Xcode 27 Beta 3 / watchOS 27 Beta 3 - Apple Watch won’t show PIN when pairing in Device Hub (Solved)
I ran into an issue where my Apple Watch could no longer pair with Xcode after I manually removed it from Device Hub.
Environment
- Xcode 27 Beta 3
- macOS Tahoe Beta
- iOS 27 Beta 3
- watchOS 27 Beta 3
Symptoms
- iPhone appears in Device Hub and is Connected.
- Apple Watch does not appear in Device Hub.
- On Apple Watch:
- Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode → Devices
- My Mac appears in the list.
- Tapping the Mac:
- Enter watch passcode.
- Tap Pair.
- Expected: Xcode should display a 6-digit PIN.
- Actual: Xcode remains on “Waiting to Pair” forever. No PIN is shown.
Additional observations
Running:
xcrun devicectl list devices
Only shows the iPhone. The Apple Watch never appears.
Also, while reproducing the issue, coredeviced receives no pairing request at all.
So it doesn’t look like the pairing challenge is failing—the pairing request never reaches the Mac.
Things I tried (none worked)
- Restarted Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch.
- Removed pairing from Device Hub.
- Removed the Mac from Apple Watch Developer Mode → Devices.
- Turned Developer Mode off/on.
- Erased and re-paired the Apple Watch with the iPhone.
- Re-enabled wireless development.
None of these solved the issue.
Solution
What finally worked was surprisingly simple:
- Completely power off the iPhone.
- Keep the Apple Watch and Mac powered on.
- Pair the Apple Watch from Device Hub again.
Immediately after the iPhone was powered off, Xcode displayed the pairing PIN and the pairing completed successfully.
After the watch was paired, I powered the iPhone back on and everything continued to work normally.
My guess
It seems the iPhone (the companion device) may be holding a stale developer pairing state after the watch is manually unpaired from Device Hub. With the iPhone powered off, the watch appears to communicate directly with the Mac, allowing the pairing challenge to be created successfully.
Hopefully this helps anyone else who gets stuck at “Waiting to Pair” with no PIN appearing.