Forgot to unpair watch before resetting old phone

I got a new phone, 13 pro max. I forgot to unpair my watch before resetting my my old phone. Now my new phone will not pair to my watch bc it says i am paired with another device. How do i pair it without having to reset my watch. The data on my watch has not backed up to the icloud bc it needs to be paired first to do so. I want to avoid losing the data on my watch.

Apple Watch

Posted on Oct 27, 2022 07:48 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 27, 2022 08:51 PM

If you had kept the old phone backed up to iCloud this should include most of your watch data, it automatically backs up with the paired phone.You will need to erase the watch

see: How to pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone - Apple Support


If you don't have your old iPhone or you erased it

Your Apple Watch might still be paired with your old iPhone. Use the steps below to unpair:

  1. Erase your Apple Watch
  2. Set up your new iPhone and sign in to iCloud. If you've already set up and signed in, skip this step.
  3. Open the Apple Watch app on your new iPhone, then pair your watch with your new iPhone.
  4. Try to restore from a backup. Make sure that your iPhone and Apple Watch are up to date; if they're not, you might not see your backup in the list. You will lose Activity, Workouts, or settings on your watch that changed between the last backup and now. If you use iCloud in iOS 11 and later, Health and Activity data is stored in iCloud and automatically kept up to date on devices where you're signed in with the same Apple ID. 
    • If you’re asked to restore from a watch backup, select the most recent backup. 
    • If you don't have a backup, you need to set up your Apple Watch as new. 
  1. Follow the onscreen steps to finish setting up.
  2. Start using your Apple Watch with your new iPhone. You might need to wait a few days for all your iCloud data to appear.

iCloud doesn't store your Activity Sharing data.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 27, 2022 08:51 PM in response to hillaryng

If you had kept the old phone backed up to iCloud this should include most of your watch data, it automatically backs up with the paired phone.You will need to erase the watch

see: How to pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone - Apple Support


If you don't have your old iPhone or you erased it

Your Apple Watch might still be paired with your old iPhone. Use the steps below to unpair:

  1. Erase your Apple Watch
  2. Set up your new iPhone and sign in to iCloud. If you've already set up and signed in, skip this step.
  3. Open the Apple Watch app on your new iPhone, then pair your watch with your new iPhone.
  4. Try to restore from a backup. Make sure that your iPhone and Apple Watch are up to date; if they're not, you might not see your backup in the list. You will lose Activity, Workouts, or settings on your watch that changed between the last backup and now. If you use iCloud in iOS 11 and later, Health and Activity data is stored in iCloud and automatically kept up to date on devices where you're signed in with the same Apple ID. 
    • If you’re asked to restore from a watch backup, select the most recent backup. 
    • If you don't have a backup, you need to set up your Apple Watch as new. 
  1. Follow the onscreen steps to finish setting up.
  2. Start using your Apple Watch with your new iPhone. You might need to wait a few days for all your iCloud data to appear.

iCloud doesn't store your Activity Sharing data.


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Forgot to unpair watch before resetting old phone

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