Cannot Setup Apple Pay on Apple Watch Series 5

[K!llSwitch]

Hi,

I'm having an issue with a used Apple Watch Series 5 which I purchased from eBay where I cannot setup Apple Pay. I sent the seller a message to see if this was a problem for them in the past but they never used the feature. I've attempted to add the card from the watch app on my iPhone by clicking the 'add' button next to the card but it just says:

Could Not Set Up Apple Pay
An error occurred while setting up Apple Pay

Adding a new card also gives me the same message as does trying to add the card through the bank's app.

I've read through a couple threads on here, Reddit and elsewhere and unfortunately nothing seems to fix it. I've tried resetting the watch from both the app and the watch itself, restoring and not restoring from backup but it always results in the same thing. I also attempted to pair the watch to my old iPhone 7 and it had the same result. My Series 3 doesn't have this issue so I'm not sure what it could possibly be. At the time I was running watchOS 7.3.1 but updated to 7.4 B2 in the hopes that maybe this would fix it but it doesn't appear to have.

Devices are running the following versions:

iPhone XS: iOS 14.5 B2, iPhone 7: iOS 14.3 and Apple Watch Series 5: watchOS 7.4

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Thanks

 

[schlupps]

in an apple thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251861557 , i read, that one possible fix was, to change the phones region to something and back to your proper region.

"lajol Dec 6, 2020 2:37 PM in response to nexman
I had the same problem with my daughter's phone. Her region was correctly set (Australia), when I set it to another country, and then set it back to Australia it fixed the problem.
"

sounds worth trying .. best luck!

or.. a little later one guy wrote:

"Go to Settings > Language & Region > Region > I just clicked on United States again. The phone started setting up region, though it was already set to United States.
After that I went to Settings > Wallet & Apple Pay > Add Card, this time it worked perfectly."

 

[K!llSwitch]

Just gave it a try with a few different countries but unfortunately it didn't work for me. Thanks though

 

[MacCheetah3]

I assume, you’ve tried these, but if not, at least look them over.

If you can't add a card to Apple Wallet to use with Apple Pay - Apple Support

Learn what steps to take if you can't add a card to the Wallet app to use with Apple Pay

support.apple.com

The following has similar suggestiono. However, I’d recommend strongly considering step 2, logging out and in of iCloud on your iPhone.

Could Not Set Up Apple Pay, An error occurred while setting up Apple Pay, Fix • macReports

Several users have reported that they are unable to set up Apple Pay. Users have further said that they get the following error message when they attempt

macreports.com

I know it’s another very tedious troubleshooting step, and seems irrelevant when you’ve done upgrades, unpairing, etc, though can still be that hang up. Perhaps do so using the iPhone 7.

 

[K!llSwitch]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. Had a go on both phones and with different accounts and same thing happened. I have a feeling something's wrong with syncing the account to the watch as iMessage and FaceTime are signed in however I cannot install apps from the watch's App Store or through the watch app on my phone. It prompts me to sign in through the watch app but it already is. Considering you need an Apple ID to set up Apple Pay I'm guessing it's going to be related to that

 

[bee4519]

Hello,
I have exactly same problem with you, spent 7 hours in genius bar and nobody was able to fix this problem.
I ended up buying new se watch and this problem doesn’t appear in se.
Also I have problem with downloading apps in watch app store - I guess it’s problem with Apple ID set up as you said.
Did you fixed this problem? I think ex-owner’s apple id is somehow jammed in my apple watch 5 so I am thinking to find smart apple care Techniker and try to erase apple id history on my apple watch completely.

Please let me know if you manage to fix it!

 

[K!llSwitch]

Hello,
I have exactly same problem with you, spent 7 hours in genius bar and nobody was able to fix this problem.
I ended up buying new se watch and this problem doesn’t appear in se.
Also I have problem with downloading apps in watch app store - I guess it’s problem with Apple ID set up as you said.
Did you fixed this problem? I think ex-owner’s apple id is somehow jammed in my apple watch 5 so I am thinking to find smart apple care Techniker and try to erase apple id history on my apple watch completely.

Please let me know if you manage to fix it!

Hey bee4519,

Unfortunately I wasn't able to sort out the issue with Apple Pay. Spent a few months sending the logs to apple engineers and one day I think the support said something along the lines of "the device has been modified" which likely means the previous owner got the watch repaired by a third party and the NFC chip wasn't moved the replacement screen. Either that or they were completely lost too.

In relation to the app store, that issue seemed to sort itself out after maybe a week or so and I can now install apps from the watch and sync them from my phone.