Hello everyone. Since the day I updated to iOS 26, my phone and my watch have not been able to connect to each other via Garmin Connect. I’ve tried everything that has been suggested on the forum, but I haven’t been able to solve the issue.
Should I be waiting for an update from Garmin or from Apple regarding this problem? I’m not even sure if I’m the only one experiencing it.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
!!!UPDATE!!!
Hi everyone,
After months of struggling with an issue, I finally managed to resolve it by working closely with both Apple and Garmin technical support teams.
I wanted to share the key steps here in case it helps others who might be facing the same problem:
-
If you’re using any VPNs, remove all of them completely and restart your phone.
-
If, like me, you manage your children’s Screen Time from your own phone, you’ll need to disable this temporarily. Screen Time must be turned off during the process. After disabling it, restart your phone.
-
Under Privacy & Security settings, make sure that location permissions for the Garmin apps are enabled.
-
When deleting the Garmin Connect app, make sure to delete Garmin Connect IQ at the same time. Then turn off Bluetooth and restart your phone again. After that, reinstall both Garmin Connect and Connect IQ and try pairing again.
Following these steps allowed my phone to successfully connect to Garmin Connect.
As I mentioned, this may not work for everyone, but it did the trick for me—hopefully it helps point some of you in the right direction.
Best of luck!
