Apple Watch Stolen - Pairing “Potentially Unsuccessful”?

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Level 1

4 points

Apple Watch Stolen - Pairing “Potentially Unsuccessful”?

Hey all,

Recently my Apple Watch was stolen by someone who knew my 4-digit pin code. I tried unpairing from my Watch App and it threw out an error saying that the unpairing may have been unsuccessful and I would

need to go into the Settings app on my watch to continue. (Impossible currently)

I tried going into find my on iCloud to try to erase the watch from there but it does not appear (presumably because I unpaired it.)

My watch app is blank now and is prompting me to pair.

Can anyone give me a concrete answer if I have any other options on how to make sure the contents of that watch are erased? Or was the unpairing perhaps successful?

Apple Watch Series 9, watchOS 10

Posted on Jun 25, 2025 05:36 AM

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Answer 1

Ingo2711

Level 9

77,823 points

Jun 25, 2025 10:04 AM in response to istephen244

If the watch is not listed anymore under your devices, Lost Mode can't be enabled anymore.

Only #2 and #3 in this list is left as an option:

...

If you didn't turn on Find My before your Apple Watch was lost or stolen and your watch isn't connected to Wi-Fi, cellular, or your paired iPhone, you can't use it to find your device. However, you can use these steps to help protect your information:

1 . Place your Apple Watch in Lost Mode. When your watch is in Lost Mode, your passcode is required before anyone can turn off Find My, erase your watch, or pair it with another iPhone.

2 . Change your Apple Account password. When you change your Apple Account password, you can prevent anyone from accessing your iCloud information or from using other services from your missing device.

3 . Report your lost or stolen device to local law enforcement. Law enforcement might request the serial number of your device. Find your device serial number.

Find My is the only way that you can track or locate a lost or missing device. If Find My isn't enabled on your watch before it goes missing, there is no other Apple service that can find, track, or otherwise flag your device for you.

...

copied from: If your Apple Watch is lost or stolen - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Ingo2711

Level 9

77,823 points

Jun 25, 2025 11:57 AM in response to istephen244

To erase and unpair the watch from the iPhone, both devices have to be near each other, plus you also will have to confirm your Apple Account password, to disable the Activation Lock:

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 3

istephen244 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 25, 2025 11:30 AM in response to Ingo2711

Ingo,

Thanks for your reply.

Just to confirm: There is no way for me to verify that the “unpairing” cleared the data from the watch? The thief could potentially still be accessing the data since the “unpairing” wasn’t 100% successful?

Thanks,

Stephen

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