When upgrading to a new phone, many Samsung Galaxy Watch users wonder how to connect their watch without losing data by performing a factory reset. Fortunately, it’s possible to pair your Galaxy Watch with a new phone without resetting it, preserving your apps, settings, and health data. This guide explains the step-by-step process to safely transfer your watch connection to a new phone while keeping your watch data intact.
Why Pair Without Resetting?
Resetting your Galaxy Watch erases all data and settings, requiring you to start fresh. Pairing without resetting:
- Preserves health, fitness, and app data.
- Saves time by avoiding full reconfiguration.
- Maintains watch preferences and customized settings.
Prerequisites Before You Begin
- Both old and new phones have the Galaxy Wearable app installed.
- Your Galaxy Watch is currently paired with your old phone.
- Both phones have Bluetooth enabled.
- A stable internet connection for syncing data via Samsung Cloud.
- Your Samsung account is signed in on both phones.
Step 1: Prepare Your Old Phone for Transfer
- Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your old phone.
- Tap on Watch settings.
- Ensure Backup and restore is enabled.
- Manually perform a backup of your watch data to Samsung Cloud.
- Confirm backup completion in Settings > Accounts and backup > Samsung Cloud.
This backup stores your watch data securely and is essential for restoring on the new phone.
Step 2: Prepare Your New Phone
- Sign in to the same Samsung account on your new phone.
- Install the Galaxy Wearable app from the Google Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Store.
- Enable Bluetooth on your new phone.
Step 3: Unpair Watch from Old Phone (Optional but Recommended)
Though optional, unpairing the watch from the old phone helps avoid conflicts:
- On the old phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app.
- Tap Disconnect or Unpair.
- Confirm the unpairing action.
Note: This step does not reset your watch, only breaks the Bluetooth connection.
Step 4: Connect Galaxy Watch to New Phone Without Reset
- Open the Galaxy Wearable app on the new phone.
- Turn on your Galaxy Watch if it’s off.
- On the app, select Add new device or Connect new watch.
- Follow on-screen instructions to scan for your Galaxy Watch via Bluetooth.
- When the watch is detected, select it to pair.
- The app may prompt you to restore from backup; select the latest backup from Samsung Cloud.
- Wait for the restoration to complete. This process can take several minutes depending on data size.
Your watch will now pair with the new phone with all your data intact.
Step 5: Verify Data and Settings on the Watch
- Check your apps, watch faces, notifications, and health data to ensure everything is restored.
- Sync your Samsung Health app on the new phone to verify fitness and health stats.
Additional Tips and Troubleshooting
- If pairing fails, restart both devices and retry.
- Ensure your watch is running the latest firmware by checking Settings > About watch > Update watch software.
- If Samsung Cloud backup is unavailable, use Smart Switch app for device data migration.
- Keep your watch charged during transfer to avoid interruptions.
- Avoid pairing with multiple devices simultaneously; unpair from the old device first.
My Experience Pairing Galaxy Watch Without Resetting
When I switched phones recently, I was able to move my Galaxy Watch connection smoothly by backing up on Samsung Cloud and restoring on the new device. The process preserved my fitness data and watch customizations perfectly. Avoiding a reset saved time and frustration since I didn’t have to reinstall apps or redo settings.
Summary
To pair your Samsung Galaxy Watch with a new phone without resetting:
- Backup your watch data on the old phone using Samsung Cloud.
- Sign in with the same Samsung account on the new phone.
- Install and open the Galaxy Wearable app on the new phone.
- Unpair the watch from the old phone if possible.
- Connect and pair the watch with the new phone.
- Restore the watch data from backup.
- Verify settings and health data after pairing.
Following these steps preserves your watch data and offers a hassle-free phone upgrade experience.
