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Heads up if you are still on WatchOS 9

spartan1967

spartan1967

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 9, 2019
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I just went from iOS 17.3.1 to 17.4 B3 & now cannot make any changes in the Watch app unless I update to WatchOS 10. This might be a bug in the iOS 17.4 beta, but considering Apple’s push to get everyone on the newest operating system, probably not.

I will update this thread when I install the public release of final 17.4. I don’t want WatchOS 10 because of the battery hit a lot of people are experiencing & the changes in WatchOS 10 user interface is undesirable to me.
 
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spartan1967 said:
I just went from iOS 17.3.1 to 17.4 B3 & now cannot make any changes in the Watch app unless I update to WatchOS 10. This might be a bug in the iOS 17.4 beta, but considering Apple’s push to get everyone on the newest operating system, probably not.

I will update this thread when I install the public release of final 17.4. I don’t want WatchOS 10 because of the battery hit a lot of people are experiencing & the changes in WatchOS 10 user interface is undesirable to me.
Click to expand...
how does that manifest itself? do you get an error message or a message to upgrade to 10? what change were you trying to make? screenshot would help ...

I understand you don't like the changes 10 brought, I was very hesitant before its release but since I got an Ultra 2 I upgraded to 10 when it was released to get familiar with it and now tbh the only thing that still bugs me is that widgets pop up out of the blue due to the fact that there are 3 ways to launch them, and I don't use any widgets. at the point in time you upgrade your AW, you're gonna get the then latest and greatest OS, like it or not ...
 
jz0309 said:
how does that manifest itself? do you get an error message or a message to upgrade to 10? what change were you trying to make? screenshot would help ...

I understand you don't like the changes 10 brought, I was very hesitant before its release but since I got an Ultra 2 I upgraded to 10 when it was released to get familiar with it and now tbh the only thing that still bugs me is that widgets pop up out of the blue due to the fact that there are 3 ways to launch them, and I don't use any widgets. at the point in time you upgrade your AW, you're gonna get the then latest and greatest OS, like it or not ...
Click to expand...
IMG_7501.jpeg
 
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jz0309 said:
So this is the “all watches” screen - are you saying this is the default view now when launching the watch app?
Where are you located? EU by chance?
Did you report this to Apple?

It seems to be a bug imho …
Click to expand...
It appears as soon as I tap on the Watch App. Even after closing it by swiping up. In USA. Not reporting it to Apple because they will tell me to update to WatchOS 10. Doubt it’s a bug.
 
spartan1967 said:
It appears as soon as I tap on the Watch App. Even after closing it by swiping up. In USA. Not reporting it to Apple because they will tell me to update to WatchOS 10. Doubt it’s a bug.
Click to expand...
My S7 is still on some version of watchOS 9, I only use it for sleep tracking every other day while charging my Ultra2, so will be interesting to see what happens after I upgrade my phone when 17.4 gets released.
And furthermore, I haven’t turned on my S4 in quite some time, I think it is on 9 but not sure…
 
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Has this happened with any other minor step, dot x iOS update?

Apple, in the fine print footnotes for each Apple Watch model, “tells” people what iPhone iOS is required. But, AFAIK, they never say that an iOS update or upgrade requires a watch OS upgrade. In other words, from the little I've experienced on this, it's always been asymmetrical.

A new hardware model can require an iPhone with the latest iOS. So, one has to be careful about Watch shopping as a new model can require an iPhone upgrade — either a new phone or a new iOS. We wanted a Watch 9, so had to get an iPhone SE 2022, as our old 2016 SE couldn't be upgraded to the iOS (16) needed for the 9.

But has a new iPhone software OS ever *forced* Watch OS upgrades?
 
Saturn007 said:
Has this happened with any other minor step, dot x iOS update?

Apple, in the fine print footnotes for each Apple Watch model, “tells” people what iPhone iOS is required. But, AFAIK, they never say that an iOS update or upgrade requires a watch OS upgrade. In other words, from the little I've experienced on this, it's always been asymmetrical.

A new hardware model can require an iPhone with the latest iOS. So, one has to be careful about Watch shopping as a new model can require an iPhone upgrade — either a new phone or a new iOS. We wanted a Watch 9, so had to get an iPhone SE 2022, as our old 2016 SE couldn't be upgraded to the iOS (16) needed for the 9.

But has a new iPhone software OS ever *forced* Watch OS upgrades?
Click to expand...
not as far as I can remember, and I started with S0 in 2015, hence my comment about it being a bug
 
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Saturn007 said:
Has this happened with any other minor step, dot x iOS update?

Apple, in the fine print footnotes for each Apple Watch model, “tells” people what iPhone iOS is required. But, AFAIK, they never say that an iOS update or upgrade requires a watch OS upgrade. In other words, from the little I've experienced on this, it's always been asymmetrical.

A new hardware model can require an iPhone with the latest iOS. So, one has to be careful about Watch shopping as a new model can require an iPhone upgrade — either a new phone or a new iOS. We wanted a Watch 9, so had to get an iPhone SE 2022, as our old 2016 SE couldn't be upgraded to the iOS (16) needed for the 9.

But has a new iPhone software OS ever *forced* Watch OS upgrades?
Click to expand...
Once I started 17.4, things started not to work on the watch like, message notifications, not being able to get in the settings on the watch app unless I updated to WatchOS 10, & some other quirky delays on my S7. Some things still worked like unlocking the watch when I unlocked my phone. I never was “forced” to go to WatchOS 10.

The question I have is why was everything good on 17.3.1? What was the “big difference” when I upgraded to 17.4? As I said, when I went in the watch app on the phone it said I had to update.
 
spartan1967 said:
It appears as soon as I tap on the Watch App. Even after closing it by swiping up. In USA. Not reporting it to Apple because they will tell me to update to WatchOS 10. Doubt it’s a bug.
Click to expand...

I would be tempted to report it to them anyway because it would be an opportunity to point out that installing WatchOS 10 is not an acceptable solution due to battery and UX issues. They won't care, but they still ought to be told.
 
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I have had a similar thing happen when one of my watches was on 9.x and my iPhone had an update to 17.x. I don’t remember the exact versions but the watch was not on the latest 9.x. I also had no other option than to update that watch to WatchOS 10 (which I didn’t plan to because it is an S4).
 
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anodibu said:
I have had a similar thing happen when one of my watches was on 9.x and my iPhone had an update to 17.x. I don’t remember the exact versions but the watch was not on the latest 9.x. I also had no other option than to update that watch to WatchOS 10 (which I didn’t plan to because it is an S4).
Click to expand...
My S4 is running fine on the OS10 betas.
 
Yes. It just happened to me after installing 17.4. I am more than PO’d. I’ve lost the ability to ability to control the volume on my phone with the Now Playing app on the watch. The phone doesn’t even show as device on the watch. Sucks.
 
BugeyeSTI said:
Any word on if updating to iOS17.4 requires your watch to be updated to WatchOS 10?
Click to expand...
yes, updated phone earlier this afternoon. My Ultra2 was already on watchOS 10, but my S7 is still on 9.x
I put the S7 on my wrist and pretty much immediately I got a notification on the phone that an update is available, never seen this before. S7 always told me that an update is available but not on the phone.
Put my Ultra2 back on but it didn't unlock via the phone, and now, when I open the hatch app it goes to the "show all watches" screen and the S7 shows "update required". when I click on my Ultra2 in that screen - nothing happens.
And oddly enough, unlocked my Ultra2 by entering the passcode, and phone showed that is was not connected to Bluetooth.

I was going to update my S7 anyway, was holding off after this thread came on to confirm, but, I will contact Apple support as to why I cannot use the watch app with my Ultra2
 
jz0309 said:
yes, updated phone earlier this afternoon. My Ultra2 was already on watchOS 10, but my S7 is still on 9.x
I put the S7 on my wrist and pretty much immediately I got a notification on the phone that an update is available, never seen this before. S7 always told me that an update is available but not on the phone.
Put my Ultra2 back on but it didn't unlock via the phone, and now, when I open the hatch app it goes to the "show all watches" screen and the S7 shows "update required". when I click on my Ultra2 in that screen - nothing happens.
And oddly enough, unlocked my Ultra2 by entering the passcode, and phone showed that is was not connected to Bluetooth.

I was going to update my S7 anyway, was holding off after this thread came on to confirm, but, I will contact Apple support as to why I cannot use the watch app with my Ultra2
Click to expand...
Well this stinks. Phone is updated. My Ultra is on OS 10 so I see that on the phone and nothing else.

I never updated to OS10 on my old Series 4...just because the battery life has diminished so much, fearing 10 would kill it more. 🙄
 
Has anyone gotten their watch to update? I got the "update required" on my S4 which was on 9.3 and after several quick attempts at trying to update it (it showed 9.6.3 for only half a second before saying my watch was "up to date on 9.6") the watch finally updated. Now it's on 9.6.3 and "update required" but no update is available. I gave up and went to bed and tried this morning and no dice. I unpaired my watch so will try to see what happens when I try to set it up again this evening.
 
I reverted back to 17.3.1 and now I can access my phone via the Now Playing I set in my dock. All is good with the world again!
 
jz0309 said:
yes, updated phone earlier this afternoon. My Ultra2 was already on watchOS 10, but my S7 is still on 9.x
I put the S7 on my wrist and pretty much immediately I got a notification on the phone that an update is available, never seen this before. S7 always told me that an update is available but not on the phone.
Put my Ultra2 back on but it didn't unlock via the phone, and now, when I open the hatch app it goes to the "show all watches" screen and the S7 shows "update required". when I click on my Ultra2 in that screen - nothing happens.
And oddly enough, unlocked my Ultra2 by entering the passcode, and phone showed that is was not connected to Bluetooth.

I was going to update my S7 anyway, was holding off after this thread came on to confirm, but, I will contact Apple support as to why I cannot use the watch app with my Ultra2
Click to expand...
update:
I did contact Apple support last night but didn't really have enough time ...
I turned my S7 off and phone still showed that it was connected via bluetooth ...
I then turned "auto switch" off, that's a setting when you have multiple AWs and could then select my Ultra2 again, and after that my S7 did not show up as connected via bluetooth, which is totally weird, but whatever.

I am now updating my S7 to 10.3.1, as I said before, I was going to do that anyway and don't really want to spend the time with support to get to the bottom of this issue
 
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glindon said:
Has anyone gotten their watch to update? I got the "update required" on my S4 which was on 9.3 and after several quick attempts at trying to update it (it showed 9.6.3 for only half a second before saying my watch was "up to date on 9.6") the watch finally updated. Now it's on 9.6.3 and "update required" but no update is available. I gave up and went to bed and tried this morning and no dice. I unpaired my watch so will try to see what happens when I try to set it up again this evening.
Click to expand...
initiate the update from AW: Settings, general, SW update
 
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glindon said:
That doesn't work either. Tried many times.

I've already unpaired it so hopefully when I pair it back tonight it will see the update. Otherwise not sure how I'm gonna get it to update.
Click to expand...
I would contact apple if the problem persists
 
I'm charging my S4 now, this was at 4-5% battery this morning. Just had the pop ups on my phone, iPad and Mac "Device added to account." (Now the S4 shows again thankfully).

Once this watch fully charges, I guess I'll update it to OS10 if I can, I know you can update through the watch itself, I never tried that before...always through the phone.

IMG_0656.PNG
IMG_0655.PNG
 
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