Wonderful Apple Watch!

Discussion in 'Gadgets & Tech Talk' started by Yvonne Smith, Oct 29, 2017.

  1. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    It might have been one of Dick's stories, since he was an author I used to read. It gets kind jumbled because I bought a case of 200 sci-fi paperbacks at an estate sale in the 70s, so have encountered lots of random sci-fi writers.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I had started an off-topic conversation elsewhere regarding a problem I have with an Apple iPhone/watch feature, so though I'd finish it up here where it belongs.

    Apple products have "Find Device" and "Left Behind" features. I won't get into all the details of each for fear of misrepresenting them. And most explanations on the web are confusing because the functionality of those features is not the same on the watch and on the iPhone, and they get commingled.

    My devices are relatively new (maybe a couple of years old) and their operating systems are fully updated and should support these features. I was able to find both features installed on both devices, but I could not find my iPhone listed on my watch in order to enable the Left Behind feature, which warns you if you get x feet away from your iPhone (meaning you're leaving the house and you forgot your iPhone.)

    I went through all of the suggestions I could find online and got suggestions from members here, and finally went to the Verizon store. The guy went through his list of things to do, and got to the part where it said to Unpair and then freshly Pair my watch and my phone. We did not do it because (1) I don't carry my required passwords with me, and (2) I'm not sure how much of the watch customization I've done will be lost in the process (probably all of it.) I've still not done it due to not wanting to go through the watch setup again. But I would like to have this feature because I've left my iPhone behind and gone shopping more than once.

    I just wanted to close the loop on this, since I raised it with a couple of members elsewhere. Again, those 2 features are installed, but for some reason my watch does not see the phone in the Left Behind app. If I decide to Unpair/Pair, I'll post the results here.
     
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  4. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Have you tried turning off your phone and watch that will often resets/ fixes any issues


    I expect you have the Find me app in your phone, iPad ? I don’t think I’ve got that on my watch but I can “ding” my phone from my
    watch to find it in the house.

    I don’t mind at all if you say nah that’s not correct …..but I was under the impression if you lost your phone ……you’d need another device with the find it app …. to find it …iPad Or phone depending on what device you’ve lost.

    If I go walking and don’t take my phone my watch will pop up I’ve left them behind , not sure how far I have to get away from the house before it happens.
    I’m going to check now if the find me is on my watch app list
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It might be something not turned on in notifications, @John Brunner . Try this:
    On phone , go to find my app. Go to devices. It should show both your phone and your watch.
    Click on phone. Look on notifications and should see notify when left behind.
    If not, click on that and turn it on.
    It will show your address/home, and say “notify me , except at” that address.

    IMG_5173.jpeg
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I have the Notifications area, but "Notify When Left Behind" is not even there. I'm not saying the functionality is lacking, I'm saying that the function is completely missing. It's not on the phone, and it's not on the watch. My watch OS updated last night so I tried it again. Nope.

    That's why the guy said to try to Pair the phone & the watch from scratch, per his troubleshooting guide. I'm just trying to decide if it's worth messing with (assuming that re-pairing would even fix it.)
     
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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    John, is it showing both the watch and the phone when you look in your find my app for devices ? Possibly, you might have to unpair and re-pair it ; but maybe look though all of the settings and make sure notifications are all turned on everywhere. If you do not have the apple support app on your phone, download that, and they might be able to help you in a conversation with apple if you message them that you can’t turn on the find my notification for the phone.
    I will look to see what else could be wrong for it not to show.

    IMG_5175.jpeg
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I appreciate all the effort, Yvonne, but the Verizon guy went through all of my Notifications and everything else. He even checked Location Services, and (much to my chagrin) they are all turned on. He told me that if I called Apple Support that they would go through the steps he went through, and that they, too, would get to the part that said "Tell Customer To Re-Pair Phone." He was using Apple's troubleshooting manual.

    I've decided I've spent more time putzing with it than I would have spent setting it back up (The Magic Threshold), so I'm going to re-pair it. But I'll wait until Monday so if something bad happens, the Verizon store won't be crowded should I need to go there. I found the spreadsheet I created of all the faces I set up with the complications for each.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Try downloading the Apple Support app and message them if you have not done that. It is quick and easy, and all they do is solve these problems for people. It might still get to the needing to re-pair, but at least worth asking them in an app message.
     
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  10. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I have a birthday coming up so I bought myself a new Apple Watch Series 9 at Best Buy. They were on sale for $100 off which was a pretty good deal. I thought about trading in my 6 but I decided to keep it; this way I can have one watch charging while I'm wearing the other. My biggest gripe about the AW is the sucky battery life. The 9 has a slightly larger case/display but still uses the same watchbands.

    Apple makes it really easy to set up two (or more) watches on a single iPhone. Both are paired to the watch app; when you put one watch on your wrist and raise it, it automatically becomes the "active" watch. So simple. It recognizes which watch is in use and all the apps/data sync (like health stuff, etc.) There is a slight lag in some things like step count, but it catches up in a couple of minutes.

    There is a rumor that the 10 coming later this year may have a glucose monitor but I have no interest in that. I'm sure that will mean a bump in price.

    Oh, and one thing is a negative with the Series 9... it does not have the blood oxygen sensor! Apparently there is some patent infringement lawsuit going on so Apple had to remove it. My 6 still has the sensor so I can use it when I want that feature.
     
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  11. Jenna Parnellson

    Jenna Parnellson Very Well-Known Member
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    My devices are not in the Apple universe, but I must admit I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I made the switch a few years ago when I was looking at the Life Alert device, because I live alone in a remote area. Because Life Alerts cost $39/month monitoring fee, it was easy to justify getting a smart watch instead (which only cost a $5-$10 line fee.) Only Apple watches have one-touch 911 calling...at least, that was the case at the time. So I went with Apple.

    I love having a watch on my wrist, but I don't use most of the apps like Beth, Yvonne & others here.
     
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  13. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I have to mention that for anyone having issues with any Apple device, I have found that the "MacRumors" forum is excellent for help problem solving. Many of the posters are expert-level Apple enthusiasts and they can usually solve issues faster than the Apple website community. I have also found a youtube channel called "Payette Forward" has excellent instructional videos for all kinds of Apple devices. Here is a good one for the watch...

     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Thanks for the link. The only issue I've had recently (phone related) is I can no longer have my website logins stored in Firefox. Apparently there was some OS change, and I need to run those credentials through the phone security. I don't go on the web via my phone very often and was frustrated when I was on the doctor's wifi and found that I could do very little. I'll research it when I feel like it.
     
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  15. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    MacRumors was my go-to place for Mac problems since I hate calling tech support. Sometimes, someone would get snarky about something, particularly when someone posts a dumb question, but there were often answers.
     
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