Just upgraded to wearOS6/one UI 8 on my galaxy watch 6 and poof! Tons of purchased watch faces say “Not Available” on the send to watch button. The Facer app is automatically blocking watch faces for some reason. If I disconnect my watch from the phone and select galaxy watch 6 (non wearOS6) in the Facer app, the watch faces now show available to send to watch. Hope this is temporary or I’ll be switching watch face apps as I’ve lost about $30 in purchased watch faces.
I agree with the warning, and we discussed this case earlier, when it was not clear what will happen if older watch will be updated to wearOS6. Now the update came and it is the worse case.
This depends on what kind of watch faces and how active their creator is.
Most of simple watch faces can be updated for new OS and if their creator fixes them, they may be available again. If they contained some advanced features, that are no longer supported in new OS, those can either be dumbed-down (which I doubt their creators would do), or there can be new version published as new watch face, which of course you would have to find and obtain again.
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With Wear OS 6 and the new WFF system, Google has changed what watch faces are allowed to do. Many features that worked before are no longer accepted by Google, often because they use too much battery or run too often in the background.
Because of these new rules, a lot of older Facer watch faces are now blocked and show as “Not Available”. This is not caused by the designers and in most cases they cannot fix it. Those features are simply no longer allowed by Google.
The only real solution is to create a completely new watch face with fewer functions that follows the new Wear OS 6 rules. Unfortunately this is a decision made by Google. Facer has very little control over it.
Facer is trying to get as close as possible to the old system with updates, but it will never be exactly the same as before.
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Technology always moves forward, and Google is part of that no matter which watch app you use.
The designers of the watch faces that you paid for have been upgrading older designs and creating new ones for compatibility. If you have paid designs that are your favorites, contact the designers to ask if they can upgrade them for you. Google has placed restrictions on some features, but most of us will try to do our best with what is possible. I have been accommodating these types requests for months, but with my over 3,000 premium designs to change it takes time. If you have any of my designs, let me know in comments or by Private Message so I can look into upgrading them for you.
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yes, but Facer is arbitrarily blocking watch faces, even newer ones. i recently purchased a very simple watch face with that’s all back and no complications, now says “not available”. why not let us send to the watch to see if it actually works? and not buying its old watch faces. i can choose plenty of old watch faces that do not show as unavailable. Facer is doing some kind of deciding on their own whats available and whats not. there should have been a warning of some sort about losing watch faces. 90% of my purchased faces are no longer available. absolutely unacceptable.
As mentioned multiple times, this was Google’s decision. We have restrictions from Apple on their designs as well.
That was addressed as well in forums and in Facer’s Facebook Group. This community has always been very informative as well as being somewhat of a liaison between Facer and the public.
- Facer tests all Premium watch faces to be sure that they work before they are published. If a “new” design is not working on your watch, and you have tried all troubleshooting steps provided by the designer in reply to your comments, the problem may be with your watch, not Facer.
- You can preview WFF designs online, set color themes on the watch, set temperature preferences, and more including some App Launchers. NOTE: Your owned/paid designs are installed individually. They are no longer stored on your watch. Make sure all of your Wearable and Facer software has been updated. If you still have problems contact Support.
- Here is the Support Contact Form: https://help.facer.io/hc/en-us/requests/new
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This has been talked about for over a year, and Facer isn’t blocking anything.
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That’s right. It’s all Google’s fault, I can’t curse it enough. In my personal faces, I have a bunch of faces with Chronograph; GMT hand; and various VAR functions. All things that are no longer allowed. I modified some faces that don’t include the above functions to work with the GW8 Classic, and at least those, are working.
For older versions with features no longer enabled, the only solution I’ve found is to prevent my GW 6 Classic from updating to the new version so I can use the old faces on this one.
I’ve always had automatic updates turned OFF. Now, on the advice of @russellcresser, in addition to disconnecting the Wi-Fi on the watch, I also deleted the network with which it was associated. Now, to reconnect, you have to enter the password again.
I thought this was necessary because, even though I had Wi-Fi disabled, I often found it enabled even though I hadn’t done so.
Now, it should be impossible for everyone to re-enable Wi-Fi without my consent/intervention.
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Yeah, that makes total sense. Annoying situation, but smart move finding a way around it. Hopefully this setup keeps things stable for you for a while.
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Facer is not blocking anything. To properly use Facer you must select which watch you use, then Facer will show you every face that will work on your watch. And it will not show you faces (or on the web will show “not available”) that will not work on your watch. It’s not a matter of letting you try to find out for yourself face by face. Google changed the OS and the watch face format required on that new OS, faces that are not specifically published to that format WILL NOT WORK on the updated watches. There has been extensive conversations and warnings about this for a year and a half. Granted not everyone is staying in touch with all of it, but nonetheless, it’s been out there. Only solution is to get WFF compliant faces. A Facer premium subscription will still allow you to access any new versions of older favorites though. But yeah, it sucks that it disables old purchases. But to be clear, the blame lies with Google, not Facer.
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And has been Google’s fault for the last two years!
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Hi
You say “Many features that worked before are no longer accepted by Google, often because they use too much battery or run too often in the background.” And it’s actually been said many times, but I have doubts. I think rather that Google wanted to eliminate some features from competitors (Facer) that it wasn’t able to replicate. For example.
VAR - I used this feature a lot to avoid having overly crowded dials. What impact does it have on the battery? I don’t think much. It only consumes power when you tap to activate it, and I don’t think anyone is constantly tapping the VAR dot. Connected to the VAR it has become impossible to have a GMT hand.
CHRONO - Yes, I know, I have an obsession for chronographs that are now unusable. Again, what impact would this have on the battery? It only uses battery power when you activate it, and I don’t think anyone would start the chronograph every ten minutes.
On the other hand, features such as:
Weather; Sunrise/Sunset; and the pulsating heart icon that follows your heartbeat are usable and work.
These do consume battery power. Weather and Sunrise/Sunset are always on, and if you don’t limit the update interval (I set it to every 6 hours for Meteo), since they’re always on, they definitely consume more battery power than the VAR or the Chrono.
The same goes for the beating heart. It activates every time you wake the watch by moving your wrist and continues until the watch goes into dim mode. This also, for me, consumes more battery than VAR or Chrono.
So what to think? Unfortunately, I don’t know either. I just hope Facer manages to reintroduce these two features.
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I have a high esteem for Facer. A small team totally dependent of the big players who dictate the direction of travel.
The last Google step probably cost them a lot of energy and yet they put both worlds under one hat. And they have not given up, means their business case adds up. Respect!
But yes, I too lke the VAR, DWE, Chrono tags, and more that is no longer supported. I will not upgrade my GW6 for that reason.
Currently, seems unlikely that the old tags will be available, but Facer may find ways and tricks for one or the other …
And about battery consumption, I think it is up to the watch owner to decide. There are plenty of faces to choose from that do not consume much power and there are a number of settings on your watch to limit the power consumption as well.
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Good point. The reason may be less about actual battery usage and more about how these features are implemented technically. VAR and Chrono rely on timing, state and user interaction that newer Wear OS guidelines may assess mre strictly for watch faces. That could help explain why they are no longer allowed, even if their real world battery impact seems minimal. Hopefully there will be room for these kinds of features again in the future, or Facer can adpt them if the rules allow it.
From my own experience publishing Android Studio apps and games to the Play Store, I have run into similar issues before. Google’s procedures can be convoluted and hard to interpret, with changing or loosely defined requirements. That kind of fragmented workflow often creates friction for developers and does not always work in Google’s own favor.
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@jivestaroso & @diavo
The bottom line is, Google does nothing that doesn’t improve their profit margin in one way or another. They either innovate or stop those who do. All done in the name of profit.
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Just to put my 2 cents worth in, I think it was all about money. If it’s my watch, I should be able to do whatever I want with it. Use whichever watch face I wanted to. I didn’t care that maybe Facer designs did use more battery, it was my choice.
Google/ Samsung, realized that Facer and the other platforms were making to much money off of their products, so they find a way to stop it. They want to be in control of the money. They want a piece of the profits. So they start with WOS5. Well we know what happens next.
Facer is now taking the bull by the horns, and won’t give up. Other platforms were left with using WFS. Facer holds strong and I to admire them. It is definitely going to take time to fix all the issues. It will also take a lot of patience from all of us.
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Sometimes it is good to consider both sides of an issue and not speculate.
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I totally agree! All about more profit.
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I think that the changes are not as nefarious as people would like to think. I believe things were just over looked. But I’m an eternal optimist.
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