How to fix Apple Watch 4 that won’t connect to iPhone, no iPhone connection error

No iPhone connection error is just one of the possible errors you would encounter when trying to pair your Apple Watch to your iPhone. Find out what’s linked to the occurrence of this error and how to fix your Apple Watch 4 that won’t connect to your iPhone. 

Your iPhone plays a vital role to make your Apple Watch serve its full purpose. Hence your Apple Watch must be paired or connected to your iPhone. Both devices communicate through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection. With that said, an issue with either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth may also cause the Apple Watch to be disconnected. Mapped below are a few suggested workarounds and potential solutions to a similar issue on the Apple Watch 4 that won’t connect to the iPhone. You can utilize the outlined procedures to deal with no iPhone connection on your Apple Watch 4. Read on for more information.

Before moving on, if you have issues with your smartwatch and are trying to find a solution for it, visit our Apple Watch 4 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues with this device. Find issues that are similar to yours and feel free to use our solutions. If you need more help, fill up our questionnaire so we can help you.

Fixing no iPhone connection error on your Apple Watch 4 that won’t connect to iPhone

Considering the fact that the underlying cause of the problem is either on the iPhone or Apple Watch, mending both devices is recommended. Hence the following solutions are applied to both the iPhone and the Apple Watch 4. These procedures would eliminate software related factors that might have hindered the connection between your Apple Watch and iPhone. Don’t forget to retry pairing your devices after applying each solution to determine whether or not the problem is fixed. If the no iPhone connection error on your Apple Watch 4 persists, more on and try the next applicable solutions to clear out other causing factors.

First solution: Reboot (soft reset) Apple Watch 4 and your iPhone.

The first things you should eliminate are minor software errors that prevent your devices from communicating. And the first potential solution to try is a soft reset or reboot on both the iPhone and Apple Watch 4. Performing a soft reset also dumps junk files from caches. This doesn’t affect the internal data so there’s no need to create backups. Just proceed to these steps whenever you’re ready to soft reset your iPhone:

  1. Press and hold the Side button for a few seconds until the Power Off slider appears.
  2. Drag the Power Off slider to turn off the watch.
  3. After 30 seconds, press and hold the Side button on your watch and then release it when the Apple logo appears.

After rebooting your iPhone, go to your Apple Watch and restart it through these steps:

  1. Press and hold the Side button for a few seconds until the Power Off slider appears.
  2. Drag the Power Off slider to turn off the watch.
  3. After 30 seconds, press and hold the Side button on your watch and then release it when the Apple logo appears.

Wait for your watch to finish rebooting and once it done, retry connecting it to your iPhone and see if the no iPhone connection error is gone. If your Apple Watch still refuses to connect to your iPhone, work out on the network attributes.

Second solution: Perform Airplane Mode trick to fix Apple Watch 4 that won’t connect to iPhone.

Wireless connectivity issues including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection errors can also be remedied by the Airplane Mode trick. This tweak works by simultaneously restarting wireless features of your device. You can do the Airplane Mode trick on both your watch and iPhone. Here’s how it’s done on your Apple Watch 4:

  1. Touch and hold the bottom of the screen on your Apple Watch 4 until the Control Center launches.
  2. Then, swipe up and tap the Airplane Mode icon to enable the feature.
  3. While Airplane mode is enabled, power off your watch.
  4. After 30 seconds or so, turn your watch back on and then toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn the feature OFF again.

Another way to enable Airplane Mode is through the control center of your Apple Watch 4. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. From the main screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select Airplane Mode then tap to turn it on. Wireless features including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections are then disabled. 
  3. After 30 seconds, toggle Airplane Mode again to turn it off. Wireless radios and relevant features should now be reactivated.

Turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections back on and retry connecting your Apple watch to your iPhone.

To carry out the Airplane Mode trick on your iPhone, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings-> Airplane mode menu.
  2. Toggle the Airplane Mode switch to turn the feature ON. Doing so disables wireless radios on the phone.
  3. While Airplane mode is enabled, soft reset your iPhone.
  4. Then go back to Settings-> Airplane Mode menu.
  5. Toggle the switch to turn Airplane Mode off again.

Wait for your phone’s wireless features to re-activate. Then turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and retry connecting your iPhone and Apple Watch 4.

ALSO READ: How to fix apps that keep crashing on your Apple Watch 4

Third solution: Forget Wi-Fi network on your iPhone then reconnect.

If the problem is attributed to a corrupted Wi-Fi network on the phone, deleting the Wi-Fi network and setting it up as new would be necessary. This is by far the most effective solution to fix a corrupted wireless network and eliminate the associated symptoms. Just follow these steps to forget Wi-Fi network on your iPhone:

  1. On your iPhone, tap Settings.
  2. Select Wi-Fi then make sure that the switch is turned on.
  3. Find your Wi-Fi network from the list of available networks.
  4. Tap to select your network.
  5. Then tap the information ‘i’ icon next to your network SSID/name.
  6. Select the option to Forget This Network.
  7. Confirm when asked to proceed.

If you see any other saved Wi-Fi networks, follow the same steps to forget them all individually so that none of them would cause conflicts to the selected network.

After forgetting Wi-Fi networks, restart your iPhone to clear its network caches. As soon as it boots up, go back to your Wi-Fi settings and set up your Wi-Fi network as new.

Fourth solution: Reset network settings on your iPhone and Apple Watch 4.

Network connectivity issues attributed to incorrect network configuration on the iPhone may be hindering your devices from communicating. To clear this out, reset network settings on your iPhone to erase all customized network options and associated errors. Here’s how what you should do then:

  1. From the Home screen, tap Settings.
  2. Select General.
  3. Scroll down to and tap Reset.
  4. Choose the option to Reset network settings.
  5. Enter your device passcode when asked to proceed.
  6. Then tap the option to confirm that you want to reset the network settings. 

Your phone will then instigate the reset process and then reboots on its own when done. As soon as it boots up, enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections and reconnect to your Wi-Fi network. After reconnecting, try to pair your iPhone and Apple Watch 4 again. Make sure both devices are close to each other as proximity matters when pairing them.

Performing a network reset on the Apple Watch 4 is closely similar to what’s done on your iPhone. Just refer to these steps:

  1. Tap Settings from your Apple Watch main screen.
  2. Tap General
  3. Scroll down to the bottom then tap Reset from the given options.
  4. Tap Reset then select the option to Reset Network Settings.

Restart your watch when the reset is finished. Then enable both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions to make your watch ready for the next pairing attempt.

ALSO READ: How to fix slow performance problem on your Apple Watch 4, working very slow

Fifth solution: Update your iPhone and Apple Watch software.

To ensure optimum performance, keeping a device software up to date is recommended. If you haven’t enabled automatic update installation on your devices, then you must update them manually instead.

  • To check for iOS update on your iPhone, go to Settings-> General-> Software Update menu. Then tap the option to Download and Install if a new iOS version is available. 

To update your Apple Watch 4, follow these steps instead:

  1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap the My Watch tab.
  3. Tap General.
  4. Tap Software Update.
  5. Download the watchOS update, if available.
  6. Enter your iPhone passcode or Apple Watch passcode, if prompted to proceed.
  7. Then wait for the progress wheel to show up on your Apple Watch display.

After installing software updates, reboot your devices to apply the recent system changes and to dump junk files and temporary data stored as cache on your iPhone and Apple Watch memory.

Last resort: Factory reset your iPhone and Apple Watch 4.

Performing a factory reset will unpair your devices. You may consider resorting to this method if your Apple Watch 4 still won’t connect to your iPhone. Here’s how:

  1. Go to your Apple Watch then tap to open the Settings app.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Then tap Erase All Content and Settings.

This will prompt your Apple Watch to erase all its data. After erasing your watch, set it up as new. Then go to your iPhone and continue with these steps:

  1. Open the Apple Watch app style=”font-weight: 400;”> on your phone.
  2. Tap the My Watch tab.
  3. Tap your watch on the top of the screen.
  4. Then tap the information ‘i’ icon next to the name of the watch that you want to unpair.
  5. Tap Unpair Apple Watch to continue.
  6. Then tap Unpair again to confirm action. 

After unpairing your devices, restart/soft reset them both then follow these steps to pair your devices like the first time:



  1. Turn your Apple Watch on and put it on your wrist. Turning the Apple Watch after the factory reset may take a few minutes so just wait patiently.
  2. Hold your Apple Watch close to your iPhone then wait for it to prompt a message that says, “Use your iPhone to set up this Apple Watch” on your phone display then tap Continue
  3. If you don’t see the message, launch the Apple Watch app on your phone.
  4. Then tap the option to Start Pairing.
  5. Keep your devices close to each other until the pairing process is completed. 
  6. When you see a message saying that your Apple Watch is paired, you may choose to set up your watch as new or restore from a backup. The first option is recommended if this is the first Apple Watch you’ve got.

Follow the rest of the onscreen commands until your devices sync. As soon as you hear a chime and feel a gentle tap from the Apple Watch, press the Digital Crown. You then can start using your Apple Watch.

ALSO READ: How to fix Apple Watch 4 battery draining issue, watch battery drains so quickly

Is your Apple Watch 4 still getting no iPhone connection error and won’t connect to your iPhone?

Complex system errors is likely present on either the Apple Watch or iPhone, considering that they still failed to communicate up to this point. If you have another iPhone, you can try pairing it with your Apple Watch 4 and see if the no iPhone connection error is gone. If your Apple Watch 4 still won’t connect to that iPhone, then there must be some complex errors that caused troubles to your watch OS.

For more advanced solutions and official recommendations, report the problem to Apple Support. If this happens to be a post-update error on the iPhone or Apple Watch 4, a dedicated fix patch must be rolled out. 

To rule out hardware damage on either device, you can take them to the nearest Apple genius bar for hardware assessment.

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