Available Apps on Apple Watch Series 10 Have Orange Spinning Circle Now and Don't Sync Properly

I have had my Apple Watch Series 10 for a couple of months now, and a few days ago, I noticed that the Outlook app on my watch stopped updating with current emails and calendar events. When I went to the Watch app on my iPhone 14, many of my "Installed Apps" had moved to a section called "Available Apps", and there is a spinning orange circle with an orange square next to them. Outlook is of course in this list. I can't select the app or touch the orange circle and make something happen, it's like those apps are in a frozen, unresponsive state. All of these apps worked before and had no problems.


Interestingly, I can still get notifications from Outlook on my watch. For example, a calendar reminder for an upcoming event will come to my watch, but if I click on the reminder and the Outlook app opens on my watch, my calendar is empty and says no upcoming events. So it's like the sync between these apps and my watch isn't working.


To try and fix it I have done the following: I checked for updates and updated my watch to OS 26.1. I also updated my iPhone to 26.1. I have power cycled my iPhone. I have force restarted my watch. Nothing seems to fix the issue.


Am I doomed to have to factory reset my watch to try and fix this problem? Is there a known software bug that may be causing this issue?


iPhone 14

Posted on Nov 6, 2025 7:02 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 7, 2025 7:17 AM

ISSUE FIXED:

Issue was caused by an Accountability app I installed that updated my Screen Time settings to not allow installs of apps, so the App Store goes away when this settings is turned on. Apparently these apps were trying to update when the App store went away and got frozen in that "trying to update" state. My accountability partner put the code in to allow the App Store again, and the apps were able to finish updating/re-installing. They continue to work even after the app store was later removed by my accountability partner.


I'm sure this is a super niche issue, since most people don't have Accountability apps, but a good reference for anyone who does. Thanks for trying to help me Ingo2711!

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 7, 2025 7:17 AM in response to mateoanderson

ISSUE FIXED:

Issue was caused by an Accountability app I installed that updated my Screen Time settings to not allow installs of apps, so the App Store goes away when this settings is turned on. Apparently these apps were trying to update when the App store went away and got frozen in that "trying to update" state. My accountability partner put the code in to allow the App Store again, and the apps were able to finish updating/re-installing. They continue to work even after the app store was later removed by my accountability partner.


I'm sure this is a super niche issue, since most people don't have Accountability apps, but a good reference for anyone who does. Thanks for trying to help me Ingo2711!

Available Apps on Apple Watch Series 10 Have Orange Spinning Circle Now and Don't Sync Properly

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