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Tom359

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 13, 2007
134
26
I used this trick all the time on watch os 5 and before. Now on watch os 6 beta, when the download to watch has started and I turn off bluetooth, nothing happens. It still says downloading, but the time doesn't change. If this is permanent, what a bummer. Used to be able to download to watch in just a few minutes using that trick, now it is taking forever!
 
Bluetooth itself does not connect to internet unlike Wifi. If watchOS is meant to be independent from iPhone, I see this “trick disabled” thing a bit counter intuitive.
With that being said, a watch during the initial setup period can still download watchOS with this Bluetooth trick, as long as the connected wifi has no password. I just found this when doing personal setup in an apple store a few weeks ago.

Edit: I see a new watchOS beta coming. Will test it when I am back home.
 
Why not disable before you start downloading?

The message you get in Watch app, when BT is disabled, is just a warning you can ignore, not an error message.
 
It appears that Watch now download watchOS on its own via wifi. Maybe no need for that trick anymore.
 
Well if WiFi is the default, something is wrong. I have fiber broadband and the watch updates are taking ~40 mins to download when before with the disable Bluetooth trick it would take less than 5 mins. My iMac, iPad, and iPhone all download the betas in less than 5 mins.
 
Well if WiFi is the default, something is wrong. I have fiber broadband and the watch updates are taking ~40 mins to download when before with the disable Bluetooth trick it would take less than 5 mins. My iMac, iPad, and iPhone all download the betas in less than 5 mins.
Same here. Both the Apple Watch and iPhone X have perfect (same room, line of sight) connections to my router, which is connected to the internet by 100Mbps fiber. The phone takes a few minutes to download updates OTA but the watch takes at least 30-40 minutes, every time.
 
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