Connecting Galaxy Watch to Mac for Beginners

Hi everyone!

I’m new to Galaxy Watch Studio & am not a full-on developer, just here to create some watch faces for myself to test out and use. I’ve downloaded the studio program and have successfully created a few watch faces. However, my problem is that I cannot get the watch to connect to the computer. I’m on Mac running OS Mojave and have an iPhone, using a Galaxy Watch Active.

I’ve followed the steps on debugging, making sure the IP is correct and they are connected to the same network, however I cannot get my device to show up when I search for it. I’ve seen things about Tizen but I’m not sure how that works so I’d rather try and figure this out in the simplest way possible

TIA for your help!

I assume you’ve read FAQ 23 Here

You have Wifi always on not auto. Some others have said to disconnect your watch and reconnect it.

Be sure to read the section 4 about the RSA Encryption Key in the FAQ 23. That is what gets most people.

If you still can’t connect let us know and I may have a couple other suggestions but Mohave usually connecting is fairly easy.

Ron
Samsung Developer Program

Hi Ron,

Thanks for your reply. I’ve been doing wifi always on and have tried restarting both Mac and watch multiple times.

I’ve had the watch with the screen on while doing it, problem is I’ve never seen an RSA key show up, so there’s been nothing to accept. Should the RSA be showing up before the watch shows up as a valid connection in the studio? It’s not come up yet but I will continue trying to get it to go up.

Yes, it will appear on your watch before connecting to GWS. You need to reboot your watch by holding the home key button pressed for about 15 seconds or until it says rebooting to regenerate the RSA acknowledge key. I have provided the whole process below for your convenient.

Connect using WiFi:

  1. Make sure again your PC and Watch are connected to the same network, and the Watch has the developer and debugging modes turned on.
  2. Go to the top-right corner on GWS interface and click Run On Device icon.
  3. Now, click on (+) sign and include the IP of your watch and click OK.
  4. Keep a close look on your watch, a pop up will be shown to accept the RSA key and you have to accept it very quickly as it will stay for a few seconds. If you miss, it will never come back.
  5. After accepting the RSA key, your watch will be connected to GWS automatically.

N.B. Sometimes you need to do step 3 several times until it can find your watch and also keep your watch awake at that moment.

If those steps do not resolve your problem or you don’t see the RSA key pop up, restart your laptop and reboot your watch again by holding the home key button pressed for about 15 seconds or until it says rebooting. After that try the steps above again and it will solve your problem eventually.

Azad