Has Background Refresh Stopped Working on watchOS 26?

Question

Created Aug ’25

Replies 4

Boosts 1

Participants 5

Hi everyone!

My Apple Watch app has relied for years on the WKApplication.scheduleBackgroundRefresh(...) method to keep the app updated in the background. The system would reliably trigger WKApplicationDelegate.handle(_:), where I would then schedule the next refresh task (usually 15 minutes later).

Screenshot 2025-08-19 at 16.16.58.png

As stated in the documentation, as long as there is a complication on the watch face, these background tasks should run at a relatively stable frequency.

However, this approach seems to have stopped working on watchOS 26. I no longer receive any WKApplicationRefreshBackgroundTask at all. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Boost

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’25

Our engineering teams need to investigate this issue, as resolution may involve changes to Apple's software. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could open a bug report, please include a sysdiagnose and sample project. Post the FB number here once you do. Bug Reporting: How and Why? has tips on creating your bug report.

1

Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’25

Thank you @Gong for reporting the issue, which is actually a surprise to me :-(. For us to investigate the issue, would you mind to help us with the following?

Share the steps you use to confirm the issue.
Capture a sysdiagnose by following the instructions.
File a feedback report with the sysdiagnose, as my colleague said, and share your report ID.

Thanks again!

Best,
——
Ziqiao Chen
 Worldwide Developer Relations.

1

Answer 3

visskiss OP

1w

I actually moved back to the older handle () function on the app delegate as the .backgroundTask (swiftui) modifier didn't seem to be called at all. That said I'm dealing with a lack of combine pipeline in background tasks.

0

Answer 4

TheJZA OP

3d

Hello, did you ever find a resolution to this? I am building an Apple Watch App and I am also having an issue with background refreshes not being delivered. It can work fine for hours and then just completely stall during charging or entering low power mode and then it never recovers and I have to restart the watch to get it to continue giving me background refreshes.

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