Why does my WatchKit extension cause a "Waiting to attach" message on an actual Apple Watch but not in a simulator?

Question

I have a published iOS app and am trying to add a WatchKit extension for it.

For now, all I have is a watch interface.storyboard with a single label just to verify the entire building process. The app runs fine on the simulator (iPhone 6 (8.3)) and the Watch simulator.

When I run it on the iPhone and Apple Watch, it runs on the iPhone, installs on the Apple Watch, but then just displays a wait status when trying to run it on the Apple Watch.

The error in Xcode says "Waiting to attach", and when I try to attach it via Xcode > Debug > Attach to Process, it says "Lost connection to iPhone".

I am using Xcode 6.3.1.

Answer 1

The Waiting to attach message is bothering many people. Here are a few things that you can do:

• Build the main iPhone app first, then stop it and build the WatchKit app
• Wait some time for the attachment to finish (it can take 20 seconds or so)
• I found that tapping the app icon on the Apple Watch sometimes helps to re-establish a lost connection. After tapping the app icon, the app often starts to update. So tap on your Apple Watch app after the message Waiting to attachappears.
• If waiting does not help, stop all processes (make sure that the stop button in Xcode becomes gray) and then build and run your code again
• Sometimes, restarting Xcode helps to solve problems
• Force-quit your app on the Apple Watch as explained here
• If that still does not help, deinstall and reinstall your WatchKit extension using the Apple Watchapp on your iPhone

Other things you could try:

• Clean your project
• Uninstall and re-install your watch app using the Apple Watchapp on your iPhone
• Delete your iPhone app from the device
• Delete/recreate the target scheme
• In the WatchKit app target settings, set "Skip Install" to NO