Trying to update to 7.0.2 on a Series 3 - PITA

[ckurt25]

I have 2 Apple Watches. A Series 5 and a Series 3. I don't know what kind of masochist I've turned into but having 2 watches and trying to upgrade them is always a pain in the butt and this is no exception.

Typically, I turn off one watch, have the other on the charger and attempt to upgrade it. I've been wearing my Series 5 about 90% of the time lately so I haven't tried upgrading the 3 from 6.2.8 until today. I powered down the Series 5 and the Series 3 said it would take 4 hours. I thought that was a little longer than usually so I left my phone and watch about a foot apart and both plugged in. An hour later the watch said the estimated time remaining was 24 hours. I left it for a while longer and it said 2 days. I thought something must be wrong so I reset (erase) the watch and started over. It was pretty much the same results. I left it for a few hours and pretty much have run into the same thing.

After a couple resets I got it down from 4 hours to about 30 minutes and I was hoping this would be it. 30 minutes later and it said my phone couldn't connect to the watch and to make sure it was within range. I hadn't moved either in hours. Now it says "preparing" and it's been like that for over 30 minutes.

Has anyone else had difficulty upgrading their watches to this version and/or had any experience with the Series 3? My Series 5 is off (has been for a long time) and is on 7.0.1. Upgrading to that version on that watch wasn't an issue.

 

[cmaus]

I remember Apple noting that the storage on Series 3 Watches might be insufficient for the update to watchOS 7, suggesting that the workaround is to reset the Watch, and then update.

As far as I know, Apple has never marked that problem as „resolved“ in their watchOS Release Notes. I wonder if this problem still persists for Series 3 owners, even when updating from 7.0.0 to 7.0.X.

 

[ckurt25]

I remember Apple noting that the storage on Series 3 Watches might be insufficient for the update to watchOS 7, suggesting that the workaround is to reset the Watch, and then update.

As far as I know, Apple has never marked that problem as „resolved“ in their watchOS Release Notes. I wonder if this problem still persists for Series 3 owners, even when updating from 7.0.0 to 7.0.X.

Ugh. I've reset the 3 probably 5-6 times so far. I've been setting it up as a new watch. Maybe I should try and restore from a backup but I think that could reintroduce the free space issue.

 

[Smoothie]

Try my suggestion in this thread to see if it speeds up the update.

Trick to Speed Up Download of Update to Watch

I've been using this trick for awhile. Use the watch app on the phone to start the update as usual. Once the download starts, turn off Bluetooth. The watch app will ask you turn it back on, but you can hit cancel and the download will proceed. The update file will then be sent to the watch via...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Globug]

i'm having a software update issue on my 4.

 

[ckurt25]

Try my suggestion in this thread to see if it speeds up the update.

Trick to Speed Up Download of Update to Watch

I've been using this trick for awhile. Use the watch app on the phone to start the update as usual. Once the download starts, turn off Bluetooth. The watch app will ask you turn it back on, but you can hit cancel and the download will proceed. The update file will then be sent to the watch via...

forums.macrumors.com

I tried that a few times too. My Series 3 doesn't like the 7.0.2 upgrade :/

I was able to upgrade my Series 5 with no problems.

 

[ExAndroidUsr]

I have 2 Apple Watches. A Series 5 and a Series 3. I don't know what kind of masochist I've turned into but having 2 watches and trying to upgrade them is always a pain in the butt and this is no exception.

Typically, I turn off one watch, have the other on the charger and attempt to upgrade it. I've been wearing my Series 5 about 90% of the time lately so I haven't tried upgrading the 3 from 6.2.8 until today. I powered down the Series 5 and the Series 3 said it would take 4 hours. I thought that was a little longer than usually so I left my phone and watch about a foot apart and both plugged in. An hour later the watch said the estimated time remaining was 24 hours. I left it for a while longer and it said 2 days. I thought something must be wrong so I reset (erase) the watch and started over. It was pretty much the same results. I left it for a few hours and pretty much have run into the same thing.

After a couple resets I got it down from 4 hours to about 30 minutes and I was hoping this would be it. 30 minutes later and it said my phone couldn't connect to the watch and to make sure it was within range. I hadn't moved either in hours. Now it says "preparing" and it's been like that for over 30 minutes.

Has anyone else had difficulty upgrading their watches to this version and/or had any experience with the Series 3? My Series 5 is off (has been for a long time) and is on 7.0.1. Upgrading to that version on that watch wasn't an issue.

After You start the update wait a little bit and then disable bluetooth on the phone completely in settings. The watch will use wifi to download the update and it is much quicker.

 

[ckurt25]

Well I finally got the Series 3 to upgrade. I'm not sure why it worked this time and failed 6+ times previously.