkit and has a watchkit app target and a watchkit app extension target. When I started working on it, the app was already published and running. More importantly, the watch app was installing on the users watch automatically, when the app was installed on their phones. I came in and made some changes, updated some things and added some smaller features. After uploading to testflight and testing the app there, we sent it for review and updated the app. This updated app, introduced the issue that when users now downloaded the app, the watch app seems to be missing. For me, downloading this new version on either testflight or app store works fine, but whenever my boss or a new user does it, the watch app is missing. I have tried to go back to the older version of the app I started with, but this doesn't seem to change anything. My coworker tried to do do the same thing, uploading the old version, but with a new version number and everything works like normal. He suggested the reason was that he uses xcode 16, while I use xcode 26 and the updated xcode has some slightly different settings, which can mess it up. Does anybody know about this or have the same problem? And is it correct that it can be the way settings are handled in xcode 26 compared to 16?

I'm working on a watchOS app using SwiftUI that updates its UI based on regular, time-driven logic. On a real Apple Watch, after the app has been running for ~1 minute, the device enters Always-On / power-saving display mode (screen dimmed, wrist down). From that point on, SwiftUI UI updates become noticeably delayed. The underlying logic continues to run correctly, but the UI only redraws sporadically and often "catches up" once the screen becomes fully active again. The app is running in workout mode, which keeps it alive and maintains WatchConnectivity, but this does not prevent UI redraw throttling. Below is a minimal reproducible example that demonstrates the issue. PlaybackModel.swift import SwiftUI @MainActor final class PlaybackModel: ObservableObject { @Published var beat: Int = 0 private var timer: Timer? func start() { timer?.invalidate() timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 0.5, repeats: true) { _ in Task { @MainActor in self.beat += 1 } } } func stop() { timer?.invalidate() } } ContentView.swift (watchOS) import SwiftUI struct ContentView: View { @StateObject private var model = PlaybackModel() var body: some View { VStack { Text("Beat: \(model.beat)") .font(.largeTitle) } .onAppear { model.start() } .onDisappear { model.stop() } } } Observed Behavior • The beat value continues to increase reliably. • After the watch enters Always-On / power-saving mode, SwiftUI redraws are delayed or skipped. • When the screen becomes fully active again, the UI catches up. Questions: • Is this UI redraw throttling in Always-On / power-saving mode an unavoidable system limitation on watchOS? • Is there any supported way to keep consistent SwiftUI update frequency while the app is visible but dimmed?

As title says. Surely rendering bitmaps is something the hardware could handle, right? Please enable MKTileOverlay for watchOS.

Trying to develop a little Watch app in Swift, and it's been kind of a miserable experience. I constantly get transport errors trying to connect to my watch. I've tried the trick of putting the Mac and the watch on my iPhone hotspot instead of just on the same WiFi network, but I am not sure that actually helps. I can run maybe once or twice, and then the transport error happens and it's very hard to get XCode to recognize the watch again. Also, when it DOES connect, it seems that XCode almost always loses the debugging connection (I just continue, and it IS actually running on the Watch at that point, but no debugger).

My watch APP needs to keep Bluetooth connected with peripherals whether it is in the foreground or background, but the results of my test show that the connection in the background is very unstable, sometimes you can keep the Bluetooth on for a day, but sometimes it will be disconnected 50 times a day, and every time it is disconnected, I will immediately initiate a reconnection, it is certain that there is no problem with the peripheral Bluetooth, because I have another iOS device that has been stably connected to the peripheral, I want to know what causes this instability, and if there is any solution, if someone can provide relevant advice, I will be very grateful

Need to vent a bit before relaxing for Christmas... WatchOS IAP using Storekit 2 is such a mess...is nobody actually using this or does Apple just not care for the user experience here? Lots of users experience after the purchase confirmation double tap on the side button an instant return to the purchase screen with nothing actually happening. No error message whatsoever. There is just one remedy: users need to unpair and re-pair their watch, including restoring a backup and setting up their wallet again. Nobody really wants to do this, or doesn't believe me and think this is just typical support BS, because their watch is paired and most things just work as they expect. And it turns away a customer, often leaving a bad review. And I can't do anything about it. Other errors in the purchase process are reported, but like "process interrupted" in case the payment is not setup correctly (credit car no longer valid or sth.). How should the user know? There must be better ways of letting him know what exactly the problem is. You need to implement a "Restore Purchase" function, otherwise you're not passing the review. But it really asks every time for the AppStore password, and users with crazy passwords -- that they rightfully should have! -- have almost no chance of typing them successfully on the tiny AW keyboard. Why is it not also just a side button double tap like for purchase? At the very least you would need access to the keychain PWs or allow pasting of sth. copied on the paired iPhone. Promo Codes for IAP on AW-only apps just don't work. AW has no redemption at all, and on the iPhone the AppStore will try to talk to a companion app (which AW-only doesn't have) and the end up in a dead-end installation effort. This all feels like never really tested in the field, and people are of course blaming the 3rd party dev. for all these issues. And opening a ticket is just leading nowhere -- at best it's closed after months with the hint "duplicate" but w/o any chance for me to see that one that they then actually work on and track progress. It's all so frustratingly broken...

Hello, I sent this in as a feedback several weeks ago about watchOS 26.2 beta 2 but since the issue is still active now that watchOS 26.2 is in production I'm reposting here for the community. I would also like to submit a DTS about this issue but honestly don't know the best way to go about it and would appreciate advice about that. There seems to be an issue with VPP distribution for our app on watchOS 26.2. When our watchOS companion app is launched after being installed through VPP to a supervised iPhone, it encounters a dyld error before main() or any application code is even called. The same app launches correctly in every other circumstance we could imagine and test: – Installed through VPP on supervised devices running watchOS 26.1. – Installed from the app store (using an apple id) on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2. – Installed through Testflight on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2. – Installed through the app store on unsupervised devices running watchOS 26.1 and 26.2. This strongly appears to be a VPP signing issue because we even did the following experiment: Install iPhone and Watch apps through the App Store on a supervised device pair running public iOS 26.2 beta 2 / watchOS 26.2 beta 2. Verify that both apps launch successfully. Use an MDM command to install from VPP over the existing installations Verify that the watch app fails to launch (the iOS app is unaffected) My feedback included some crash logs which I won't be reposting publicly here. Any feedback or ideas appreciated.