In Xcode I see (no paired Apple Watch) even though the watch is paired and the watch's UDID is registered

Question

My phone is listed as an ineligible target in Xcode and out to the side it says (no paired Apple Watch).

My Apple Watch is registered under iOS Devices. I can see the UDID. The watch has watchOS 2.0 installed and my iPhone 6 has iOS 9 installed. The iPhone pairs just fine with the watch and I can install apps.

I've tried rebooting both the watch and the phone. I've tried rebooting Xcode. I tried creating a new scheme in Xcode but it still shows (no paired Apple Watch). I can choose Product/Destination and the app will show up on the phone, it just won't install the watch app...just sits there saying "Installing...".

Solution 1

I had paired my watch with a new phone and run in to this problem. I removed all files in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/watchOS DeviceSupport/ and it solved it!

Solution 2

What worked for me is to go to the WatchKit App target and update the Team with the proper account. Once I did that, my device showed as eligible.

Solution 3

2022, 5 year anniversary: For the past 6 months, I consistently have to sit through one hour of "Preparing Apple Watch for development via iPhone" even when I'm not even debugging a Watch app. Needless to say, this also makes it impossible to run apps on device via Xcode. After about 3 hours (basically half my workday) it starts to work. Once I remove the app for testing, or unplug the iPhone, I have to wait a few hours again. Never in my life have I felt so useless as my job at this point basically consists of watching a loading indicator for hours until the process is done - only for the whole thing still not working most of the time.

Fun fact: Apple on Twitter claims they use the same devices and tools for their Watch apps.

2021: All Quiet on the Western Front. It's been 4 years since my first response. I've now had a good run during December and the first 2 weeks of January. It was so good that I haven't closed the simulator a single time and kept my iPhone connected and never turned off my mac. This worked for 3 weeks but then my iPhone ended up in a boot loop and restoring fails. I bought a new iPhone and now I also can't really connect anymore. See y'all in 2022 :)

2020: At this point I can't even get WCSession to send data on the Simulators anymore. Message from Watch to iPhone with replyHandler works, message from iPhone to Watch fails with WCErrorCodeWatchAppNotInstalled. Every day starts with rebooting numerous times and deleting and setting up new iPhone + Watch combinations. Tried on a freshly installed macOS with my friend's devices and of course no luck. But it's clearly my fault. Submitting a bug report doesn't do anything as they only keep telling you that everything is working on their end and they will close this ticket now. I only wanted to help.

2019: New iPhone, even worse. Now, every single component in my development has changed since 2017 and I'm still stuck targeting the simulator with every build. Apple, why?

2018 II: nothing works for me anymore. Contacted Apple loads of times and Apple Watch seems to have moved to Playground's neighborhood as it's just loading/running but never really running. Bought a second Mac, new project, nothing works. Sad.

2018: The last couple of days I have been really successful doing the following:

On your iPhone:

• turn off wifi
• turn off bluetooth
• turn on wifi
• turn on bluetooth

On your Watch:

• turn on flight mode
• deactivate flight mode

Most of the times it didn't take longer than 30 seconds to get the connection back on track. I think it's the "Watch flight mode"-thing but I never change a (somewhat) running system so this will be my procedure from now on. My 2017-reply still seems to be of help to some people:

2017: If it SOMETIMES shows, and often doesn't, it might be due to the fact that you closed iTunes

I noticed what I often did after reconnecting: closing iTunes. Immediately, the watch turned to be "unpaired". Reconnecting the USB cable but leaving iTunes open has helped me since.

Solution 4

Open the camera companion app on the watch. For me this works. Seems like the app starts a phone connection.

Solution 5

It seems that you need to tap on the "Trust this computer" message on Apple Watch. This solved my problem. Also check if XCode displays the message "Indexing..." or "Loading symbols...": you need to wait until the operation is over.

View more solutions

Comments

[keji]

In Xcode if you go to Window -> Devices and click on your phone you see your watch right?

[dmin7b5]

@kdogisthebest No, the watch is not listed as a Device. The phone is listed.

[Charlie Schliesser]

I'm experiencing this in Xcode 7.1 beta but not in 7.0. Tried all of the solutions on this page to no avail. I was building to my watch just fine until suddenly this message appeared.

[ChikabuZ]

In my case enabling bluetooth fix the problem :)

[fdmillion]

This did not fix the problem for me. I am having the exact same issue. My watch does not show up in Devices at all even though it clearly is paired to my phone (I can use all watch functions you'd expect to be able to). I have even tried resetting the watch and setting it up as a new device to no avail. (I did receive the Trust prompt on the watch, which I acknowledged.)

[Josh Brown]

Seems to have worked for me, though I also tried all the other answers listed here, so who knows? Could've been one of the other ones...

[Charlie Schliesser]

What cache files specifically?

[anders]

selecting correct team was all I needed, definitely still a bug because its extremely misleading...

[shontauro]

This is the real solution, It worked for me perfectly

[Naftali Beder]

Worked for me as well.

[Dan]

Make sure to do this on both the Watch App and the Extension

[Mohammad Zaid Pathan]

I don't find "watchOS DeviceSupport" folder.

[lewis]

Worked for me (so many wasted reboots!). And the simulators still work too.

[zumzum]

that path is not found for me either

[brainray]

after the above (answer), reconnect the iphone

[chengsam]

I opened Watch app on iPhone and it took half a minute to see the paired Watch in Xcode. Don't know if it is useful.

[Juan Pedro Lozano]

This answer plus this one are what always fix the issue

[user2875404]

Couldn't believe it myself but I tested it like 10 times and iTunes was always the deciding factor so yea

[GarySabo]

Does not solve the problem for me. This is such an annoying bug that slows watch development.

[GarySabo]

Has anyone filed a radar?

[user2875404]

This problem has come up 2015 and pretty much everyone experiences it, Apple probably just doesn't care as it works 5% of the times which seems to be enough for them

[John]

This doesn't work. There are multiple directories and subdirectories in watchOS Device Support. I understood your directions to mean delete everything. All files and directories? It was seeing the watch, then I registered the device and it went away. Another overpriced Apple toy!

[John]

After deleting the files I re-paired the watch and it worked.

[tokentoken]

Xcode did not show my iPhone on Xcode when I selected watchkit app. I rebooted my Apple Watch (5.1.3), and Xcode now showing iPhone and watch.

[pipacs]

This helped me too! The important part was to set up the watch as a new one, instead of restoring from backup.

[Andrej]

For me it was enough to just turn wifi off on my mac. Then the watch appeared in the Devices window and I was able to run successfully on a watch on my wrist. Btw, my iPhone was connected through USB at that time.

[DrewG23]

Deleting the files in that directory then restarting Xcode worked for me!

[Hendrik]

It is 2020 and I have wasted hours to try to convince Xcode to run an app on my watch. I would use the Simulator but CloudKit (which is now the recommended way of getting data in and out of the watch app) is not supported on the watch simulator. I don't understand how anybody manages to develop Apple Watch apps.

[Chris Marshall]

I just had this issue, and this fixed it for me. Thanks!