AWS stuck in restart loop after unpairing from iPhone

[grenhall]

So I finally(!) got my shiny new SS watch today. So I unpaired my AWS from my phone and it restarted. It showed the same ring as when updating the watch or starting it for the first time. Then it restarted. And now it seems stuck in a restart loop where it just restarts and restarts and restarts. I've tried hard restarting it like 10 times but nothing seem to work. It just won't start up.

Has anyone been in this kind of situation or is it just for me to wait for the Swedish Apple Stores to start selling / repairing them? Luckily I have my new watch but as far as selling the old one well that's not happening.

Please let me know if you've ran into this issue and how you solved it. I can't figure it out.

 

[iamasmith]

The restart loop has happened with folks who got the text of death. It could be that something like a notification has lodged it in this situation, hopefully that's the case so leave it for 24 hours, then charge it and see if it boots.

The text of death seems to automatically clear after 24 hours from the main thread on it crippling the watch.

 

[grenhall]

The restart loop has happened with folks who got the text of death. It could be that something like a notification has lodged it in this situation, hopefully that's the case so leave it for 24 hours, then charge it and see if it boots.

The text of death seems to automatically clear after 24 hours from the main thread on it crippling the watch.

Yeah could be plausible. I've stuck it inside it's box and I'll try it tomorrow evening again. Hopefully that could help. But it's so weird.

If I try to start it it just starts show the Apple-logo then the screen goes black. If it's on charger it restarts continuously.

 

[J4B3]

If I recall correctly, somebody else had experienced a similar issue. They walked out of bluetooth range while the AW was updating, this unfortunately sends the AW into a bootloop as the firmware/software is not stored locally during an update. The only remedy at this point is replacement.

 

[fischersd]

Rebooting constantly may make the watch get a little warm. May not want to keep it in its box.

I'd let the battery run down. Once it's off, then put it on the charger and see if it boot up ok.

 

[grenhall]

Rebooting constantly may make the watch get a little warm. May not want to keep it in its box.

I'd let the battery run down. Once it's off, then put it on the charger and see if it boot up ok.

It's only rebooting when on charger. I pulled it off the charger and the it just goes black when its supposedly finished booting. But if I press the contact-button it just tries to boot up again.

I didn't walk out of BT-range. Had it sitting on my desk when I unpaired it.

 

[iamasmith]

It's only rebooting when on charger. I pulled it off the charger and the it just goes black when its supposedly finished booting. But if I press the contact-button it just tries to boot up again.

I didn't walk out of BT-range. Had it sitting on my desk when I unpaired it.

It might be relevant though, others mention that the Health Data is synced when the device is unpaired with the phone but it would be pretty remiss if this caused a loop like this if it hadn't finished and the iPhone comms was broken due to un-pairing.

 

[fischersd]

It's only rebooting when on charger. I pulled it off the charger and the it just goes black when its supposedly finished booting. But if I press the contact-button it just tries to boot up again.

I didn't walk out of BT-range. Had it sitting on my desk when I unpaired it.

Ouch. Missed that. The "text of death" suggestion from iamasmith is valid. Have you actually been able to make the watch power off since this started?

If not, as I suggested, you need to let it run down. Leaving it off of the charger for 24 hours will hopefully both negate the "text of death" as well as deplete the battery enough (hard to say how much is running, when it's in that black screen state).

Try letting it run down, see if that fixes it.

If it doesn't, then I'd suspect there's a software issue on the watch that is causing this - some corruption that the un-pairing caused. In that case, you'll likely need to get Apple to replace it under warranty.

Unfortunately, Apple hasn't given us access to the diagnostics port to be able to connect these to our macs and force a factory OS on them with iTunes (yet). Hopefully they do one day soon!

 

[grenhall]

It might be that there was some sort of notification that didn't went through. I don't know. It bugs me because I've been repairing Apple products for almost 10 years but this. Nope.

 

[fischersd]

It might be that there was some sort of notification that didn't went through. I don't know. It bugs me because I've been repairing Apple products for almost 10 years but this. Nope.

Yeah, I know. Makes you feel silly, not being able to fix it yourself - but they just didn't give us a lot of diagnostic abilities with these things. Hopefully that changes. Maybe when they open up the diagnostics port for accessory vendors someone will use the specs to give us an interface cable.

 

[grenhall]

Yeah, I know. Makes you feel silly, not being able to fix it yourself - but they just didn't give us a lot of diagnostic abilities with these things. Hopefully that changes. Maybe when they open up the diagnostics port for accessory vendors someone will use the specs to give us an interface cable.

I'd be fine if I could just set-up an repair but since I live in Sweden and the watch isn't even launched here yet it makes the whole situation a bit troubling. If the rest for 24h doesn't solve it I guess I'll just have to wait until the watch starts selling here to exchange it.

Thanks a lot everyone for your help. I'll check back with results for anyone else experiencing the same issue in the future.

 

[grenhall]

So a quick update. The watch doesn't start. Called Apple Care and they told me to take it into an Apple Store nearby which I did only to find out that they're not fixing the Apple Watch because they've had NO training on it. It doesn't sell in Sweden so therefore no repairs. W T F! Isn't there a guarantee that covers this even though it's not been launched?

Anyone had to repair an Apple-product in a country where it wasn't launched? I'm not too keen on waiting for the official launch to have it repaired then sold.

 

[0xducky]

Mine is in the same status, and the apple store in my country does not fix Apple Watches yet :\
I guess i should have waited...
Anyway, I restarted my iPhone then the Apple Watch started with the boot loops

 

[grenhall]

I've actually got this escalated to the engineering team. They will get back to me on Monday with a possible solution. But I'm thinking that it'll have to get in for service and be re-flashed. But that's what I'm thinking.

 

[grenhall]

This has been handled incredibly poorly by Apple and I'm truly amazed.

I've never needed support with my Apple-products before and when I do they can't service them. I would think that they're able to take unreleased products and have them shipped to the correct instance through their supply-chain. But no. Incredibly bad and I'll be running this issue as high as I can.