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MisterAndrew

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Sep 15, 2015
2,910
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Portland, Ore.
Before I unpaired my Apple Watch 4 I searched online for instructions to make a backup because it’s not immediately obvious. Then I came across the Apple support page that says a backup is made automatically when you unpair the watch. So I unpaired it.

Now when I try to pair the Apple Watch 5 the most recent backup is from a year ago! I read in another thread the issue may be because my old watch is on a higher software version. My AW4 is on watchOS 6.0.1 and the AW5 is on 6.0. I can’t figure out how to update it without pairing it. So I started pairing it with the old backup and then I canceled it and it shows a backup made from that unpairing now, but still no recent backup from my AW4. It’s extremely frustrating. :(
 
You just have to restore it first to whats available. Then update to newest firmware. Then unpair to reset the watch... Follow by a restore again but this time the lastest backup will show up
 
You just have to restore it first to whats available. Then update to newest firmware. Then unpair to reset the watch... Follow by a restore again but this time the lastest backup will show up

You’re right! Thanks! I paired it and then I updated it, and then I unpaired it. And now after I paired it again and selected ‘restore from backup’ today’s AW4 backup is there! :D
 
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