Upgrading from AW5 to AW7

[Bballrob]

Good Evening—

I have acquired a new AW7. This is an upgrade from AW5.

I unpaired my AW5 which, according to instructions I’ve read online should have created a backup which I should then be able to use to setup my new AW7.

When I begin pairing the new AW7, it shows me a list of backups available to restore from, but the most recent backup is from 1/15/2021 - over a year ago.

If I then cancel the setup and go and try to restore my old AW5, it gives me the option to restore from today’s backup.

Why won’t it let me use the backup from the AW5 that I just created to setup my new AW7?

 

[fwmireault]

I had this very problem while also upgrading from S5 to S7. I could see the most recent backup on my S5 but never on my S7. I gave up and set it up as a new watch. I’d be also curious to see if anyone has a fix or an explanation for this

 

[Bballrob]

Did you lose any tracking data such as in fitness, or your rings and stuff like that when you did this?

 

[fwmireault]

Did you lose any tracking data such as in fitness, or your rings and stuff like that when you did this?

No, all this data is embedded in your iPhone, so setting the S7 as a new watch will not have any impact on your rings and health data. But you’ll have to download all Watch apps again, set up your watch faces, etc. Nothing major but it’s still annoying and you’re not supposed to have to deal with that if you have a recent backup

 

[Htsi]

Weird. Maybe update both to new os and try again

 

[Significant1]

I had that problem, because my old S4 was a Nike edition, with Nike watch faces configured. When I setup an apple watch face and deleted the Nike ones, the backup appeared to restore from, when setting up my s7 non Nike edition.

 

[Chris.J]

I had this problem and found that the backups only appear that is relevant to the WatchOS version that the new watch is currently on. Simple fix was to set up as a new watch, update the software, then restore it again. This time, you will see the latest backup appear (and the old ones disappear).

 

[Bballrob]

You guys were right. It was a matching WatchOS version issue. Apple really should fix this bug. Or at least make it known somehow in the setup process if you select the restore option.

 

[Rychiar]

I did know you could ever restore a watch from a backup . Every time I unpair from a phone it’s wiped out

 

[Bballrob]

I did know you could ever restore a watch from a backup . Every time I unpair from a phone it’s wiped out

Actually when you unpair it, that’s when it creates the backup.

 

[Rychiar]

Actually when you unpair it, that’s when it creates the backup.

weird. I've never been asked to restore from backup

 

[jz0309]

weird. I've never been asked to restore from backup

When you pair a watch, it asks you whether you want to setup as new or restore from backup… I do not recall the exact wording, but that’s the time you would do it

 

[Armeniandave]

I switch between my 13 mini and 13 pro about every other week
and when I unpair my watch 7 it never creates a backup even though
both phones are on the same os version and so is the watch. Gets
kind of annoying but it always shows one from a few weeks ago so
it kinda works.