Removing cards & unpairing

Modified on Wed, 9 Jul at 11:10 AM

Does removing a card from my iPhone affect the same card on my Apple Watch if they are paired?

Nope! Removing a card from your iPhone does not automatically remove it from your Apple Watch.

Here’s how it works:

Apple Pay stores cards separately on each device (iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac).
When you add a card to iPhone, it’s not automatically added to your watch — you must add it manually via the Watch app.
Similarly, removing it from iPhone won’t remove it from Apple Watch.

To remove from both:

Open Wallet on iPhone → remove the card.
Open Watch app → Wallet & Apple Pay → tap the card → Remove Card.

Does unpairing an Apple Watch from my iPhone remove the card on Apple Watch?

Yes. When you unpair your Apple Watch, Apple erases all data from the watch, including:

Apple Pay cards
Wallet passes
Settings & preferences

This is a security feature to protect your payment info.

Good to Know:

If you re-pair the watch and restore from backup, you’ll need to manually re-add your Apple Pay cards.
Apple doesn’t store your actual card numbers — so you’ll go through verification again.