Alright, so I ran into a small odd bug recently and was curious to know if others have also encountered it.
So I recently bought a Apple Watch Series 6, back in September, and after a month passed, on this passed Sunday when the clocks went back an hour, I noticed that, on the top left most part of the watch face, VoiceOver read a status icon for "Disconnected". Noticing this, I opened the Control Centre, and VoiceOver read that my watch was connected over iPhone. I then went to my iPhone's Bluetooth settings and found my watch, and as I suspected, VoiceOver read that my watch was connected properly.
I then decided to turn Bluetooth off on both my watch and phone, shut them both off, restarted them both and then turned Bluetooth back on.
As before, under the watch's Control Centre and in my iPhone's Bluetooth settings, it still said that my watch was connected to my phone.
I then had a friend send me a text message, and then call a few minutes later, and as expected, all notifications and calls went straight to the watch, and during all this time, that "Disconnected" icon was still being read by VoiceOver.
On Monday, I decided to unpair my watch and repair it back, setting it up as a new watch. After reconfiguring my watch back to normal, I noticed that the "Disconnected" icon had disappeared. So being happy and satisfied I had fixed the issue, I went on my merry way.
Sadly, my joy and happiness was short-lived, as two days later, yesterday, that dang "Disconnected" icon had returned. Not having any clue on what I had done that may have caused for this to return, I repeated the same steps I had taken on Sunday to fix the issue.
Getting the same results as before, I then contacted Apple, explaining everything I had done to troubleshoot and left it at that. I then asked a sighted family member to look at my watch face, after suggesting that they find the list of various Apple Watch status icons and their pictures. I then turned on, individually one after another, Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb and, after getting some notifications, asked them to look at the watch face and confirm that each of those icons were indeed visible on the watch face, asking them to also note the location of the icon, on the face itself.
After turning each setting on individually, having my sighted friend confirm the presence of its icon, then turning it off and turning the other setting on, confirming the presence of the icon again, then clearing away the new notifications, I then confirmed that that "Disconnected" icon was still being read by VoiceOver, then asked my friend to look at the watch face, to see if they could see that "Disconnected" icon they had seen in Apple's list, and, surprisingly enough, the icon itself was not even on the watch face.
So guessing that my watch was indeed properly connected and that VoiceOver was reading something that wasn't even there, I jotted this as a bug and, after getting an email from Apple, stating the obvious, saying that that icon appears when the watch is disconnected from the phone, or out of range, and suggesting I troubleshoot by doing the exact same steps I had originally told them I had already done (Seriously Apple, did you guys even read my email to the end?), I replied and then added the bit about the icon not even being visible on the face, but VoiceOver reading it as if it was there, I am left now waiting for their response.
Now that I've completed my thorough explanation of what has happened, from beginning to end, I was curious to know if anyone else may have also encountered this odd glitch?
I also recently noticed today that Watch OS 7.1 was available, and after updating, I'm sad to say that VoiceOver still reads "Disconnected", even though that icon isn't even there.
Hopefully Apple is able to work with me in trying to see what the cause of this glitch might be. I know that this isn't really a major issue, as the watch still works perfectly fine, but to have something happen like this, that doesn't have any rhyme or reason as to why it occured, it kind of bugs me a little.
It wouldn't be so bad if the watch had actually disconnected, but since it hasn't, it's kind of annoying! Ah well, first world problems I guess!
Comments
That Disconnected Message
I had the same issues with my watch series 6, and Apple also. My disconnected icon disappeared after a week or so, and fortunately it hasn't come back. Personally I wouldn't hold out any hope about Apple's ability to get to the core of your issue. Some of their staff don't even know what VoiceOver is, let alone the fact that their company has an accessibility team. Next time I need to sort out a solution with Apple' I think I'll hire someone's child instead, they may be more helpful.
I have this too.
I got my very first watch, a series 6, just a week ago. At first, I thought I was simply doing something wrong, but no. It just seems to live there, unless you're on a phone call.
So Relieved!
I know this might sound odd, but I am so relieved to hear it isn't just me. I've talked to friends and colleagues whom have the Series 5 and they haven't been affected. It seems like it may be common with Series 6 watches though.
Like I said, it's not a major issue, more of an annoyance really, but hopefully, like you Tanya, it will one day disappear from my watch face.
same in series 4
Hi, it is not an issue of series 6, I have a series 4 and same thing here since I updated to watchOS 7. but it seams that there's no consequence for that message.
Disconnected intermittent on AppleWatch SE
Same on Apple Watch SE get disconnected i have not had any problems with connections or speed but very intermittent i have voice memos as my top left complication i had only presumed that wrongly it was the voice memos complication that was stating disconnected thanks for the heads up on this even when stating discgnected i have not noticed any disconnection or slow down in features of the Apple Watch that i am aware of
Disconnect
Hi,
I have also had that issue myself, when I updated my Apple Watch series 4 to watch OS 7. The disconnected icon was there. I have contacted Apple, the told me to unpair my watch and set it all up again. I have done so, and since then I have not had that issue myself.