What Is the i Icon on the Apple Watch?

It's there for a reason - but why?

by Tyler Hayes
Tyler Hayes is a tech writer covering Apple, Google, Spotify, and more. Tyler has written for Fast Company, Digital Trends, and Paste, and others.
Updated November 08, 2018

Are you seeing the lowercase i in a circle icon on your Apple Watch? If so, you probably need help pairing your Apple Watch to an iPhone. Or maybe you’re just curious what it’s there for. Either way, we’ll guide you through everything you need to know about the i icon on Apple Watch, including its appearance in the iPhone’s Watch app.

What Is the i Icon?

The circled i in the top right corner of an Apple Watch is for “information,” and it's there to help you manually pair, or re-pair, your Apple Watch to your iPhone. 

Apple 

The lowercase i inside a circle is not unique to Apple Watch. It's a common symbol indicating a place to get more information across different software applications.

If you tap the i icon, you’ll find information about your watch, such as a unique way to identify it and a number to help pair it manually. The i icon appears on all versions of the Apple Watch hardware and watchOS software.

Where is the i Icon on Apple Watch?

You’ll see the i icon during the Apple Watch pairing process. There will be a Start pairing button on the watch to guide you through an automatic process. You’ll see the circled i on that screen, which can help you with a manual pairing process if the automatic way isn’t working.

You’ll also see this information icon on the screen displaying the scannable circle code.

Apple

The floating, swirling series of dots in a circle acts as a fancy QR code which passes information to the phone when scanned.

How to Unpair Your Watch Manually Using the i Icon

If you need to un-pair your Apple Watch, for whatever reason, you can follow these steps below.

You can erase and reset your Apple Watch from the watch itself, but it will still be locked to your iPhone. To sell it or get rid of it, you’ll need to un-pair the watch from your iPhone first.

  1. On the Apple Watch, open the Settings by pressing the digital crown.

  2. Tap General.

  3. Tap Reset.

  4. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.

  5. On iPhone, open the Watch app and tap the My Watch tab.

  6. Tap the watch you want to un-pair.

  7. Tap the i icon next to the selected watch.

  8. Tap Unpair Apple Watch, then confirm the decision.

How to Manually Re-pair Your Watch Using the i Icon

Re-pairing your Apple Watch is easy and only takes a few moments.

  1. Follow the instructions on screen, including selecting your language, until you get to the Start Pairing button.

  2. On the iPhone, tap Pair Apple Watch Manually under the window trying to scan the code.

  3. On the Apple Watch tap the i icon.

  4. Enter the numbers from the watch on the iPhone.

  5. This will manually pair the watch to the phone. If it still disconnects or you experience additional issues, there may be other problems with the watch or iPhone that need to be addressed.