Help with new Watch Series 3 - cellular and WIFI connections?

[jkmasi]

I got a new Apple Watch Series 3 for my bday from my awesome husband and so far I love it... just have a question and I figure this is the best place to get some help.

The watch is activated and added to my VZW cellular plan. When I turn my phone off, shouldn't I be able to make calls, send texts, etc from my watch? The cellular icon is remaining white even when I turn my phone off. I thought maybe this is because the watch is on my home WIFI (WIFI icon in control center is blue), but it wouldn't make a call or do anything. WIFI calling or cellular calling should work when my phone is off, right? There is just a red "Disconnected". Does this mean just disconnected from my phone, or disconnected from networks?

 

[Lee_Bo]

I got a new Apple Watch Series 3 for my bday from my awesome husband and so far I love it... just have a question and I figure this is the best place to get some help.

The watch is activated and added to my VZW cellular plan. When I turn my phone off, shouldn't I be able to make calls, send texts, etc from my watch? The cellular icon is remaining white even when I turn my phone off. I thought maybe this is because the watch is on my home WIFI (WIFI icon in control center is blue), but it wouldn't make a call or do anything. WIFI calling or cellular calling should work when my phone is off, right? There is just a red "Disconnected". Does this mean just disconnected from my phone, or disconnected from networks?

I can't speak for VZW as I'm on Tmobile, but yes, if you turn your iPhone off, your watch should "take over". It may remain on the same wifi your iPhone was on, but you can disconnect your watch from that wifi and force your watch over to LTE.

If that's not working then I recommend calling VZW to make sure your watch is activated on LTE.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I got a new Apple Watch Series 3 for my bday from my awesome husband and so far I love it... just have a question and I figure this is the best place to get some help.

The watch is activated and added to my VZW cellular plan. When I turn my phone off, shouldn't I be able to make calls, send texts, etc from my watch?

Yes

The cellular icon is remaining white even when I turn my phone off.

The cellular icon on the Watch is suppose to remain white. If you tap on it, you will see the option to disable/enable cellular.

I thought maybe this is because the watch is on my home WIFI (WIFI icon in control center is blue), but it wouldn't make a call or do anything. WIFI calling or cellular calling should work when my phone is off, right?

Technically, yes.

There is just a red "Disconnected". Does this mean just disconnected from my phone, or disconnected from networks?

it means the Watch is disconnected from your iPhone. Try this: unlock the Watch, swipe up to make sure that it cellular is enabled AND that Wi-Fi is disabled. Afterwards, try making a phone call with it.

 

[jkmasi]

So, last night I went for a walk without my phone. I read that the cellular icon should turn green when the Watch is connected to LTE. I was able to see this myself by turning off WIFI, then disabling and re-enabling cellular. At that point, my Watch stayed connected to cellular, showing the signal strength for a bit, but then disconnected itself (maybe after it went to sleep?) until I went through the same procedure again.

So, is it intended that I should have to turn off WIFI in order to use LTE on the Watch, or is that just a glitch that we work around? Also, I note that you answered "Technically yes" to my question about WIFI calling. Does that mean it's supposed to work, but generally doesn't? I sure can't seem to do anything on WIFI when my phone is out of range or off.

I assumed that by spending the extra for the LTE Watch, I would be able to move seamlessly from being with my phone to leaving it behind in my office when I go to a meeting, for example. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case for me.... at least not so far. Maybe I need to reset the Watch and start over.

 

[Just_Me_D]

So, last night I went for a walk without my phone. I read that the cellular icon should turn green when the Watch is connected to LTE. I was able to see this myself by turning off WIFI, then disabling and re-enabling cellular. At that point, my Watch stayed connected to cellular, showing the signal strength for a bit, but then disconnected itself (maybe after it went to sleep?) until I went through the same procedure again.

So, is it intended that I should have to turn off WIFI in order to use LTE on the Watch, or is that just a glitch that we work around? Also, I note that you answered "Technically yes" to my question about WIFI calling. Does that mean it's supposed to work, but generally doesn't? I sure can't seem to do anything on WIFI when my phone is out of range or off.

I assumed that by spending the extra for the LTE Watch, I would be able to move seamlessly from being with my phone to leaving it behind in my office when I go to a meeting, for example. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case for me.... at least not so far. Maybe I need to reset the Watch and start over.

Wi-Fi does not need to be disabled to use the cellular feature of the Watch. When I go for a run, I leave my iPhone at home and I do NOT disable Wi-Fi on my Watch. As soon as I am outside the range of my wireless network, the green cellular dots light up and they stay lit (with the exception of when the screen sleeps) until I get back in range of my Wi-Fi network. Even then, if someone calls me, I can still answer the call via my watch.

 

[jkmasi]

Wi-Fi does not need to be disabled to use the cellular feature of the Watch. When I go for a run, I leave my iPhone at home and I do NOT disable Wi-Fi on my Watch. As soon as I am outside the range of my wireless network, the green cellular dots light up and they stay lit (with the exception of when the screen sleeps) until I get back in range of my Wi-Fi network. Even then, if someone calls me, I can still answer the call via my watch.

Hmm... then it seems that my watch is not working as expected. Any suggestions for troubleshooting?

 

[jkmasi]

I can't speak for VZW as I'm on Tmobile, but yes, if you turn your iPhone off, your watch should "take over". It may remain on the same wifi your iPhone was on, but you can disconnect your watch from that wifi and force your watch over to LTE.

If that's not working then I recommend calling VZW to make sure your watch is activated on LTE.

I can tell it's activated, because if I turn off WIFI when out of range of my phone, I can force it to finally connect to LTE. It just can't/won't do it automatically while WIFI is on. Not sure what to do.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Hmm... then it seems that my watch is not working as expected. Any suggestions for troubleshooting?

Erase and pair the watch with your iPhone and make sure you’re running the latest watchOS version. If that’s doesn’t help, I would make a Genius Bar appointments with the nearest Apple Store.

 

[doogald]

So, last night I went for a walk without my phone. I read that the cellular icon should turn green when the Watch is connected to LTE. I was able to see this myself by turning off WIFI, then disabling and re-enabling cellular. At that point, my Watch stayed connected to cellular, showing the signal strength for a bit, but then disconnected itself (maybe after it went to sleep?) until I went through the same procedure again.

So, is it intended that I should have to turn off WIFI in order to use LTE on the Watch, or is that just a glitch that we work around? Also, I note that you answered "Technically yes" to my question about WIFI calling. Does that mean it's supposed to work, but generally doesn't? I sure can't seem to do anything on WIFI when my phone is out of range or off.

I assumed that by spending the extra for the LTE Watch, I would be able to move seamlessly from being with my phone to leaving it behind in my office when I go to a meeting, for example. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case for me.... at least not so far. Maybe I need to reset the Watch and start over.

The watch will connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth first. If it cannot, it will try to connect to a known WiFi access point. If it cannot, only then will it use cellular/LTE.

If you are away from your phone with your watch but can still connect to a known WiFi access point - if going to a meeting means that you can connect to the office WiFi - the watch will do that. That is 100% as designed.

As for WiFi calling, do you have that option turned on for your phone’s cellphone plan? I have never made a call from my watch (at least deliberately - it happened when I did “hey Siri” and my watch heard me before the iPhone), but I think that the watch inherits WiFi calling ability from your phone (even when not connected). So also make sure that settings / cellular / WiFi calling is turned on in the settings app on your iPhone. (I have a S2 by the way, not an S3, but I believe that WiFi calling should work if it is turned on.)

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 for more troubleshooting information for WiFi calling.

 

[jkmasi]

Thanks for the help, everyone. After a few restarts, my Watch seems to be working more as I'd expect. On a bike ride yesterday without my phone, it latched on to cell service most of the time. Once, during a refreshment stop at a local eatery, it lost LTE connection, but was able to reconnect when I turned off WIFI, then disabled and re-enabled Cellular. This is not a place where I have ever connected with the WIFI on my phone, but it seemed to cause an issue anyway.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice and the links.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks for the help, everyone. After a few restarts, my Watch seems to be working more as I'd expect. On a bike ride yesterday without my phone, it latched on to cell service most of the time. Once, during a refreshment stop at a local eatery, it lost LTE connection, but was able to reconnect when I turned off WIFI, then disabled and re-enabled Cellular. This is not a place where I have ever connected with the WIFI on my phone, but it seemed to cause an issue anyway.

Anyway, I appreciate the advice and the links.

Thank you for the update.