Factory Reset Apple Watch

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
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My husband’s Series 5 watch with GPS + cellular has been acting wonky. As I am the in home IT guru, he has come to me for help! First he noticed it would pause while he was exercising, so it wasn’t keeping track of his workout. Then he noticed when he asked Siri to send a text, it didn’t respond, or he would manual have to hit send instead of it sending when asked. Sometimes an incoming text does not show on the watch. The latest issue is when he sets an alarm, while his phone sounds, his watch does not.

Both his phone and watch have the latest ios. He has tried turning to watch on and off a few times, as well as his phone with no change. A few of the online suggestions didn’t help either; making sure the pause feature was not on and turning off the passcode. I am wondering if a factory reset will help. I know when he first got the watch, getting the cell set up was a problem for some reason; not sure that was a watch issue or ATT. In what I have read, we can select to keep the cell plan, so hopefully when we set up as new, it won’t be a problem; going to ATT is one of my least favorite things to do!

Anyone had luck with a reset? I assume it is worth a try, but not holding my breath it will help. Just wondering if I am missing something else. He would like not to purchase a new watch and I believe repairs cost more than a new watch! I wonder if he has dropped the watch as I notice a very small divot on the back near the sensor when I was cleaning it, thinking that was what was wrong with the workout app.

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Did you consider giving a call to your local Apple store or Apple customer service? They may have more things to try before doing a factory reset. I don’t know if a factory reset results in loss of past data…

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@abasket If I understand correctly, everything will be saved to icloud and can be reinstalled on the watch. Hopefully my husband can get by the Apple store to see if one of the Geniuses can help him; he has work travel the next couple of weeks. He will need some hand holding as he hates dealing with electronics, which is why I am involved!

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I understand! My husband is super non tech! Good luck.

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You could ask on the r/AppleWatch subReddit too

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I think I am going to play with his settings tomorrow when he is actually home for a few hours, if I can get ahold of both his watch and phone! I have checked multiple sites I trust and have a list of suggestions. Because there are multiple different issues, I am betting it is not in a setting; these issues popped up over a couple of days. Usually when he has phone issues, I just try to mirror my settings to see if he accidentally turned something on or off, or if an update messed with a setting.

If there is an update, and there is talk online of an issue with the update, you can rest assure my husband’s phone will have that problem! Doesn’t matter which phone he has had, his always has a problem; can you say user error? :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: Same with his computer, the printer, and his car. He just doesn’t get electronics, otherwise he is very smart, which is what always surprises me; how can someone so smart not figure out a little problem.