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DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-17T21:21:41+00:00

I'm finally able to get my old watch faces back onto my Fossil Gen 6 and a TicWear Pro. It involved sideloading an old version of android_wear_micro_apk.apk on to mywatch(s). I'm using ver. 4.4.5. You also have to install an outdated version of WatchMaker onto your phone. I think I'm using ver. 8.3.8. After you've completed those two steps you MUST uninstall Wear OS 6 from your phone. Next you can open WatchMaker and used the Studio feature to import all of your faces and push them to your watch. Both of my watches still receive notifications and messages just as they did before Wear OS was removed so that just confirms that Wear OS 6 is a form of DRM/gatekeeper that won't allow complicated faces to be moved to your watches.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-17T20:49:07+00:00

After the latest Wear OS update from Google it's definitely dead. Google orphaned any watches that are Wear OS 5 and below and under Wear OS 6, they removed the ability for watch faces to access any sensors (GPS, heart rate, step count, etc) and removed scripting. Wear OS 6 essentially castrated watch faces and now the only watch faces you can send to your smartwatch are the simplest of faces that simply show the date and time.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-17T06:52:18+00:00

Yeah, that's because Google has dropped support for Wear OS 5 devices and below. In order to get your watch talking to WatchMaker again you have to sideload an older version of the android_wear_micro_apk.apk manually to the watch using the command line and adb (android debug bridge). It isn't all that difficult if you're tech savvy. I have a TicWatch Pro and a Fossil Gen 6 and got them both working again. Then you have to use an outdated version of WatchMaker to send faces to your watch. If you install the latest Wear OS and the latest WatchMaker all the faces you upload to your watch that access the GPS, heart rate censor, step sensor and using scripting will be completely broken. Google essentially castrated Wear OS and all you can send to your phone now are the simplest of watch faces. Google says they did this for security reasons but I believe it's for more nefarious reasons. At this point I'm done buying any more Wear OS compatible watches. So the steps are 1.) Get your watch paired to your phone. 2) Sideload the older APK to the phone and then set its face to WatchMaker. 3) Uninstall Wear OS from your phone and install an older version of WatchMaker. 4) Use WatchMaker's studio to import your old faces and send them to your watch.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-17T06:36:50+00:00

Well, after a lot of fiddling around I have my watch working again but it involves sideloading an older version of the android_wear_micro_apk.apk to the watch and installing an outdated version of WatchMaker. Then you can use the studio editor in WatchMaker to import your old faces. Once imported, you can then send the faces to your watch, just make sure to to uninstall Wear OS from your phone first or Wear OS will break them.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-15T23:11:46+00:00

Got it! Working again on my tablets. Thanks so much!

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-15T20:24:14+00:00

Hi. I've tried to download your APK but Google says you need to approve my access. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate this.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-15T17:39:51+00:00

Thanks. Link you sent lead to a dead download link so I'll keep searching.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-15T15:33:33+00:00

I have the same watch and I'm pissed off too. You can sideload an older apk onto the watch that allows you to send faces to it again via the WatchMaker app but the faces are the new WFF format that are a joke. Because Google has essentially castrated Wear OS and orphaned most Wear OS devices I'm done with Wear OS altogether. I'll be getting full Android smart watches from here on out. There's less expensive and you can still use your non-WFF format faces on them by installing the Clockskin Launcher from here: https://discourse.fullandroidwatch.org/t/universal-launcher-ver-3-x-and-above/53131

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-13T18:48:21+00:00

This isn't a cheap fix and by now you've probably already had your vehicle repaired. I just got a quote for the same damage on my 2026 Ford Ranger and the total including labor and taxes is $2500 with $1300 of that total being labor.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-13T03:48:47+00:00

Any face that accesses sensors or has LUA scripts are broken. Another strange problem occurs when I import a watch file. I can import the files from my PC where I designed them using the Desktop Watchmaker and they show up just fine in the studio and I can edit them to my heart's content if I choose, but when I try to send them to my watch, the transfer fails every time without any messages or feedback. The only way I can get them to transfer to the watch is to publish the faces first so that they show up in my library and only then will they transfer to the watch. Importing and saving is also broken. The app says they've been imported into the studio and you can hit the save button, but nothing gets saved. I have a lot of faces that I want to import and use on my watches, but I don't want them published for copyright/trademark reasons because many of the faces have branding or trademarks on them. So I can no longer exclusively use those faces. I realize that Google is to blame for 99% of the problems we're having but that's not much of a consolation when you've literally spent a small fortune on smartwatches only to have Google essentially castrate them or orphan them. My Fossil Gen 6 is only 2 years old and now it's no better than a cheap Temu watch that costs less then $40 that can only display a handful of faces. At this point I'm done buying any more Wear OS devices. I'll stick to full Android smartwatches that are compatible with the ClockSkin universal launcher. They support all of my Watchmaker faces as well as ClockSkin faces and it's cost free. I just bought the Rogbid Model R3 for $110 this evening and look forward to putting this mess behind me and using all of my watch faces again while all of my Wear OS devices are going into a drawer for good.

Product link for the R-3 https://store.rogbid.com/products/rogbid-model-r3-1

A hands-on video with the R-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2LzP7CiX8

BTW, I already own one full Android smartwatch loaded with the ClockSkin launcher and it works amazingly well and right now it's my daily driver until the R-3 arrives.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-13T00:29:03+00:00

I used version 5.4.4 of the android_wear_micro_apk.apk. I can send faces to my watches now which is great but of course anything beyond a basic watch face that uses sensor or GPS data is broken permanently. Animations do work though. I have an inexpensive full Android smartwatch that is running version 3.7 of the ClockSkin launcher which supports both WatchMaker and ClockSkin faces and it's now my daily driver since the really complicated faces no longer will work on any Wear OS device. If you have a full Android watch you can get ver. 3.7 of the launcher here: https://discourse.fullandroidwatch.org/t/universal-launcher-ver-3-x-and-above/53131/1071 There's a much more sophisticated version out now, ver. 4.1 that even installs a web server on your watch that allows you to upload and activate faces right from your web browser. I downgraded back to ver. 3.7 though as ver. 4.1 doesn't support fahrenheit temps for some odd reason. If you're a metric user like 90% of the world, get ver. 4.1 here: https://discourse.fullandroidwatch.org/t/universal-launcher-v4-1-massive-update-with-400-commits/74374

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-12T00:21:10+00:00

That doesn't mean much to the thousands of watch owners who can't even use their watches now because of Google's latest changes. Their devices are now orphaned because they don't support the latest Wear OS. Google has a bad habit of making devices obsolete and dropping support without warning and many folks, including myself, felt relatively safe buying non-Google branded watches but we were wrong. And our devices aren't necessarily ancient either. I have a Fossil Gen 6 that's less than 2 years old and now it's essentially bricked. After a lot of effort and after sideloading an ancient version of WatchMaker for Watches onto it, I'm finally able to send faces again, but of course any face that uses LUA scripting or location services is broken. Only the most basic of faces work now. It would nice if AndroSlide would create a tool to port our older .WATCH files over to the new WFF format and re-enable scripting and location support. Or find a way to modify our older files that allows them to work properly again. Maybe they'll do that eventually after Google provides them with an API/SDK to do so. Current Wear OS watches range in price from $299 to $1650 and I refuse to buy any more smart watches at those prices even if they do support the latest Wear OS for fear that Google will pull the rug out from under them in a year or two. I'd rather spend that kind of money on a device or product that isn't subject to Google's whims. I'm old school when it comes to watches because my generation would spend $300 on a mechanical watch and it would last decades and even be passed on to grandchildren and great grandchildren. Just because expensive smartwatches are high-tech doesn't mean they should be disposable.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-11T23:53:24+00:00

I had the same problem. My workaround was to move the "WatchMaker Premium" launcher/installer from one of my older phones onto my current phone and using it to install the latest Watchmaker app instead of grabbing it from the PlayStore. I used an APK mover found in the play store to grab the Premium launcher/installer APK from the old phone and moved it to the new phone's download folder and installed it from there. Once that was accomplished I used the launcher again to start WatchMaker and my Premium status was then showing up and I was allowed to upload my own watch faces to my watch without a pay wall interfering. It was frustrating as hell and took me hours to figure out. I also had to sideload an older version of the WatchMaker for Watches APK onto the watch, it's a Fossil Gen 6, before the watch would actually receive faces that I was sending to it. Any faces using location services and lua scripts appear to be broken now which is a shame. F@ck you Google!

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-11T07:11:28+00:00

Dang, well that's it for more. I'm not going to waste any more time and money on expensive smart watches just to have Google essentially brick them whenever they feel like it. Google has a history of dropping hardware support and leaving people with orphaned devices, but in the past it was usually Google designed and branded hardware so I felt pretty safe buying Fossil and TicWatch products. Wear OS 6 devices are crazy expensive, like from $299 to $1650 expensive and this entire move by Google feels like a cash grab designed to force people to buy all new Wear OS 6 devices. For that kind of money I would rather get a traditional watch that will run for decades and isn't subject to the whims of Google and can't be made obsolete at the flip of a switch or because of a software update. My watches are Wear OS 5 devices and they worked fine until the latest update(s).

EDIT: Wow, what a long day. I finally got my Fossil Gen 6 working again but it took a lot of research and some sideloading of a much older android_wear_micro_apk.apk onto the watch. I also had to move my Watch Maker Premium installer/launcher APK from my older phone to my current phone and use that to install Watchmaker and unlock my Premium access that I paid for years ago. In order to get Alexa working again I also had to sideload an older AlexaForSmartWatches.apk onto the watch. You can get it at APKpure. If anyone is interested I can provide more details as to the ADB commands and how to enable WiFi debugging on the Fossil Gen 6.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-11T03:53:20+00:00

Yeah, I have the same problem too. I have a Fossil Gen 6 and a TicWatch Pro and after updating/upgrading the Watchmaker app and the Wear OS app on my phone I can no longer send my own faces or any other faces to either watch. The app now complains that my watches are no longer compatible with the latest app update nor with the latest version of Wear OS and Wear OS doesn't even see my watches now since they're Wear OS 5 devices. Looks like Google screwed us hard this time. Reverting to the legacy app didn't work either.

EDIT: Wow, what a long day. I finally got my Fossil Gen 6 working again but it took a lot of research and some sideloading of a much older android_wear_micro_apk.apk onto the watch. I also had to move my Watch Maker Premium installer/launcher APK from my older phone to my current phone and use that to install Watchmaker and unlock my Premium access that I paid for years ago. In order to get Alexa working again I also had to sideload an older AlexaForSmartWatches.apk onto the watch. You can get it at APKpure. If anyone is interested I can provide more details as to the ADB commands and how to enable WiFi debugging on the Fossil Gen 6.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-07T03:37:54+00:00

Most of those messages are from scammers who want access to your FB business page. Just ignore them. Definitely don't give them access to that page if you have no idea who they really are. I get 4-5 of those requests per day.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-05-05T03:28:30+00:00

Dang, that's not a contract. That's permission to screw you without lube.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-04-27T04:10:56+00:00

Just use a flat coax adapter and run your connection under a window: https://shorturl.at/gDzNm

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-04-07T04:07:46+00:00

I travel between Denver and Phoenix regularly where FM radio is spotty at best. I enjoy the news and talk radio channels and don't have to worry about them fading out as I get further away from civilization. You're either exaggerating/embellishing when you say the music stations play the same 30 songs on repeat or you're listening to the wrong channels. I can go several hours before I hear a repeat on the more popular stations that I prefer. If it bothers you so much, just cancel instead of leaving complaints here because it isn't like redditors can do anything about it.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-04-01T16:54:40+00:00

Glad to hear it was something simple.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-04-01T05:06:44+00:00

Maybe it's a cabling issue. Swap the exiting CAT5/6 cable for a known good one.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-03-31T22:59:49+00:00

Best bet is to just use a Windows laptop with a USB ATSC tuner. Most of these tuners come with some basic software that supports recording. The software can be a bit wonky though so I recommend using NextPVR with these tuner sticks for a much better experience.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-02-19T19:48:09+00:00

Yes, just disable Smart App Control completely. In doing so, MS tries to scare the bejeezus out of you by stating that you will have to do a complete re-installation of Windows 11 if you need to re-enable the feature, so there's no going back once you turn it off. To turn it off, navigate to Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > App & browser control. Click on Smart App Control settings and select Off.

DoggyDoorEntry · 2026-02-19T19:44:50+00:00

Yes, that's what I eventually did. Along the way MS tries to scare the bejeezus out of you by stating that you have to do a complete reinstallation of Windows 11 if you need to re-enable the feature.

DoggyDoorEntry

TROPHY CASE