Watch app keeps crashing

Hello Adamb1122,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. We understand you’re having trouble with your Watch app unexpectedly quitting on your iPhone. We’re happy to help.

You will want to follow the steps below:

If an app unexpectedly quits, stops responding, or won’t open

Should the issue persist, contact Apple Support.

Take care.

Hi Adamb1122 and others- I am happy to report I had this problem too and solved it yesterday. I have an Apple watch SE+cellular, iPhone SE2. My watch did not show up in BT, but did show up on my account. Watch app hasn't opened in months, just instantly crashed. Nothing I found was helping. Here's what finally worked for me (I think). My guess is the key is in deleting the old corrupt watch backups in iCloud.

1. I reset my SE watch from the watch (because the app on my phone wouldn't open): settings > general > reset > reset all. I need to note that it was at this point I lost my composure and did a variety of things. I removed my watch from my account, backed up to iCloud and reset the phone (that backup and reset didn't work). Then out of frustration, I logged out of iCloud which locked me out of everything and spent some time trying to solve that situation. Usually I'm a little more methodical, but I was more irritated than I thought and being careless. Once I got my act together, I then proceeded.
2. I removed all previous versions of the watch app on my phone: setting > general > iphone storage > [this is where I deleted all watch backups - I had a few]
3. Then I made a new iCloud backup from my phone, one WITHOUT the watch backups
4. I reset my phone: settings > general > erase all content and settings
5. Restored from iCloud with the latest backup - the backup without the watch info.

Success! I was able to reinstall the watch app and it paired with my phone. Watch app appears to be working properly. Watch and phone are paired and functioning as expected. I hope this helps someone else. :)

Honestly apple you need to do better. Things like this shouldn’t even be happening.

My brand new Apple Watch SE keeps rebooting. I really was in need of my watch because my phone died and it let me down. I wasn’t even at home and it was very late. I Couldn’t even call an Uber or anyone because watch only kept rebooting. APPLE LOGO ! So when I did get home I had to factory reset it. I think this is the second time I had to do that too for the same issue. And my iPhone 11pro has sound issues. People can’t even hear me speak and vice versa. Apple products are not what they used to be. I can’t even talk to older family members. The younger family and friends can easily text me due to not hearing me but the older ones can’t. I feel like I’m losing out. Apple got me for my money. I’m better off with a regular phone for under100 bucks. I’m about to try the competitor’s phone and see if I’ll have better luck. An expensive phone and watch like this should never let a person down. And I have a really good phone provider and I know that’s not the issue.

I just purchased the new Apple Watch Series 6 and received it on Saturday (11.21.2020) - like many of the stories on these threads about the Watch app crashing, my watch worked great for a few days - then suddenly unpair itself from my phone (iPhone XS) on 11.23.2020, then when I went to open the Watch app, the app opens for a split second to a black screen and then crashes. This prevents me from re-pairing the watch to my phone.

I chatted with Apple Support over live chat this morning for over an hour and went though backing up my iPhone, updating the phone to 14.2, restarting the phone, restating the phone and making sure all the apps were closed, and still the issue persists. The support agent said they exhausted all their options and suggested I reach out the Watch app support team directly from the App store. I asked if I should do a restore from my iCloud backup (as I saw on many threads there that that would fix the issue). I did that and it still did not resolve the app crashing. After reading all the threads on here I believe there's not a good solution in the works - Apple has no mention of this issue and the support I received did not resolve it.

It's frustrating because it seems this has been going on for months. The 14.2 bug fixes explicitly mention that it will fix the watch app crashing, but it has not.

I feel defeated and cheated - I will be returning this watch today.

My watch done it again that darn white apple logo. It’s no need for me to even have a data plan and the phone is no better we can’t even hear each other speak. The SGS20 FE 5G | Factory Unlocked has 128GB FOR 549. The only thing is I would have to see what’s similar to iMessage, FaceTime and the adhesive touch button that I use. Any body knows what’s similar to those features? And many affordable watches are comparable with that phone. I guess it’s time to send my Apple Watch & iPhone 11 Pro to the empty box in the closet. But I’ll get over it because with my S20 at least I would be able to hear people talk since I do pay phone bills every month. I don’t want to have to do this change but the quality with Apple is just letting us down. And don’t we all feel like a tape recorder in these days by having to repeat ourselves over and over before just hanging up the phone. And a nightmare by watching the Apple watch restart over and over and over. It’s trash

What a waste.

Just got a new iPhone 11 and a new Apple watch 6. Exact same thing. I upgraded my iPhone to IOS 14.4 and the problem still persists. Its definitely not OK that it's impossible to delete an app that's crashing without having to reset your whole phone. It almost seems like Apple is trying to make this difficult... one of the forums says to update your watch software which you can't do without accepting the update on your iphone, which requires you to open the watch app to accept... which of course doesn't work.

This is really disappointing for the Apple team - several software releases later and they still haven't figured it out? Kind of seems like amateur hour.

Well Apple keeps letting us down as if their products are cheap. So I guess the solution is to figure out what other companies out there has phones and watches that work well. So It’s just time to say goodbye because Good things sometimes come to an end.