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...".

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

You must have connected your Apple Watch with you iPhone by bluetooth, wifi connection won´t work for testing...

Answer 3

With Watch OS 10.1 and Xcode 15.0.1 I was facing the same issue. After spending the whole night it was my Mac's Bluetooth, it was turned off and I spent all night finding the fix. Turning Bluetooth on solved my issue.

Answer 4

Xcode 15 - Watch OS 10

I tried all the answers above and a combo of other things. This is what worked for me as of 2023. After pairing, unpairing, restoring and even buying a newer apple watch (was on Series 3!) and setting it up from factory, this is how I got my watchkit app to run:

1. Unpair the iphone from Xcode Devices
2. Plugin the iphone via USB cable
3. Add the iphone as a device
4. You should now see the iphone, then shortly the apple watch paired to it
5. In your Apple Watch > Settings > Privacy & Security > Enable Developer Mode at the bottom.
6. Reboot the apple watch, then you'll be asked again to enable developer mode
7. My watch app is a companion app in my ios app. Build and run the ios app while attached to USB cable.
8. Switch targets to the watch app and then select it's destination as your apple watch and then build & run. This will attach the debugger to your watch separately from the ios app.

You should now be able to install your apple watch app.

I was constantly getting the "This app could not be installed at this time" and it wouldn't work, but now it does.

Finally...

Answer 5

The solution that worked for me with XCode 10.0: trash the whole Xcode folder in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode, removing only the watchOS DeviceSupport was not enough

Answer 6

In my case, rebooting the watch did not work, but after rebooting iPhone it did.

Answer 7

I have the exact same setup and had the same problem. What seemed to work for me was just unpairing and pairing the watch again. Then Trust this computer on the watch and Xcode started to list it in the menu.

It seems that I updated the watchOS2 beta 5 on top of 1.0.1 which was paired earlier and it just needed to be re-set for watchOS2.

Answer 8

Open Watch app on device, scroll down to your app, and make sure to enable show app on apple watch

Answer 9

I just waited several minutes and then - it worked by itself.

WatchOS 4.1, XCODE 9.2.

Answer 10

Setting Correct Provisioning profiles | Certificates | Team, then restarting Xcode worked for me.

Answer 11

I had to delete my Apple ID from the Accounts tab in Xcode preferences and then re-add it.

Answer 12

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.

Answer 13

It looks like a bug in Xcode! Go to ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/watchOS DeviceSupport/ and create a folder named "Watch1,2 2.0 (build number)" and for 'build number' use your watchOS build number. Inside this folder create another folder named "Symbols".

So for the latest build: ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/watchOS DeviceSupport/Watch1,2 2.0 (13S5305d)/Symbols.

Maybe clean & restart Xcode.

Answer 14

For me helped open iTunes at the MAC and leave it open.

Xcode 9.4.1

Answer 15

This answer has grown a lot over the past 5 6 years. It contains a potential fix and annual updates on the problem

2023: Time for the annual complaint: I have resorted to uploading TestFlight builds, then installing them to my iPhone and let the "update" carry over to my Watch. The problem is that even with this ultra slow way of making something run on the Watch, you often get an endless spinning circle for actually installing the app on the Watch. What "fixes" this is removing the app entirely, losing all app data, then installing again only to run into the same issue again. I then go to bed and the next morning it sometimes works.

What's "funny" is that I even got app updates rejected because the app didn't carry over to the tester's Watch. You then need to open a TSI to explain the case, then the TSI guy explains the issue (that Apple claims doesn't exist) to the tester, then it gets rejected again, you go full circle and usually on the second attempt the TSI guy is able to convince the tester that the app installs and that it's an issue with the tester's Watch. On the bug report however Apple still claims there is no issue with watchOS (clearly all the upvotes here must be in the wrong!). See y'all in 2024 :)

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.

Answer 16

For me it was an issue of trusting the computer from the watch. I had to reboot my watch to get the "trust this computer" request.

Answer 17

This worked for me 1. Quit Xcode. 2. Disconnect iPhone 3. Remove cache files at /Users//Library/Developer/Xcode 4. Run Xcode. 5. Connect iPhone again 6. Xcode will start to download the symbol file

Answer 18

Check that Bluetooth is enabled. I restarted my Mac, my phone and my watch and that didn't help. When I looked in settings on the watch I found that Bluetooth was disabled.

Answer 19

Just reconnect my iPhone to my Mac is solved my problem. When i reconnect my iPhone, xcode installed itself missed symbols automatically.

Answer 20

The watch appeared in Xcode when I connected my iPhone to the Mac with a USB cable instead of debugging over the network.

Answer 21

Before starting, make sure that your iPhone, Apple Watch, computer, and Xcode are all up to date. If your Apple Watch is running a beta version of the software, you'll need to install the beta version of Xcode as well. Ensure that your Apple Watch is paired with your iPhone (you can try changing the watch face on your iPhone to see if the watch responds). 一

1. Unpair the watch from the phone.
2. Turn off the developer mode on the phone.
3. Turn off the watch.
4. Restart the phone.
5. Connect the phone to the computer with a data cable.
6. Open iTunes on the computer (Finder sidebar, under the phone).
7. Enable developer mode on the phone.
8. Turn on the watch.
9. Ensure that the computer's Bluetooth, phone's Bluetooth, computer's Wi-Fi, phone's Wi-Fi, and watch's Wi-Fi are all connected to the same local network (especially if the watch does not support 5GHz Wi-Fi, then connect the phone and the computer to the same Wi-Fi).
10. Turn on the computer's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
11. Turn off airplane mode on the watch.
12. Change a setting in the Watch App on the phone (this triggers communication between the phone and the watch).
13. Open the Camera app on the watch, which seems to trigger the connection between the watch and the phone.
14. Wait for a while until the watch appears in the device list in Xcode, and the developer mode appears in the settings on the watch.

[If your watch is not listed in the device list on the computer, then your watch definitely does not have a developer mode switch.]

15. Enable developer mode on the watch, and after restarting, be careful not to click on anything as there will be a pop-up asking for a password.

Answer 22

I am using mac os 14.3.1, XCode 15.2, and watch of 10.2 versions. I felt it was an architecture issue but finally found this one. Just try to turn on Bluetooth both in your mac and iphone.Also remove pod file versions to avoid compatibility.

Answer 23

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

Answer 24

In my case I believe it was because I had Connect via network enabled for the iPhone that's paired with my new watch.

Upon disabling the wireless connect feature, then connecting the iPhone to my mac via cable, the watch appeared in the Devices list.

After getting the UUID to register with the Developer Center I re-enabled Connect via Network and the watch was no longer listed on the Devices screen. When I connect the phone via cable, however, the watch info appears.

So if you're using wireless connect, try just plugging the device in via cable and hopefully you'll see your watch in the list. Good luck!

Answer 25

Check the phone is connected to the same wifi network as the computer.

I've just spent a few days struggling with this, trying the solutions above. Switched networks, waited a minute, now it works again. Gah.

I have four wifi SSIDs in my home (old house, thick walls, one router won't cover it properly) and it turned out the computer was choosing one, and the phone another.

Answer 26

Creating a new watchOS project lead to download of symbols to resume and finish. I unplugged the iPhone before "Processing symbol files" operation was finished. So Apple Watch never showed up again. XCode 9 (beta 4). iOS 10 (beta 4). watchOS 2.2.2.

Answer 27

I had a similar issue where Xcode was not detecting my paired watch. Somehow, the beta provisioning profile had managed to get installed onto my phone and for some reason Xcode could not detect the paired watch. As soon as I deleted the provisioning profile, Xcode started to pick up the paired watch.

Answer 28

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!

Answer 29

This worked for me (Xcode 11.3.1) :

1. Open Devices from Xcode
2. Disconnect iPhone from Mac
3. Disable bluetooth on iPhone
4. Re-connect iPhone to Mac
5. Verify iPhone is showing in Devices.
6. Turn on bluetooth on iPhone, wait to see that watch is connected on iPhone.
7. Look in Devices -> your iPhone -> Paired watches -> wait for the watch info to completely show.
8. At this point I was able to see watch in Xcode.

In some cases also needed to restart Watch & Phone as well.

Answer 30

Xcode Version 12.2 (12B45b) seems to fixed all issues regarding the app transfer from your mac to your apple Watch.

Answer 31

I really struggled with this problem but this helped me:

Fix steps :

1. Unpair my watch
2. Reboot both iPhone and apple watch
3. Pair them again,and setup my watch as a new one
4. Plug (unplug first) iPhone to Mac
5. On apple watch, say Trust the computer when it asks
6. Unplug and plug again
7. Close and open XCode
8. Open the project and wait a few seconds

Answer 32

What worked for me is just waiting for about a minute. There was no progress bar in Xcode, just wait.

Answer 33

What worked for me was to open Xcode's Projects window and click the Delete button next to the Derived Data line for the currently open project. After that, the target automatically switched to show [My iPhone Name] + [My Watch Name].

My setup: Xcode 7, iOS 9 (public release), and watchOS 2 beta.

Answer 34

New update to this issue. I have recently buy the ray wenderlich book for Watch OS and I have had this problem.

After testing a lot of things, and before delete any files, my working solution is this:

On MAC with Xcode open and with the issue scheme loaded. iPhone plugged in and watch turned on too.

1) On MAC turn off wifi 2) On MAC turn on wifi 3) On MAC turn off bluetooth 4) On MAC turn on bluetooth

I know this solution is above, but is the only way it has worked for me. Hope it helps to any dev too.

Answer 35

I may have had a breakthrough....I turned off WIFI on my Mac and it instantly found the watch