New iPhones/Apple Watch?

[TrvlBug]

We have the same problem we had with the Series 3 watch...I am unable to make or receive calls when the phone is off. We got a GPS only Series 4 for DH as he never once used the cell capability on his watch. He can't receive texts at all. After 1+ hours on the phone with AT&t and a good .5 hour with Apple, we are headed to the Genius Bar later this afternoon. I'll be really pi$$ed if the Genius again tells us that the phone has to be ON to make/receive calls.

After an hour with the geniuses at the Genius Bar, we are told the Apple Watch CANNOT make or receive phone calls when the iphone is OFF. At first about half said yes and half no. I told them to fix my phone. At the end, all of the geniuses said the watch will not work when the phone is off. One even showed me 'proof' on their website...."To receive SMS, MMS, or push notifications for third-party apps on your Apple Watch with cellular, your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular." I questioned what this has to do with sending and receiving calls and she said this covers it.

Anyone out there who can disprove this? Can you do some testing with your watch and phone? This is driving me nuts.....

 

[Katsmeow]

After an hour with the geniuses at the Genius Bar, we are told the Apple Watch CANNOT make or receive phone calls when the iphone is OFF. At first about half said yes and half no. I told them to fix my phone. At the end, all of the geniuses said the watch will not work when the phone is off. One even showed me 'proof' on their website...."To receive SMS, MMS, or push notifications for third-party apps on your Apple Watch with cellular, your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular." I questioned what this has to do with sending and receiving calls and she said this covers it.

Anyone out there who can disprove this? Can you do some testing with your watch and phone? This is driving me nuts.....

Is your Apple Watch a GPS model only or is it a cellular model? If it is a cellular model, have you activated service with your phone carrier? To make and receive calls without the phone you need both of those to be true. (I assume you do have that but want to be absolutely sure).

I got an Apple Watch 4 with cellular this week. I activated it at Verizon ($10 a month + taxes). I just turned off my iPhone entirely. I can make and receive calls on the Watch without the iPhone on. However, if I didn't have cellular or if I hadn't activated with Verizon, I would not be able to do that.

 

[audreyh1]

We have the same problem we had with the Series 3 watch...I am unable to make or receive calls when the phone is off. We got a GPS only Series 4 for DH as he never once used the cell capability on his watch. He can't receive texts at all. After 1+ hours on the phone with AT&t and a good .5 hour with Apple, we are headed to the Genius Bar later this afternoon. I'll be really pi$$ed if the Genius again tells us that the phone has to be ON to make/receive calls.

After an hour with the geniuses at the Genius Bar, we are told the Apple Watch CANNOT make or receive phone calls when the iphone is OFF. At first about half said yes and half no. I told them to fix my phone. At the end, all of the geniuses said the watch will not work when the phone is off. One even showed me 'proof' on their website...."To receive SMS, MMS, or push notifications for third-party apps on your Apple Watch with cellular, your paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular." I questioned what this has to do with sending and receiving calls and she said this covers it.

Anyone out there who can disprove this? Can you do some testing with your watch and phone? This is driving me nuts.....

Are you saying your DH Series 4 Watch is not LTE (cellular) capable? Saying it is a “GPS Series 4 only” indicates that it is not LTE capable. In this case I would only expect you to be able to make/receive calls and texts while linked to the phone, meaning that the phone is on.

This is confusing. You have an LTE capable watch but your DH does not? Your DH cannot receive texts on his watch even when his phone is on and linked? Yet he is getting the texts on his phone?

AT&T has a $10 a month cellular plan for these series 3 and 4 LTE watches. Did you add that plan?

Well, Katsmeow has her watch LTE plan enabled and calls and texts work when her phone is off which is how I would expect it to work. Thanks Katsmeow for the report.

Note that the Apple blurb you quoted specifically refers to third-party apps.

 

[iloveyoga]

I always have my phone turned on?

 

[mpeirce]

After an hour with the geniuses at the Genius Bar, we are told the Apple Watch CANNOT make or receive phone calls when the iphone is OFF.
...
Anyone out there who can disprove this? Can you do some testing with your watch and phone? This is driving me nuts.....

I have one of the new Apple Watch GPS + Cellular" models. I added the watch to my at&t plan. I've used it a number of times when I'm on walks without my iPhone along and it has full connectivity. Phone calls, messages, news alerts, etc.

That's kind of the whole point of getting the cellular model.

That' why it costs more too - it includes the LTE radio and antenna's that the GPS only model lacks.

I expect you don't have the cellular model Apple Watch. All non cellular (aka LTE) Apple watches can make phone calls by talking to the iPhone they are paired with. They definitely need a Bluetooth or WiFi connection to your iPhone.

 

[Jerry1]

I always have my phone turned on?

This is the thing I don’t understand. I’ve never turned off my phone unless there was a particular reason, like on a plane before they had airplane mode.

Also, trvibug, the Apple folks told you it wouldn’t work and showed you documentation that it won’t work. Time to let it go, frustrating as it may be.

 

[Ready]

I think the question regarding making calls on the Apple watch has been answered in the prior several posts, but l will summarize just in case it's still not clear.

The Apple Watch GPS can not make or receive phone calls on its own. When connected to the iPhone over bluetooth the watch simply acts as a speaker phone, similar to if you had a pair of bluetooth headphones connected to your phone. The phone itself has to either be within cell phone range, or if Wifi calling is enabled, it can make a call over a Wifi connection.

The Apple Watch GPS + cellular is capable of making and receiving calls even if it is not connected to the iPhone. Your iPhone can be turned off completely and the watch will still make and receive phone calls. However, you still must have an iPhone and have it activated with a carrier for the watch to function, because the watch is essentially using the phone number of the iPhone to function. So if you did not have an iPhone, or you had an Android phone, you could not use an Apple watch at all.

There is one exception to the GPS only phone which gets a bit technical but I'll see if I can explain it. If you are at location (such as your home) where you have wifi, and your iPhone has authenticated the Wifi connection (meaning you entered your password on the iPhone and established a secure connection to your Wifi network), then you could be outside of bluetooth range and still make/receive calls on the watch. The watch will be able to connect to the wifi network using the password you provided on your iPhone, and it will allow the watch to make a phone call using wifi rather than bluetooth. However, for this to work both the iPhone and watch have to be on the same local wifi network. So if you left your phone at home and your watch was connected to wifi at a local Starbucks network, that would not work for phone calls.

It's possible that the Apple people you are speaking with are getting confused about the above scenario and not explaining it correctly.

 

[audreyh1]

This is the thing I don’t understand. I’ve never turned off my phone unless there was a particular reason, like on a plane before they had airplane mode.

Also, trvibug, the Apple folks told you it wouldn’t work and showed you documentation that it won’t work. Time to let it go, frustrating as it may be.

Most people get the cellular version of the Apple Watch so that it will still have call and text capability when they don’t carry their phone with them. And this works as long as you sign up for the watch cellular plan with your phone provider.

The docs shown were referring to third party apps, so that blurb did not apply - it’s just causing more confusion.

 

[TrvlBug]

Most people get the cellular version of the Apple Watch so that it will still have call and text capability when they don’t carry their phone with them. And this works as long as you sign up for the watch cellular plan with your phone provider.

The docs shown were referring to third party apps, so that blurb did not apply - it’s just causing more confusion.

Sorry for the confusion...I should have left DH's issues out of my post, although his have been resolved to our satisfaction.

I have the Series 4 watch GPS + cell capable. It has the red circle around the thingamagiggy!

I have an activated data plan with AT&T. The watch has its own number assigned to it however, that number is not used except maybe for billing purposes by AT&T.

I had this same issue with my Series 3 watch.

I am able to make and receive telephone calls with my watch when my phone is on. The reason I got the LTE watch is because I have a tendency to leave my phone at home and need to make calls when out and about. Sometimes when we are out and about and taking lots of photos, the phone (6S Plus) dies mid afternoon. The phone had new batteries installed a couple of months ago. We are unable to make or receive phone calls on the watch when that happens.

I am not letting this go. I expect to be able to use all of my watch's capabilities. What I'm hoping for is many folks can test for me (I realize most people, including me, leave their phones on most of the time). I suspect and hope that it's simply a setting. DH and I did some more testing when we were at the Apple store yesterday and it worked once (I received a call while my iPhone was off)! Unfortunately, it was at a time before out appt. During our appt. all testing resulted in making/receiving calls on the watch only happening when my iPhone was ON. It went right to voice mail when my iPhone was off .

 

[TrvlBug]

I think the question regarding making calls on the Apple watch has been answered in the prior several posts, but l will summarize just in case it's still not clear.

The Apple Watch GPS can not make or receive phone calls on its own. When connected to the iPhone over bluetooth the watch simply acts as a speaker phone, similar to if you had a pair of bluetooth headphones connected to your phone. The phone itself has to either be within cell phone range, or if Wifi calling is enabled, it can make a call over a Wifi connection.

The Apple Watch GPS + cellular is capable of making and receiving calls even if it is not connected to the iPhone. Your iPhone can be turned off completely and the watch will still make and receive phone calls. However, you still must have an iPhone and have it activated with a carrier for the watch to function, because the watch is essentially using the phone number of the iPhone to function. So if you did not have an iPhone, or you had an Android phone, you could not use an Apple watch at all.

There is one exception to the GPS only phone which gets a bit technical but I'll see if I can explain it. If you are at location (such as your home) where you have wifi, and your iPhone has authenticated the Wifi connection (meaning you entered your password on the iPhone and established a secure connection to your Wifi network), then you could be outside of bluetooth range and still make/receive calls on the watch. The watch will be able to connect to the wifi network using the password you provided on your iPhone, and it will allow the watch to make a phone call using wifi rather than bluetooth. However, for this to work both the iPhone and watch have to be on the same local wifi network. So if you left your phone at home and your watch was connected to wifi at a local Starbucks network, that would not work for phone calls.

It's possible that the Apple people you are speaking with are getting confused about the above scenario and not explaining it correctly.

Thanks Ready...I wish you were one of the Geniuses and could get my watch to fully function when the iPhone is off! I will do some more troubleshooting with Apple's phone tech support as they appear to be more knowledgeable than the in-store folks...the Geniuses even suggested this. The frustrating part is that some Apple folks say yes, it should work, others say no. Most at the store yesterday said yes it will work with phone off until no one could get it to work...at that point the consensus was that, no the phone must be on for the watch to make/receive calls.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I would also be really upset if I paid for the cellular watch and had that problem. I wonder if you could take it to your cell provider’s store to see if they know what the problem is. I dealt with the Apple geniuses for three things at my nearest store and asked about their background—they really weren’t geniuses....

 

[braumeister]

I wonder if the problem is that you're in a different carrier's cell area. This little tidbit is one of the footnotes on the Apple watch page:

Roaming is not available outside your carrier network coverage area

So I would expect the watch's phone capability to only work if your phone is either turned on and nearby, or if your phone is off but you happen to be using a nearby cell tower owned by AT&T.

 

[Katsmeow]

I have an activated data plan with AT&T. The watch has its own number assigned to it however, that number is not used except maybe for billing purposes by AT&T.

I would think this should work. I have the Apple 4 Watch with cellular activated on Verizon and I definitely don't have to have the iPhone on for it to work to make and receive calls. Until you can get this straightened out, if you leave your house and you don't take your phone you might connect the phone to a charger so it doesn't die due to low battery. I know that isn't a long term solution but might help for the short term.

I also second the suggestion to also check with your cell carrier in case they have failed to properly activate the watch.

 

[mpeirce]

I also second the suggestion to also check with your cell carrier in case they have failed to properly activate the watch.

I'd check with at&t too. There's a good chance they don't have you setup right.

I also use at&t with my new cellular watch. Look in the myAT&T app on your iPhone (get it if you don't have it). It lets you monitor the various devices on your plan. I can see that my watch has used a little data. It shows the "extra" number, used only for identification purposes - all devices look like a phone to the phone company

And I just doubled checked: if you call that "watch phone number" you get a "your call cannot be completed as dialed" message

 

[Ready]

Thanks Ready...I wish you were one of the Geniuses and could get my watch to fully function when the iPhone is off! I will do some more troubleshooting with Apple's phone tech support as they appear to be more knowledgeable than the in-store folks...the Geniuses even suggested this. The frustrating part is that some Apple folks say yes, it should work, others say no. Most at the store yesterday said yes it will work with phone off until no one could get it to work...at that point the consensus was that, no the phone must be on for the watch to make/receive calls.

Just a thought, are you sure you are really connected over cellular on your watch when you are testing it out to see if you can receive calls?

 

[TrvlBug]

First, I want to thank Katsmeow for letting me know you don't need to have the phone on. As I am a tenacious b***h, I was not letting this go. It was a solvable problem and I'm very analytical and good at solving problems.

As I suspected, it's somewhere in the settings. We solved the problem by having DH call me with my phone off when I was in the car. Sure enough, it works...I can receive/make both calls and texts when I'm in the car (phone being off). Same when I was in the grocery store. We suspect the phone is set to WiFi rather than cell as primary so when WiFi is available as at home or in the Apple store, it will not switch over to cellular. It switched over when in the car and while I was in the grocery store. Once I got home, it switched back to WiFi.

We do not have an unlimited plan so have the phone set to WiFi as primary. We assume with that setting, the watch will not switch over to cell unless, like in the car, it connects via blue tooth. Not sure I'm explaining it right, but the problem is certainly in the settings are.

One can make and receive calls with the phone off. I'm very disappointed in the Apple folks, both in store and on the phone. They don't seem to have the ability to problem solve. And this seems so basic I just want to .

We'll look at the settings on the phone later today and probably talk t AT&T about how to get it to switch over automatically. I do not want to pay add'l $$$ for an unlimited plan (not sure we need one anyway). We have to have a landline because cell sucks in our area. I wish I could just dump that and switch to an unlimited plan but that's not happening.

 

[Ready]

Something still doesn't sound right here. The order of priority for the watch to establish a connection is

1) Iphone via bluetooth
2) Iphone via Wifi
3) Wifi indépendant of Iphone using a trusted network shared from the iPhone
4) Cellular

For the watch to be able to make/receive calls over Wifi, you must have wifi calling enabled on your iPhone. If you do, your watch should be able to make/receive calls over wifi.

If you don't have wifi enabled, but the watch is connected over wifi, I could see where you may run into some technical glitches and miss phone calls. The solution would be to either enable wifi calling on the iPhone or turn off wifi on your watch when you leave your iPhone behind.

If you swipe up from the bottom of the watch while it's displaying your watch face, you can determine if your watch is communicating over bluetooth, wifi or cellular. You will see an iPhone icon on the top left corner if connected to a phone. You will see the name of the wifi network if connected to wifi, and you will see a cell tower signal and some dots if connected to cellular.

When running your tests to see if you can make/receive calls, see which connection you have on the watch first. I suspect you will realize that the problems you are having are specific to the wifi connection.

 

[explanade]

If you bought it recently, why not return then, if it's not to your satisfaction.

People are saying the Series 4 works as standalone so it may be worth trying to exchange.

 

[audreyh1]

First, I want to thank Katsmeow for letting me know you don't need to have the phone on. As I am a tenacious b***h, I was not letting this go. It was a solvable problem and I'm very analytical and good at solving problems.

As I suspected, it's somewhere in the settings. We solved the problem by having DH call me with my phone off when I was in the car. Sure enough, it works...I can receive/make both calls and texts when I'm in the car (phone being off). Same when I was in the grocery store. We suspect the phone is set to WiFi rather than cell as primary so when WiFi is available as at home or in the Apple store, it will not switch over to cellular. It switched over when in the car and while I was in the grocery store. Once I got home, it switched back to WiFi.

We do not have an unlimited plan so have the phone set to WiFi as primary. We assume with that setting, the watch will not switch over to cell unless, like in the car, it connects via blue tooth. Not sure I'm explaining it right, but the problem is certainly in the settings are.

One can make and receive calls with the phone off. I'm very disappointed in the Apple folks, both in store and on the phone. They don't seem to have the ability to problem solve. And this seems so basic I just want to .

We'll look at the settings on the phone later today and probably talk t AT&T about how to get it to switch over automatically. I do not want to pay add'l $$$ for an unlimited plan (not sure we need one anyway). We have to have a landline because cell sucks in our area. I wish I could just dump that and switch to an unlimited plan but that's not happening.

If the watch uses very little data as others have indicated, do you really have to worry about not having an unlimited plan?

 

[audreyh1]

OK - DH ordered a new Series 4 Apple Watch today (non cellular version this time) and got the trade-in package which makes it much less expensive. Plus he is getting his unused AppleCare refunded.

He really wants that bigger screen.

A large backlog - they are saying it's going to be around a month to get it.

 

[TrvlBug]

If the watch uses very little data as others have indicated, do you really have to worry about not having an unlimited plan?

No, it won't be a problem. DH checked our data usage and we'll be fine.

 

[TrvlBug]

OK - DH ordered a new Series 4 Apple Watch today (non cellular version this time) and got the trade-in package which makes it much less expensive. Plus he is getting his unused AppleCare refunded.

He really wants that bigger screen.

A large backlog - they are saying it's going to be around a month to get it.

The bigger screen is great...I can actually read some stuff I had trouble with with the Series 3 42mm.

Love, love, love my watch. As usual, I forgot my phone at home while running to the grocery store. DH called to tell me to add an item to my list .

Edited to add: the store also didn't have the watch with the watchband that I wanted. As the old Series 3 42mm bands fit the Series 4 44mm I was able to get a watch that day and simply replaced with my old band. I traded in my old watch and all they wanted was the watch itself. It's nice having an extra charger around.

 

[Ready]

OK - DH ordered a new Series 4 Apple Watch today (non cellular version this time) and got the trade-in package which makes it much less expensive. Plus he is getting his unused AppleCare refunded.

He really wants that bigger screen.

A large backlog - they are saying it's going to be around a month to get it.

I'll be curious to see if they make you send back the charging cable and band as part of the trade in. When they take back the trade in the stores they have only been asking for the watch itself, but all of the other trade in sites require you to send everything back. The cable is $29, and even the cheapest Apple bands are $50, so keeping both was a nice surprise for me.

 

[audreyh1]

The bigger screen is great...I can actually read some stuff I had trouble with with the Series 3 42mm.

Love, love, love my watch. As usual, I forgot my phone at home while running to the grocery store. DH called to tell me to add an item to my list .

Edited to add: the store also didn't have the watch with the watchband that I wanted. As the old Series 3 42mm bands fit the Series 4 44mm I was able to get a watch that day and simply replaced with my old band. I traded in my old watch and all they wanted was the watch itself. It's nice having an extra charger around.

DH got the offer of $225 for his 42mm Series 3 LTE. I'll be interested to see if he gets to keep his old band too. Maybe not.

Glad you are getting your communication issues worked out!!!

 

[audreyh1]

I'll be curious to see if they make you send back the charging cable and band as part of the trade in. When they take back the trade in the stores they have only been asking for the watch itself, but all of the other trade in sites require you to send everything back. The cable is $29, and even the cheapest Apple bands are $50, so keeping both was a nice surprise for me.

I'll let you know.

They are sending him a "trade-in kit" with his new watch.