If you're one of the many people out there who recently decided to dive deeper into the world of Pokémon Go by picking up a Pokémon Go Plus for your wrist, you may have noticed it plays by slightly different rules than the rest of the game. You can use it without the screen on your phone even being on, and through it you can catch Pokemon, check in to Pokéstops, and gain all the steps necessary for egg hatching and candy earning. It's a fun little accessory, right until it disconnects from your phone and you realize the last mile you walked didn't count towards anything.
You aren't along in being frustrated by this. The Pokémon Go Plus is a simple accessory, and disconnects aren't always easy to immediately detect. Here's how you can tell you're disconnected, and what you can do to avoid future disconnections during gameplay.
How to tell you've been disconnected
For the most part, Pokémon Go Plus is pretty good about letting you know when it has disconnected from the phone. The wristband will vibrate and flash red as soon as it is disconnected from your phone. This is east to detect if you're walking and feel the vibration or see the LED, but if you're doing something important and can't stop to look at your wrist or you just plain didn't feel the vibration you may not know right away. This disconnection notification only happens once, so your window is limited.
The other way to know you've been disconnected is by tapping the LED button in the center of the watch and looking for a slow pulsing blue light. That pulsing blue light is the Pokémon Go Plus trying to connect to your phone, which naturally means it has been disconnected. If you tap this button and feel a single quick vibration pulse, it means you're connected to your phone and everything is fine. If you see the slow blue pulse, it means you've been disconnected.
Why did my Pokémon Go Plus disconnect?
There are a couple of reasons why your Pokémon Go Plus would disconnect from your phone. For starters, the watch is designed to disconnect when you are actively using the Pokémon Go app on your phone to play the game. If you're busy playing the game, you don't need a separate reminder on your wrist that Pokémon are showing up around you. It's also possible you've walked too far away from your phone, in which case the Bluetooth connection between your wrist and your phone will have been interrupted.
Your Pokémon Go Plus may have also disconnected if your GPS loses track of where you are. Pokémon Go needs the GPS in your phone to function, and when connected to your Pokémon Go Plus the phone has a constant connection to GPS services. If that connection fails, your watch will disconnect until you reconnect it.
Finally, several users have found issues with specific Android phones that don't currently have a resolution. Some phones by OnePlus and Motorola, for example, disconnect from Bluetooth a little more easily than other. This means the Bluetooth Low Energy connection between your phone and Pokémon Go Plus may disconnect easily with interference. To deal with these problem, disable Wi-Fi on your phone and make sure Bluetooth Scanning is disabled.
How to reconnect to Pokémon Go Plus
Being disconnected is a bummer, but reconnecting is easy.
- Open Pokémon Go on your phone
- Tap the dark Pokemon Go Plus icon in the top left
- Tap the LED button on your Pokemon Go Plus
You'll feel a vibration on your wrist and see a notification in Pokémon Go when the two are connected. From here you can close the app and go back to using your phone as you see fit. You will also see a notification icon in your tray letting you know you are connected to Pokemon Go, which will tell you about the last thing you did in the game as you continue to play.
Enjoy!
Still having problems?
Are you still struggling to get your Pokémon Go Plus accessory to connect to your Android phone? Let us know in the comments below!
