If you’re lucky enough to be getting a new Apple Watch and need to know how do I unpair my Apple Watch? Then this is the post for you!
Before we start, I’ve also put this post on Medium in case you prefer reading over there.
Post Contents
Introduction
You might need to unpair your Apple Watch for a number of reasons: technical issues; new phone; new watch; lost iPhone and many many more reasons. And unless you are planning to use 2 watches at the same time, you’ll need to unpair the old one and then pair to the new watch.
Additionally, if you are wanting to sell your Apple Watch then you’ll need to unpair your Apple Watch. If you don’t, then Apple’s Activation Lock will kick in and the watch will be rendered unless. So if you do plan to sell your watch or give it to a family member or friend, then you need both unpair and erase your Apple Watch.
I’ll also note that even if you lose your iPhone and need to pair your Apple Watch to your new iPhone, this can be done and I’ll include it as a method below!
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How Do I Unpair My Apple Watch?
Unpair From Your iPhone
Before continuing, make sure that your iPhone and Apple Watch are using the latest software updates and that both devices are physically close to each other. Perfect! Now you can follow the below steps:
Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone
If you have the cellular model, you’ll be prompted to keep or remove your cellular plan. If you are selling the Apple Watch you just unpaired, then make sure to remove the cellular plan
Tap the My Watch tab and then All Watches at the top of the screen
Tap the Info button
Tap Unpair Apple Watch at the bottom of the page
Tap on Confirm
Enter your Apple ID Password to disable the Activation Lock
Awesome! That’s all done now. It’s worth noting that your iPhone will create a backup of your watch before the unpair completes as you’ll need this to setup a new Apple Watch.
Once the unpairing process is complete – you will be prompted to start pairing a new device.
Unpair Without Your iPhone
Use this method is you no longer have the iPhone that you paired your Apple Watch to. This might be the case if your iPhone is now broken because someone (definitely not you) dropped it, it was unfortunately stolen or you lost it.
If this is the case, then you’ll need to remove the Apple Activation Lock using you iCloud account. This is necessary so that you can pair your Apple watch to a new Apple iPhone.
If you need this option, follow the below steps:
On a separate device, go to iCloud.com
Sign in with your Apple ID and password
Tap Find iPhone
Tap on All Devices and chose your Apple Watch
Tap the Info button next to your device
Tap Remove Apple Watch – this removes the Apple Activation Lock and allow you to pair your Apple Watch to a new iPhone
Erase Without Your iPhone
Following the above steps shows you how to unpair the Apple Watch without your iPhone. You can follow the below steps to erase your Apple Watch without your iPhone but the below method won’t remove the Apple Activation Lock. To do this, you can follow the steps below:
On your Apple Watch, tap Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings
If you have the cellular version of the Apple Watch, you’ll need to chose to keep or remove the cellular plan when erasing the content#
Enter your password
Tap Erase All to reset your Apple Watch to factory defaults
Conclusion
That’s it covered, everything should be sorted. If you find the above methods aren’t working for you, I would recommend contacting Apple Support or leaving a comment on this post.
The above options have always worked for me because thankfully, Apple makes it super easy to both unpair and erase your Apple Watch whether you have the paired iPhone or not.
Hopefully, you found this post useful. If you did, please leave a comment!
Enjoy! 🎉
