Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
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!
When I set up my Series 6, I was supremely disappointed that the unpair command to my Apple Watch 0 didn’t trigger a new backup to be made. I had to do the setup with a backup that was ancient. Since there is no way to manually trigger a watch backup, the automatic backup function should work flawlessly.

my sister and mom had the same problem upgrading from AW3 to AW6.

As there were no problems with the old watches, and their software was on the most recent revision, this inability to perform a basic function is really inexcusable.

I know they do but sometimes it’s as if the Apple gang don’t eat their own dog food.
 
There is a lot of confusion with the series 3. GPS had 8GB, Cellular had 16GB. However, "capacity" listed in about menu doesn't show the full capacity like a phone does (my phone shows 256GB for capacity). It show the usable amount which is 4GB+ after including the operating system. Then it shows the free amount which is around 2GBs prior to any apps, music, podcast, photos. But requires 2.5GB to do an update. I guess it was a bad look to show a 8GB capacity with 2GBs free on a fresh watch with nothing installed.
no, the Series 3 as originally intended was before the market demanded memory for Music, etc. This was a completely new product area and the specs hadn't yet settled. I have the cellular, it has 16 GB, I have 5.0 GB available after Music. No one in their right mind would use a watch with limited storage to save email and messages (yet people do, oh where did my storage go?). I was in a marketing survey specifically targeted toward storage. I really liked having Music downloads, it was an uncertain thing. the "bad look" wha only not seeing where the market was going. (but still way better than Samsung, etc).

It also is not a marathoners watch and sacrificed battery life for a better screen and better apps, tradeoffs yah know?

Hey, I get that Apple has it as a low priced option for people wanting a low priced option, but don't complain if its not equivalent to the newer devices
 
As a proud owner of a 3rd generation Apple Watch I find this……… most annoying.
free some memory, you shouldn't have that issue. I have a series 3, no problems with updates and I'm developer beta so I get some rough ones from time to time, I have 5GB available, I keep Music paired down, don't use mail on my watch, and no messages (too annoying)
 
Yah right. I have one it’s fantastic. I use turn by turn directions, Cardiogram, music, phone, maps, walk/run tracking. Never slow, never choppy. And I’m on developer beta, so I have a lot of logged data. Your friends “problem”. Might be no free memory. You should check that

oh, and my daughter still uses my old series 2(?). It still works great
I still have my AW0 and until I upgraded to an AW6 my aw0 was working fine.

Hadn’t been eligible for an OS update for a few years tho and given how slow it was to update, it would have died with the newer OSes tho.

The AW6 updates so blazing fast, Apple can almost dispense with the tic ring status indicator (mine usually hits about 5 - 10 after then jumps to complete.)
 
free some memory, you shouldn't have that issue. I have a series 3, no problems with updates and I'm developer beta so I get some rough ones from time to time, I have 5GB available, I keep Music paired down, don't use mail on my watch, and no messages (too annoying)
If you have 5GB of available space, then you must have the cellular version. The cellular version has 16GB of storage and doesn’t have an issue with updates.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luke MacWalker
I've had to do this for updates on my wife's S3 for a few updates now so nothing new for us.

IMHO Apple needs to come up with a new model that's made for women since I know a few of them that would love to update but feel the current 38mm size is too large for their wrists and no way do they want anything larger. Maybe reduce some features to core functions and decrease the size.
When your wife needs bifocals she will learn to love the big watch. Haha.
 
The Apple Watch Series 3 has become the new iPod touch 6th gen.

The iPod touch 6th gen was sold with an outdated A8 chip until May 28, 2019. Apple only released the 7th gen because the 6th gen wouldn’t run iOS 13 that was announced only 6 days later on June 3, 2019 at WWDC 2019. That old A8 iPod touch was sold as is since 2015.

Tim really likes to milk old tech (2013 Mac Pro, AW3, iPod touch 6th gen, Apple TV HD) I’m quite surprised Apple doesn’t still sell an iPhone with 16GB🤣

I remember Apple under Jobs, they didn’t sell junk that couldn’t run the latest software properly. Apple Watch Series 3 should have been discontinued when the SE came out, and the SE should have been priced lower.

You shouldn’t have to restore your brand new Apple Watch just to update it because of Apple’s cheapness. If they planned on selling this model for as long as they have, why didn’t they add more storage when designing it?
I mostly agree with you, but did you ever have an iPhone 3G running iOS 4? Absolutely painful experience, and the is was released while Jobs was still alive.

FWIW my Series 3 Hermès updates just fine, but that’s due to the 16GB storage vs. the 8GB in the lower tier models. I wonder if it will be supported in watchOS 8 - it still runs decently well…
 
The Series 3 is the iPad Air 2 of Apple Watches. It’s longevity is impressive, even with this little inconvenience.
I’ve had zero problems with my iPa2 and each year I start running the Public betas a couple of months after the PB’s become available.
 
Stuff that, if I had to do all this, i‘d throw the damn thing in the bin 🤦‍♂️

Very unlike apple, the watch is only 3 years old 🤦‍♂️🤔🥺
 
There was a time Apple would consider this such a poor user experience they would just drop support for the affected device.

Is this better? I don't know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Stuff that, if I had to do all this, i‘d throw the damn thing in the bin 🤦‍♂️

Very unlike apple, the watch is only 3 years old 🤦‍♂️🤔🥺
AW0 launched with watchOS 1 and stopped getting updates with 4.3.2. That’s the same as AW3 right now. Bogus if folks have to do resets all the time tho. Apple’s planned obsolescence strikes again.
 
I can only imagine the frustration having to deal with this, especially considering how often watchOS get updates. Having this work around for a legacy product that is still being supported is one thing. But for a product they still will happily take your money for, this is absolutely not the smooth, easy customer and usability experience Apple prides themselves on.
 
AW0 launched with watchOS 1 and stopped getting updates with 4.3.2. That’s the same as AW3 right now. Bogus if folks have to do resets all the time tho. Apple’s planned obsolescence strikes again.
Watch S3 is still current product.
 
Something else going on here perhaps. Last night I upgraded my series 2 watch. It didn’t require me to do anything other than wait forever.
 
Something to look forward to with future Watch OS updates for series 4,5,6… o_O
 
I have an S4 with a mostly dead battery. Can't be bothered to take it in for repairs, so I'm using my S3 Cellular until I can buy an S7 later this year.

Luckily the cellular model has more storage so I haven't dealt with this issue, but I agree that this model shouldn't be sold. It's far too slow and overall I use it (and like it) a lot less than my S4. I don't have any music or apps synced to it at all. I basically use it to check notifications, control music, and use Apple Pay.

Generally Apple tends to update products for a couple of years after they were last sold, but can anyone imagine it getting Watch OS 8 or 9?
 
You guys would be bitching if Apple didn't support Series 3 anymore and yet if they still support it you STILL be bitching why it's cumbersome to update. When it rains it pours.
Is it lost on you that Apple STILL SELLS THE SERIES 3?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.