When you pair an Apple Watch, it is connected to your iPhone. Subsequently, whatever Apple ID you have logged in on your iPhone is carried over to your Watch. Therefore, all your iCloud details, including your backups, are on your Watch. This begs the question, how do you change your iCloud on an Apple Watch?
This article will cover exactly how you can change iCloud on an Apple Watch from start to finish.
Step #1: Unpairing Your Apple Watch
First, you will need to unpair your Apple Watch to change your iCloud. Unlike an iPhone, where you can change your iCloud account without an issue, you can’t do the same here.
Here’s how you can unpair your Apple Watch.
- Open the Apple Watch application on your iPhone.
- Tap on “My Watches” in the lower left corner.
- Tap on the info button depending on the Watch you wish to unpair.
- Tap on “Unpair Apple Watch”.
If you don’t have your paired phone, you can also reset your Apple Watch independently without a phone, given that it is unlocked. Here’s how.
- Unlock your Apple Watch.
- Open the Settings application on your watch.
- Head to “General” and scroll down to “Reset”.
- Select “Erase All Content And Settings”.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to reset your Apple Watch.
Step #2: Resetting Your Apple Watch
With your Apple Watch unpaired, you will now need to reset it. Thankfully, as soon as you unpair your Apple Watch and head to the “Setup” screen, your Apple Watch has already reset all its contents and information present within it.
Now, suppose you’ve made a mistake. In that case, you can choose to pair your Apple Watch back to your iPhone again without making any changes, and you should be able to restore all the information you require fitting from the backup of the Watch that was automatically made.
Otherwise, you can proceed to the next step, which will let you change your Apple Watch’s iCloud.
Step #3: Pairing Your Apple Watch With a New iCloud ID
Now that we’re on the “Setup” screen, if we pair our iPhone with our Apple Watch again without making any changes, we’ll have the same iCloud ID. This is not what we want; instead, we wish to change it.
To do so, you’ll need to sign out of your Apple ID on your iPhone and log in with a new Apple ID to change your iCloud. Here’s how you can do so.
- Open the Settings application on your iPhone.
- Tap on the profile banner.
- Tap on Sign Out.
After signing out, tap on the profile banner again, but this time, log in to the iCloud ID you wish your Apple Watch to be paired to. After doing so, follow these steps.
- Open the Watch application on your iPhone.
- Bring your Apple Watch close to your iPhone.
- Follow the on-screen setup/pairing instructions.
After your Apple Watch is set up, you’d have successfully changed its iCloud ID. This is also the same procedure used when you wish to sell your watch or give it away to someone who’ll have a different account ID than yours.
After changing your Apple ID on your Apple Watch, there’s no way to restore your old applications/data from a backup. If you wish to do so, you’ll need to repeat these steps and return to the original ID that had your Apple Watch backups stored.
How To Fix a Wrong iCloud ID on Apple Watch?
When you pair your Apple Watch to your iPhone, your primary Apple ID will not be used with your watch, leading to your devices not synchronizing. While an uncommon bug, the fix for this is quite simple.
This issue is caused because you have a different Apple ID for iMessage. And, your Apple Watch tends to use your iMessage ID for your Apple Watch instead of the one you want it to use. Here’s how you can fix that.
- Open the Settings application on your iPhone.
- Head to “Messages”.
- Scroll down to “Send & Receive”.
- Select it, and now select your primary Apple ID.
- After doing so, reset your Apple Watch and set it up again.
Once setup is completed, you should now be able to use your actual primary Apple ID with your Apple Watch.
Conclusion
Changing your iCloud ID on Apple Watch isn’t as easy as it seems. This is because the culmination of both devices leads to a tight-knit system wherein you can’t remove your iCloud ID without your iPhone being detected. So, no matter what you do, you’ll have to reset your Apple Watch first.
