Yeah my mom has a Series 3 and it’s enough to try and get her to update it without having to deal with pairing and unpairing, it’s just gonna result in some not updating. Probably one of the most annoying moves by Apple for me in a while.
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Apple Watch Series 3 Owners Now Required to Perform Restore When Updating Due to Storage Constraints
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Eh, I think your thoughts are misplaced. There’s no reason why Apple couldn’t have excluded AW3 from WatchOS 7, keeping it on WatchOS 6 instead.
iOS 12 devices do not receive few features, but Apple still issues security patches for iOS 12 and it’s supported devices. Apple should have gone this route and kept the AW3 on WatchOS 6, but issue security updates to WatchOS 6 devices like they are doing with Series 1 & 2
Lol what?
Having to unpair and repair is a pain, but should in no way prevent you from getting access to the next update. This product is STILL FOR SALE today.
At this point, I believe Apple is just selling them to get rid of the supply. Series 3 is likely going to be axed before the Series 7 is even announced at this point.
apple watch updating process has always been bad, it just sucks less as the years go on. i have a series 6 that just the other week said “update will resume when connected to wifi.”
….it was charging adjacent to the router, and my phone was being actively used on that same network.
for previous watches i’ve seen it take an extraordinary amount of time to download updates that arent more than a few hundred mb. i have gig speed service…
between apple watches, airpods, and homepod mini, my experience has been that apple seems to believe their device connectivity just works like magic, except for when inevitably something does go wrong, and the OS behind it all seems clueless as to how to resolve whatever the issue actually is.
….it was charging adjacent to the router, and my phone was being actively used on that same network.
for previous watches i’ve seen it take an extraordinary amount of time to download updates that arent more than a few hundred mb. i have gig speed service…
between apple watches, airpods, and homepod mini, my experience has been that apple seems to believe their device connectivity just works like magic, except for when inevitably something does go wrong, and the OS behind it all seems clueless as to how to resolve whatever the issue actually is.
It’s surprising that Apple didn’t increase the storage on the recently produced series 3 watches!
It has 16 and you should care if you use it for podcasts or music when exercising but otherwise not an issue.
Not sure if related to this, but just last month I had an email from a research company regarding my S3 Nike experience (which I bought last year) on behalf of Apple and I gave looots of 1 star 
I bolded the part I have an issue with. It should NOT be for sale today, in fact it should have been dropped before WatchOS 7, and definitely discontinued when the SE came out.
Having to unpair, restore/update, and re-pair is not a good user experience is is very unapple like.
Job’s famously said that “We don’t ship junk” when asked about a cheaper Mac Mini (back in 2007) He said cheaper stuff requires too many compromises and hurts the end user. Tim was sitting right next to him when he said that. I guess he wasn’t paying attention.
I’d consider the currently selling AW3 to be junk and a terrible value. Buy a series 4 or series 5 in gently used condition.
Well... Guess the end is near for the Series 3. I have the cellular 16 GB version, but the end is near regardless. Will be highly surprised if it's on the compatibility list for watchOS 8.
Apple cheaping out on storage and ram has efficiently ruined a handful of devices
“Only Apple could make such amazing hardware and software and services that work together to enrich our user’s lives.”
-Tim Apple (at the conclusion of almost every keynote)
How’s that WatchOS update comin’ Timmy? 🤣🤣 Are AW Series 3 users feeling enriched every time there’s an update?
-Tim Apple (at the conclusion of almost every keynote)
How’s that WatchOS update comin’ Timmy? 🤣🤣 Are AW Series 3 users feeling enriched every time there’s an update?
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I don’t have to imagine. I was forced to to this with the last update too. 🙄
Nice way to get around it. Although yeah deleting your Music app...
It's a serious problem (wiping your hardware every-time to do an update). Had a 3 and was weighing whether to wait till the fall or not and this just pushed me over the edge - the process is horrible...and it'll just make most folks not stay current (installs just fail). Other than this the 3 was still quite usable. The 6 has been wonderful though - really notice the display increase going from 42 to 44. Was not expecting that, but its quite noticeable.
did they manufacture a million of these or something? they need to put it on sale for 50% off and get rid of it now
I do agree that S3 shouldn’t be sold anymore due to the device’s age showing and the extremely cumbersome updating process.
Though I will say that regarding the “shipping junk” comment… this wouldn’t be the first time Apple shipped junk in regards to the Apple Watch (in my opinion).
The S0 (original) Apple Watch was atrocious on watchOS 1. It was slow as hell and third party apps NEVER worked. I can easily say that the original Apple Watch was the worst experience I ever had with an Apple product, and this is coming from someone who owned every Series watch since the original release date.
I’m honestly shocked it was shipped in that state, regardless of the “perfect” experiences some people reported having with it.
I’ve had to do the pair/unpair dance for all of the 7.x releases … until 7.4.
With both 7.4 and 7.5, the update just worked, so long as I initiated it from the watch. I did get the warning for the 7.5 update, but restarting my watch let me update it without issues.
So … it “almost” just works ;-) and it’s honestly much better than it was.
Not totally true. I am in developer beta program. Have had no such issues with any 7.4 or 7.5 or any watchOS Maybe the article should dig deeper? Only happens when free memory is low or something?
correction: inadvertantly referenced iOS versions not watchOS. Oops
correction: inadvertantly referenced iOS versions not watchOS. Oops
Mostly the same with me, I am selective on my downloads to watch, so I had plenty of room, left music as is
I just had to re-pair my Series 2 because I switched iPhones. Despite backing up the Watch when I unpaired, there was no recent backup for me to restore on the new iPhone. Maybe I needed to wait, but the whole process already takes so long!
Well I didn’t and I am on developer beta. Obviously if you have little free memory, you might have trouble
I mean dah, that was then. Things are different. Adding music to it was not certain that customers would even want that. I have a 3, it is fantastic, not junk. Does everything I need and is plenty fast. I’ve never had to pair/repair. And I’m on developer beta. I am smart enough to know you keep free space on any device you own
it's only 3 years old, in effect they have made it obsolete through the terrible update experience. Unpairing and re-pairing is a major PITA.