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Had Apple Watch a few hours and fed up with it already!

Stuey3D

Stuey3D

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 8, 2014
836
953
Northamptonshire, United Kingdom
So I got an Apple Watch series 3 Cellular from my carrier, take it out of the box and its completely dead so I put it on charge, but pairing and updating the thing is a bloody joke.

I've been trying for the last 4 flaming hours to actually be able to use the thing and its still not updating and refusing to let me go any further before it updates.

So when it first tried to update it only found 5.3.3 not 6.1 and then that got stuck on preparing, now its found 6.1 and that got stuck on preparing so I reset both the watch and the iPhone 11 and now its saying its going to be 20 damned hours to download again, I have 55Mb internet connection so it should be a lot faster than that to download 780MB.

I have had a Pebble and 2 Garnins which have all been far easier than this to setup.

I just want to use the bloody watch not stare at a counter for hours, this can not be normal can it?

Thing is I need to pick my child up from after school basketball club in less than an hour and I can bet the moment I move my phone away from the stupid watch the whole process will need to start again from scratch.

Please tell me Apple Watch ownership gets better than this.

Anyway rant over, I just needed to vent I feel better now hahaha.
[automerge]1575046231[/automerge]
Ok so I reset all the setup again to try and speed it up as it was stuck on the 20 hour mark still, and now when it has come back it is asking me about my wrist and stuff which it didnt do before, so maybe I might be able to use it this week after all.
 
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Stuey3D said:
So I got an Apple Watch series 3 Cellular from my carrier, take it out of the box and its completely dead so I put it on charge, but pairing and updating the thing is a bloody joke.

I've been trying for the last 4 flaming hours to actually be able to use the thing and its still not updating and refusing to let me go any further before it updates.

So when it first tried to update it only found 5.3.3 not 6.1 and then that got stuck on preparing, now its found 6.1 and that got stuck on preparing so I reset both the watch and the iPhone 11 and now its saying its going to be 20 damned hours to download again, I have 55Mb internet connection so it should be a lot faster than that to download 780MB.

I have had a Pebble and 2 Garnins which have all been far easier than this to setup.

I just want to use the bloody watch not stare at a counter for hours, this can not be normal can it?

Thing is I need to pick my child up from after school basketball club in less than an hour and I can bet the moment I move my phone away from the stupid watch the whole process will need to start again from scratch.

Please tell me Apple Watch ownership gets better than this.

Anyway rant over, I just needed to vent I feel better now hahaha.
[automerge]1575046231[/automerge]
Ok so I reset all the setup again to try and speed it up as it was stuck on the 20 hour mark still, and now when it has come back it is asking me about my wrist and stuff which it didnt do before, so maybe I might be able to use it this week after all.
Click to expand...
Well, for one thing it's got to have 50% charge before it updates, so that will take time before it even starts. I know you've now spent 4 hours trying to get it to work but I think it's maybe a case of bad workmen blame their tools to a certain extent!

I bought a Watch 4 to go with my iPhone 8 last year and had a few small problems with set up and using, but all my own making. I now leave my iPhone at home pretty much all the time because I have cellular and the watch does everything, including following me with GPS when I go out on my road bike. Be patient. I've never wanted a watch before but now couldn't live without it.
 
Stuey3D said:
So I got an Apple Watch series 3 Cellular from my carrier, take it out of the box and its completely dead so I put it on charge, but pairing and updating the thing is a bloody joke.

I've been trying for the last 4 flaming hours to actually be able to use the thing and its still not updating and refusing to let me go any further before it updates.

So when it first tried to update it only found 5.3.3 not 6.1 and then that got stuck on preparing, now its found 6.1 and that got stuck on preparing so I reset both the watch and the iPhone 11 and now its saying its going to be 20 damned hours to download again, I have 55Mb internet connection so it should be a lot faster than that to download 780MB.

I have had a Pebble and 2 Garnins which have all been far easier than this to setup.

I just want to use the bloody watch not stare at a counter for hours, this can not be normal can it?

Thing is I need to pick my child up from after school basketball club in less than an hour and I can bet the moment I move my phone away from the stupid watch the whole process will need to start again from scratch.

Please tell me Apple Watch ownership gets better than this.

Anyway rant over, I just needed to vent I feel better now hahaha.
[automerge]1575046231[/automerge]
Ok so I reset all the setup again to try and speed it up as it was stuck on the 20 hour mark still, and now when it has come back it is asking me about my wrist and stuff which it didnt do before, so maybe I might be able to use it this week after all.
Click to expand...
I would take it back to the carrier and exchange it. You may have a dud.. it happens. I had the series 2, 3 and now the series 4, and I've not had this issue with any of them. Upgrading the OS does take time, but 20 hours is too long.
 
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I dont know what I've managed to do but it looks like when I reset it again it has completely skipped the software update part and just activated it, so it seems like I can finally use it.

Not sure why they don't give you the option to skip the update and then let you update it overnight.
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Its syncing my apps now, so I still cant use it but at least I have gotten further than before.
 
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if you're at home, and have 2.4 wifi
on the phone go into settings-> bluetooth, and turn it off
(you can't use control center, as turning off bluetooth there doesn't turn it off)

your watch will start downloading directly over wifi, and be much quicker than relaying through the phone.

and now after watchOS 6, you can start the upgrade from the watch itself, (the bluetooth trick should still apply though)
 
Stuey3D said:
So I got an Apple Watch series 3 Cellular from my carrier, take it out of the box and its completely dead so I put it on charge, but pairing and updating the thing is a bloody joke.

I've been trying for the last 4 flaming hours to actually be able to use the thing and its still not updating and refusing to let me go any further before it updates.

So when it first tried to update it only found 5.3.3 not 6.1 and then that got stuck on preparing, now its found 6.1 and that got stuck on preparing so I reset both the watch and the iPhone 11 and now its saying its going to be 20 damned hours to download again, I have 55Mb internet connection so it should be a lot faster than that to download 780MB.

I have had a Pebble and 2 Garnins which have all been far easier than this to setup.

I just want to use the bloody watch not stare at a counter for hours, this can not be normal can it?

Thing is I need to pick my child up from after school basketball club in less than an hour and I can bet the moment I move my phone away from the stupid watch the whole process will need to start again from scratch.

Please tell me Apple Watch ownership gets better than this.

Anyway rant over, I just needed to vent I feel better now hahaha.
[automerge]1575046231[/automerge]
Ok so I reset all the setup again to try and speed it up as it was stuck on the 20 hour mark still, and now when it has come back it is asking me about my wrist and stuff which it didnt do before, so maybe I might be able to use it this week after all.
Click to expand...
You don’t want 6.1 it will drain battery so fast it’s a joke. I have the 2 and battery lasted all day until 6.1 update.
 
Mkm said:
You don’t want 6.1 it will drain battery so fast it’s a joke. I have the 2 and battery lasted all day until 6.1 update.
Click to expand...
How many third-party apps are you running on your watch? I have the series 4 and battery lasts all day on watchOS 6.1. Granted, my Apple Watch Series 4 has no third-party apps and only has one watch face (Meridian) with no complications.
 
I think I managed to work myself into a worry that I would brick the watch.

When I first got it and it demanded an update which would take hours I was worried that if I took my iPhone away before it finished it would brick the watch and I had to go out twice during that afternoon.

It looks like when I triggered the first update (the one to 5.3.3) it finished it when I was out of the house, and then after that I was able to somehow bypass the 6.1 update until after I got the watch setup.

I was thinking it would be like other smart watches which are even more reliant on the phone and could cause issues if you tried to update them and then move the phone out of Bluetooth range.


As I said above, now I have it set up I am really enjoying having it on. I topped off the battery to 100% before bed and I wore it all night and have been playing about with it a fair bit today and I’m still on 80% so battery life is looking decent so far and that is with WatchOS 6.1 too.
image.jpg
 
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Dobbel said:
It is nice to see the Apple Watch got YOU under control finally.
Click to expand...
Haha indeed.

To be honest I wrote this whilst I was proper angry with it all as a way of venting.

It was a combination of not being able to play with my shiny new toy, and the worry that if I moved my phone away whilst it was updating I would end up bricking my expensive shiny new toy.

All is well now though and so far I am happy with it now its setup and working.
 
Glad to hear you got your Watch working. I just got a couple of the 5’s on Friday for me and my wife and hers was nearly dead when it delivered, so she too had to wait to get it set up. Mine on the other hand was charged enough to immediately set it up. This is my first Apple Watch, having held out for years given my love of my Seiko Automatic that has been bomb proof for the past 14 years.

I have to say the Watch is far more comfortable (Nike 44 version) than I expected. I’ve like having a heavy watch on my wrist, but this thing is so light it’s almost not noticeable while wearing it. And battery life has been great - wore it all day yesterday, 16 hours, and given its newness I was definitely using it a lot including taking a couple of calls on it, and went to bed with 50 percent battery. Very impressed so far.
 
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jmgregory1 said:
Glad to hear you got your Watch working. I just got a couple of the 5’s on Friday for me and my wife and hers was nearly dead when it delivered, so she too had to wait to get it set up. Mine on the other hand was charged enough to immediately set it up. This is my first Apple Watch, having held out for years given my love of my Seiko Automatic that has been bomb proof for the past 14 years.

I have to say the Watch is far more comfortable (Nike 44 version) than I expected. I’ve like having a heavy watch on my wrist, but this thing is so light it’s almost not noticeable while wearing it. And battery life has been great - wore it all day yesterday, 16 hours, and given its newness I was definitely using it a lot including taking a couple of calls on it, and went to bed with 50 percent battery. Very impressed so far.
Click to expand...
Yeah now I've got it working I am very impressed with it. The wife and I took them to the gym today and the swimming tracking was absolutely spot on and the metrics it presents are really impressive.

I'm finding the battery life pretty decent too especially as I've been hammering it as its a new toy, I am just getting into the habit of topping it off in the evening and then wearing it to bed, but I've yet to see it drop below 60% even with lots of usage.

Also glad we got the cellular models as the wife often likes to leave her phone at home if we go out together, and yesterday she took a couple of calls and sent some messages on it as it the boiler broke down at one of the hospitals she manages so she was able to get hold of the right people to organise and take charge of the situation, which from a watch was very cool.
 
Stuey3D said:
I think I managed to work myself into a worry that I would brick the watch.

When I first got it and it demanded an update which would take hours I was worried that if I took my iPhone away before it finished it would brick the watch and I had to go out twice during that afternoon.

It looks like when I triggered the first update (the one to 5.3.3) it finished it when I was out of the house, and then after that I was able to somehow bypass the 6.1 update until after I got the watch setup.

I was thinking it would be like other smart watches which are even more reliant on the phone and could cause issues if you tried to update them and then move the phone out of Bluetooth range.


As I said above, now I have it set up I am really enjoying having it on. I topped off the battery to 100% before bed and I wore it all night and have been playing about with it a fair bit today and I’m still on 80% so battery life is looking decent so far and that is with WatchOS 6.1 too. View attachment 880035
Click to expand...

That’s a nice case. 👍
[automerge]1575254996[/automerge]
jmgregory1 said:
Glad to hear you got your Watch working. I just got a couple of the 5’s on Friday for me and my wife and hers was nearly dead when it delivered, so she too had to wait to get it set up. Mine on the other hand was charged enough to immediately set it up. This is my first Apple Watch, having held out for years given my love of my Seiko Automatic that has been bomb proof for the past 14 years.

I have to say the Watch is far more comfortable (Nike 44 version) than I expected. I’ve like having a heavy watch on my wrist, but this thing is so light it’s almost not noticeable while wearing it. And battery life has been great - wore it all day yesterday, 16 hours, and given its newness I was definitely using it a lot including taking a couple of calls on it, and went to bed with 50 percent battery. Very impressed so far.
Click to expand...

Since you got the watch for both you and your wife, don’t forget to set up walker talkie. 😉
 
matrix07 said:
That’s a nice case. 👍
[automerge]1575254996[/automerge]


Since you got the watch for both you and your wife, don’t forget to set up walker talkie. 😉
Click to expand...

I did that yesterday! It was one of the things we tried. I’ve definitely done more customizing than she has, but she’s been messing with it when we’ve had breaks from family stuff.
 
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matrix07 said:
That’s a nice case. 👍
[automerge]1575254996[/automerge]


Since you got the watch for both you and your wife, don’t forget to set up walker talkie. 😉
Click to expand...
This watch is going to go places no watch really should so I need protection. I read water meters for a living and quite often the chambers in the ground are disgusting filled with all sorts of debris and stuff.

I had the Garmin Instinct before the Apple Watch and that thing in terms of build quality was a proper beast, took all the punishment I gave it over the last year with barely a mark. The Apple Watch I fear wont do half as good so I need to toughen it up a bit, hoping this case is up to the task.

In my opinion if Apple made a G-Shock style Apple Watch with a few days of battery life that would be the ULTIMATE watch.
 
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Ayyy glad to hear you finally got your watch working! I hope you're enjoying that amazingly tiny and powerful super computer on your wrist. I'm considering buying myself one pretty soon (a Series 3 as well) and lets hope I have better luck with setting it up than you did ;).
 
TheSkywalker77 said:
Ayyy glad to hear you finally got your watch working! I hope you're enjoying that amazingly tiny and powerful super computer on your wrist. I'm considering buying myself one pretty soon (a Series 3 as well) and lets hope I have better luck with setting it up than you did ;).
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Well my one took ages but the wife’s was straight in and seamless, I must have just hit a Black Friday rush of people hammering Apple’s servers with new toys and that’s why I had a nightmare.
 
Stuey3D said:
Well my one took ages but the wife’s was straight in and seamless, I must have just hit a Black Friday rush of people hammering Apple’s servers with new toys and that’s why I had a nightmare.
Click to expand...
That’s a really good reason for all of this actually, I hadn’t thought of that.
 
Mine is taking forever as well. It began at Six Days Remaining. Seriously. The Six Day Watch.

it’s down to eight hours.

Edit: Eh... I left it on my bedside table overnight and now it’s all done.
 
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