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Apple Watch should connect automatically to any network I was previously connected with on my iPhone.

At my university I need to register devices for network access by providing them with a MAC address. There are no further logins required and the network is open.

I connected to this network with my iPhone and it works. Then I registered another device using the MAC address from settings -> General -> About -> MAC Address.

However, the Apple Watch just doesn't connect.

How can this be debugged?

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  • Can you please add your specs? (which Apple Watch, which version of watchOS/iOS)
    – oa-
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 8:10
  • Thank you for the updated question. Have you provided your Apple Watch's MAC address to your university as well?
    – oa-
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 11:25
  • You could potentially use a Linux computer with airodump-ng to do a packet capture of the raw data flying through the air and see what's happening - is the watch trying to authenticate with the network? Is it getting rejected by the access point? etc..
    – André Borie
    Commented Sep 24, 2017 at 0:54

1 Answer 1

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Unfortunately watchOS 3.x can't connect to a Wi-Fi secured by WPA2-Enterprise.

I have experienced the same behavior in the past with watchOS 2.x as well.

This assumes:

  • Your university's Wi-Fi is part of eduroam or uses a smiliar Wi-Fi login using your credentials (user name + password)
  • Your university's Wi-Fi thus uses the WPA2-Enterprise security protocol
  • You can connect to the Wi-Fi just fine with iOS devices like your iPhone
  • You use an Apple Watch running watchOS 3.x

With iOS you can enter your credentials. They will get saved and can be transferred to watchOS. The certificate, however, cannot be provided from iOS to watchOS.

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Updated answer

divB has pointed out that the network uses a MAC address filter instead of the WPA2-Enterprise security protocol

Please make sure to provide your Apple Watch's MAC address to your university as well as your iPhone's MAC address.

You can find it on your iPhone:

Watch.app > General > About > Wi-Fi Address

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