Only Old backups available on restore

[mnni]

Hi. I’ve got a replacement for my Apple Watch series 4 and offered two backups to restore my Apple Watch from. Both backups are ancient and over a year old... both featuring watchOS 5.3. I didn’t find any options to control the backup from the watch or the iPhone app. How can I control or troubleshoot a broken backup service like this?

thank you very much...

 

[BrettDS]

Most likely the replacement watch has an older version of WatchOS. It won’t let you restore a backup from a newer OS to a watch with an older OS. You will probably need to pair your watch as a new watch without restoring a backup, then update it’s OS, then unpair it and pair it again. This time you should see your current backups.

 

[JBaby]

This just happened to me. I needed to re-pair my S5 because it wouldn’t install apps from the Watch app or directly on the device and the last backup was from February 2020. I decided to just setup as new. I just finished putting it back how I like it. Plus this give me a chance to see if I really need to turn off so much stuff in order to have good battery life.

 

[Justin51]

Most likely the replacement watch has an older version of WatchOS. It won’t let you restore a backup from a newer OS to a watch with an older OS. You will probably need to pair your watch as a new watch without restoring a backup, then update it’s OS, then unpair it and pair it again. This time you should see your current backups.

@BrettDS is spot on with this answer!

 

[iLoveYosemite]

Most likely the replacement watch has an older version of WatchOS. It won’t let you restore a backup from a newer OS to a watch with an older OS. You will probably need to pair your watch as a new watch without restoring a backup, then update it’s OS, then unpair it and pair it again. This time you should see your current backups.

These forums are so valuable. I just got my AW6 last night and unpaired my AW4, but the most recent backup was from April. So I paired the new watch, updated OS, unpaired, and then paired again, and the latest backup showed up. Perfect! Thank you so much!

 

[Gator5000e]

This happened but opposite in circumstances. I got my new iPhone 12 and had to unpair from my X and repair to the 12. I opted to restore from backup and the most recent was from March of this year. My watch is up to date as far as the OS is concerned, so I’m not sure what to do. After it finishes pairing and loading the back up, should I erase it and try it again?

Thank for any thoughts.