Paired Apple Watch never appears in Xcode Devices & Simulators, Developer Mode toggle missing on watchOS

Question

Created 4h

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I'm blocked trying to run/debug an app on a physical Apple Watch. The iPhone connects to Xcode perfectly over USB and is fully trusted, but the paired Watch never shows up in Xcode, and because of that the Developer Mode toggle never appears on the watch itself.

Environment

Mac: MacOS 26.4
Xcode: 26.5
iPhone: iPhone 17, iOS 26.4 — connected to Mac via USB, trusted
Apple Watch: Ultra 3, watchOS 26.3
Developer Mode: enabled on iPhone
Watch is paired and working normally in the iPhone Watch app

What happens

In Xcode → Window → Devices and Simulators, only the iPhone ("Brian") shows under Connected, with its installed apps listed correctly. The paired Apple Watch does not appear under it or as a separate entry.
On the watch, Settings → Privacy & Security has no Developer Mode item. I understand this only surfaces after Xcode successfully connects to the watch, so I believe the missing Xcode connection is the root cause.
When I first connected the iPhone via cable, a Trust prompt did appear on the watch and I accepted it.

What I've already tried

Enabled Developer Mode on iPhone (toggled off/on, with restarts)
Connected iPhone via USB and confirmed Trust on both iPhone and watch
Restarted Mac, iPhone, and watch multiple times
Confirmed Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are on across all three devices
Kept the watch unlocked and on my wrist, close to the iPhone and Mac

Despite this, the watch never appears in Xcode and the Developer Mode toggle never surfaces on watchOS.

Questions

Is this the known Xcode 26 / watchOS 26 tunneling/discovery regression, or is something else going on in my setup?
Is there an Apple-supported way to force Xcode to re-discover a paired watch without unpairing it from the iPhone?
Has any specific combination of macOS / Xcode / watchOS versions reliably resolved this for anyone?

Any guidance appreciated. Happy to file a Feedback Assistant report and share the ID if useful.

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

1h

Thanks for the post.

Because the Mac communicates with the Apple Watch by tunneling through the iPhone, if the initial trust handshake or the CoreDevice proxy you need to check if the pairing to Xcode has failed.

When you first connect the iPhone, Xcode establishes a tunnel to the iPhone, which is then supposed to advertise its paired Watch. If the Watch is asleep or locked Xcode will ignore the Watch. Xcode heavily caches device states. Clearing this often forces a fresh discovery pass.

Since you mentioned seeing the Trust prompt on the Watch once. Disconnect the iPhone from the Mac. On the iPhone, go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset → Reset Location & Privacy. Reconnect the iPhone via USB. Accept the Trust prompt on the iPhone and enter your passcode. Immediately wake the Apple Watch and keep the screen on. You should see a new Trust prompt appear on the Watch. Accept it. Open Xcode → Window → Devices and Simulators. Open Terminal and run xcrun devicectl list devices Look for your Apple Watch in the output.

Search the forum as this has been answered many times and better workflows might be available. Hope this helps.

Albert  WWDR