Pokemon Go Plus with Apple Watch

I have both a Pokemon Go Plus and an Apple Watch Series 2 that I use to play Pokemon Go with.

Before I got the Apple Watch my Pokemon Go Plus worked flawlessly. I was able spin the PokeStop at work every 5 minutes and catch the 3 spawns every hour with my Pokemon Go Plus while never touching my iPhone. Ever since I got the Apple Watch and linked it to my Pokemon Go account, the Pokemon Go Plus does not stay connected while my iPhone is locked. Basically I have to manually open the app to spin the Pokestop/ catch Pokemon or to reconnect the Plus.

Side note: The Pokemon Go Plus does work when my phone is locked if the game is running on my Apple Watch at the same time. I don’t like to leave the game running all day on my Apple Watch because it drains the battery. I only play Pokemon Go on the Apple Watch when I know I’m going to walk a good distance (it counts your steps toward your egg distance).

Side note (2): The Pokemon Plus also works if I don’t pair my Apple Watch to the iPhone (it connects through Bluetooth - same as the Plus).

I was hoping they would fix this problem by now, but it looks like any type of Apple Watch support isn’t coming anytime soon with this new gym update.

Any tips/ solutions to this problem would be greatly appreciated. It would be awesome to still be able to use my Pokemon Go Plus while having my Apple Watch without having to run Pokemon Go on the Apple Watch.

Things I’ve tried:

  1. Re-installing Pokemon Go on the Apple Watch
  2. Killing the app in the Apple Watch and iPhone at the same time