Every once in a while there comes a time when you need to reset your devices. It’s almost a law of nature – it happens on the best laptops, desktops, and yes, even smartwatches. Maybe your Apple Watch is slowing down or feeling sluggish after years of use, maybe you want a clean slate, or maybe you’re selling it and need to remove your personal information from it. So, if you’re not sure how, here’s how to reset and unpair your Apple Watch.
Contents
- Unpair and Reset Apple Watch using iPhone
- Reset Apple Watch Directly From Watch
- How to Unpair Apple Watch After Reset (Remove Activation Lock from Apple Watch)
- How to Reset Apple Watch Without Passcode
- FAQ
Unpair and Reset Apple Watch Using iPhone
The most foolproof way to factory reset your Apple Watch is to use the ‘Watch’ app on your iPhone. Here’s what you need to do. That way, you can also erase your Apple Watch data if that’s what you want to do.
- Tap your watch name in the Watch app on your iPhone. Next, Tap the “ⓘ” icon.
- Tap on ‘Unpair Apple Watch‘ and confirm your selection.
- now you will have to Enter your Apple ID password To disable Activation Lock from Watch. After entering the password, tap on ‘Unpair’ in the upper right corner of the screen.
This much. After doing that, your Apple Watch will start to backup its data on your iPhone and then factory reset itself. This whole process may take some time. After the process is completed, you can re-pair the watch with your iPhone, sell it, or deliver it to someone else.
Reset Apple Watch Directly From Watch
If you just want to start fresh with your Apple Watch and re-pair it with your own iPhone, you don’t need to disable Activation Lock as you will be using it with the same Apple ID. Here’s how to do this:
- Open ‘SettingsOn your ‘Apple Watch’ and tap on ‘General‘.
- Here, go’Reset‘. Tap on ‘Erase All Content and Settings’. You may need to enter your password.
- Tap on ‘Delete everything‘.
Your Apple Watch will now be reset to factory settings and you can set it up again with your iPhone.
Unpair Apple Watch After Reset
If you reset your Apple Watch directly from within the watch and want to give it to someone else, you must disable Activation Lock or the watch will not pair with any other iPhone. Here’s what you need to do:
- On your laptop or desktop computer, go to iCloud and sign in with your Apple ID and password.
- Click ‘Account settings‘
- Under My devices, select your Apple Watch.
- To remove your watch from your iCloud account, click the ‘X’ next to it and then click ‘Remove’.
You can now safely hand over your Apple Watch to someone else.
How to Reset Apple Watch Without Passcode
If you forgot your Apple Watch passcode, you can still perform a hard reset. Here’s how to do it.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone. Scroll down and tap on ‘General -> Reset’.
- Tap “Erase Apple Watch Content and Settings” and confirm the action.
- You may need to enter your Apple ID password to complete this process.
Your Apple Watch will now reset and erase all of its content. You can then set it up again and set a new password for your watch.
Previously, you could do this through the watch itself. However, this requires strong touch interaction on the power off slider on the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, with watchOS 7, Apple has removed Force Touch, so you cannot use this method. If a new method is discovered, we will update this article.
How to Reset Apple Watch FAQ
Q. How do I get rid of someone else’s Apple ID on my Apple Watch?
A. If your Apple Watch is asking you to enter a password for someone else’s Apple ID, it’s because of Activation Lock. Unfortunately, you can’t get rid of it. To get past this, you will need to ask the previous owner of the watch to enter this information on your Apple Watch.
Q. How do I turn off Apple Watch activation lock without the previous owner?
A. As stated in the previous answer, this is a security feature and cannot be removed by you unless you have the previous owner’s Apple ID credentials. If you don’t, you will have to ask them to remove the activation lock.
Q. Can you bypass activation lock on Apple Watch? Can the activation lock be removed?
A. No, an activation lock on Apple Watch is a feature that prevents someone from stealing and using your Apple Watch. It cannot be bypassed. It can only be removed by entering the previous owner’s Apple ID.
Q. How to Clear RAM on Apple Watch?
If your apps are getting stuck and therefore you are thinking of resetting your clock, you should first try to clear the RAM and force restart the apps. To do this, press and hold the side button until the power off slider comes up. Now press and hold the digital crown. This much.
Reset Your Apple Watch and Start Fresh
Personally, I’ve only reset my Apple Watch twice – once because I overfilled it with third-party apps and didn’t want to go through the pain of removing them all, and on the other this article takes the necessary screenshots. So yes, there will be times when you might want to reset your Apple Watch and now you know how. Note that you should always unpair using your iPhone if you don’t want to lose your Apple Watch data. Otherwise, your data will not be backed up.
