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Watch OS 2 Bricks Apple Watch

D

derekc247

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 21, 2015
4
1
Hello Everyone,


Like many others i installed Watch OS 2 on my Apple Watch a few days after WWDC. Since then the experience of using the Watch was a complete nightmare. I have had many problems including contacts not syncing via my iPhone, not receiving notifications, home screen freezing , the watch running warm against my skin, and worst of all poor battery life. My watch only seem to last 4 hours on a single charge ever since the beta was installed. Even though Apple has not documented a way to downgrade. I decided to try to figure out a solution on my own. I tried many things like downgrading my iPhone to iOS 8.3 to see if I could force a downgrade, nothing happened. I even tried resetting the watch back to factory settings and setting up as a new watch, still nothing happened. The Apple watch app even showed me an alert saying that my iOS was out of date to use the watch. As a final resort i reupgraded my iPhone to iOS 9 just to get the Watch paired up to use, until the next beta or until somebody figured out how to downgrade. After I installed iOS 9 again I noticed the Watch would not pair to my phone using the camera, then I tried the manual pairing options and nothing happened, and no watches were showing in range. From there I tried a bunch of troubleshooting solutions like restarting the phone, the Watch app and turning on and off Bluetooth and nothing seem to fix it. That happened last night.


Today, I decided to call Apple to see if they could help me out. Yes, I know its a beta but the core services like pairing, set-up, etc... should work no matter what. First, I called Apple Care, I told them what was happening then they told me to call developer support. Once I was connected to somebody I explained my situation and he put me on hold twice, to do some research and check to see if there was anyway to help me,he even asked one of the senior reps for help. It turns out he was not allowed to help me because of the beta software. But he did tell me to call Apple Care to see if they could just send a replacement since I had done all the troubleshooting on my own. Soon I was transferred to a senior rep at Apple Care. I explained my situation again, and he wanted to see a video of the problem. I shot a quick 4 minute video of the process and he confirmed that a combined hardware and software issue was taking place. After a few minutes he took my information and started a replacement watch to be sent to me. We also made arrangements to have my original bricked Watch sent back to Apple to have some engineers look at it. I have also uploaded the video i sent to Apple on YouTube, so everyone can see what i'm talking about, However I did remove the audio because I was giving out my personal information to the rep. So my advice to anyone is DO NOT UPGRADE UNTIL THE FALL.


Video Link
 
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Thanks for the sharing, but Apple clearly state that Watch OS 2 is not downgradable. Also, this is the beta 1.

Almost all the problem you've mentioned is the expected behaviour.

Luckily that Apple willing to take the case and ship you a replacement. Otherwise, you will be stuck by your own decision and actions (until a good Watch OS 2 come out for you to upgrade).

Anyway, agree that don't upgrade to this Watch OS2 beta for fun, or daily use. Even developers have to take this very carefully because we still have no way to access the hidden port (which is covered by the band) for OS downgrade.
 
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h9826790 said:
Thanks for the sharing, but Apple clearly state that Watch OS 2 is not downgradable. Also, this is the beta 1.

Almost all the problem you've mentioned is the expected behaviour.

Luckily that Apple willing to take the case and ship you a replacement. Otherwise, you will be stuck by your own decision and actions (until a good Watch OS 2 come out for you to upgrade).

Anyway, agree that don't upgrade to this Watch OS2 beta for fun, or daily use. Even developers have to take this very carefully because we still have no way to access the hidden port (which is covered by the band) for OS downgrade.
Click to expand...
They also say iOS betas are non-downgradable. I imagine a lot of people assumed it'd be just like the phone situation.
 
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I'm running my Apple watch on 2.0 and its slightly annoying when it doesn't behave but its nowhere near "br
derekc247 said:
Hello Everyone,


Like many others i installed Watch OS 2 on my Apple Watch a few days after WWDC. Since then the experience of using the Watch was a complete nightmare. I have had many problems including contacts not syncing via my iPhone, not receiving notifications, home screen freezing , the watch running warm against my skin, and worst of all poor battery life. My watch only seem to last 4 hours on a single charge ever since the beta was installed. Even though Apple has not documented a way to downgrade. I decided to try to figure out a solution on my own. I tried many things like downgrading my iPhone to iOS 8.3 to see if I could force a downgrade, nothing happened. I even tried resetting the watch back to factory settings and setting up as a new watch, still nothing happened. The Apple watch app even showed me an alert saying that my iOS was out of date to use the watch. As a final resort i reupgraded my iPhone to iOS 9 just to get the Watch paired up to use, until the next beta or until somebody figured out how to downgrade. After I installed iOS 9 again I noticed the Watch would not pair to my phone using the camera, then I tried the manual pairing options and nothing happened, and no watches were showing in range. From there I tried a bunch of troubleshooting solutions like restarting the phone, the Watch app and turning on and off Bluetooth and nothing seem to fix it. That happened last night.


Today, I decided to call Apple to see if they could help me out. Yes, I know its a beta but the core services like pairing, set-up, etc... should work no matter what. First, I called Apple Care, I told them what was happening then they told me to call developer support. Once I was connected to somebody I explained my situation and he put me on hold twice, to do some research and check to see if there was anyway to help me,he even asked one of the senior reps for help. It turns out he was not allowed to help me because of the beta software. But he did tell me to call Apple Care to see if they could just send a replacement since I had done all the troubleshooting on my own. Soon I was transferred to a senior rep at Apple Care. I explained my situation again, and he wanted to see a video of the problem. I shot a quick 4 minute video of the process and he confirmed that a combined hardware and software issue was taking place. After a few minutes he took my information and started a replacement watch to be sent to me. We also made arrangements to have my original bricked Watch sent back to Apple to have some engineers look at it. I have also uploaded the video i sent to Apple on YouTube, so everyone can see what i'm talking about, However I did remove the audio because I was giving out my personal information to the rep. So my advice to anyone is DO NOT UPGRADE UNTIL THE FALL.


Video Link
Click to expand...

You had my sympathy until I saw the description of the Video you uploaded:

Uploaded on Jun 12, 2015
Nice Job Apple

Yeah, it's Apple fault you installed a Beta WatchOS on your Apple watch even though you have no business doing so in the first place.
 
Last edited:
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macrooster said:
As a developer there really is nothing better than hearing people install beta software and then bitch about how it doesn't work right lol

It's called BETA for a reason. If you aren't sure about what you're installing as the main OS on your device, DON'T DO IT!!!!
Click to expand...
Forget the holier than thou attitude just what magic sauce would you pour on your bricked watch being a dev and all ;)
 
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burgman said:
Forget the holier than thou attitude just what magic sauce would you pour on your bricked watch being a dev and all ;)
Click to expand...

Developers do agree to take the risks though.. Consumers are not supposed to install those BETA although I understand it might sound appealing to try them out. You ignore disclaimers, you can only take it on yourself.. Actions, consequences.
 
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Draconian.

Sure, it's always the same...NOT.

I was surprised as heck to hear about this non-recoverable crap. Apple might have warned all the eager types who pay $10 to developers for beta stuff. You can't blame them. I did it a while back (maybe it's still active?)

Anyway, all this info came out pretty quick but not quick enough for some people. I really feel for them.
 
If you don't understand what or how to handle beta versions of software, don't mess with it.
If you really want to mess with it, deal with the mess.

None of this is complicated.
 
first of all, great video :)

dude, u can consider urself lucky... apple didn´t force u do upgrade. u did so--> normally u should have to deal with the consequences.
 
Suckfest 9001 said:
They also say iOS betas are non-downgradable. I imagine a lot of people assumed it'd be just like the phone situation.
Click to expand...

Well, there is no way to plug a watch into iTunes....

I suspect there is a DFU-style mode through the diagnostic port but nobody has found it or even knows the pin outs of the port. So right now, watch upgrades are a one-way street.
 
As a dev its is very bad that Apple doesn't provide a way to downgrade the watch. They should have planned better. iPhone betas have always been downgrade-able, even though Apple warned that they were not. The watch seemed like the same empty warning.

In fact, its worse on a dev than a consumer. In my case having the watch stuck on Watch OS 2 means my iPhone is stuck on iOS 9 which means I'm stuck using Xcode 7 which means Swift 2.0 isn't compatible, watch apps aren't compatible. I am unable to upload app updates and new apps to the app store until September?? All because I spent money to buy a watch so I could develop watch apps and upgraded to Watch OS 2 on the false assumption that there was a way to downgrade.

I won't make the mistake again. Won't risk my devices. It will limit my ability to support new iOS and Watch OS releases before they become generally available. Maybe the really big development shops can afford to have throw away devices. Its unfortunate that Apple goes through the effort to run WWDC intent on encouraging use of new APIs, yet makes development devices unusable if someone tries the beta released during WWDC.
 
dmelgar said:
As a dev its is very bad that Apple doesn't provide a way to downgrade the watch. They should have planned better. iPhone betas have always been downgrade-able, even though Apple warned that they were not. The watch seemed like the same empty warning.

In fact, its worse on a dev than a consumer. In my case having the watch stuck on Watch OS 2 means my iPhone is stuck on iOS 9 which means I'm stuck using Xcode 7 which means Swift 2.0 isn't compatible, watch apps aren't compatible. I am unable to upload app updates and new apps to the app store until September?? All because I spent money to buy a watch so I could develop watch apps and upgraded to Watch OS 2 on the false assumption that there was a way to downgrade.

I won't make the mistake again. Won't risk my devices. It will limit my ability to support new iOS and Watch OS releases before they become generally available. Maybe the really big development shops can afford to have throw away devices. Its unfortunate that Apple goes through the effort to run WWDC intent on encouraging use of new APIs, yet makes development devices unusable if someone tries the beta released during WWDC.
Click to expand...

The main issue is that there is no official cable to connect the watch to the computer to restore a previous firmware version. Also the service port is well hidden.. iPhones are a different story since the Lightning port is clearly accessible and meant to be connected to computers with iTunes.
 
soya said:
The main issue is that there is no official cable to connect the watch to the computer to restore a previous firmware version. Also the service port is well hidden.. iPhones are a different story since the Lightning port is clearly accessible and meant to be connected to computers with iTunes.
Click to expand...
Actually, the MAIN issue is Apple refusing to let people downgrade software (even in cases like this, where the previous version is still being signed). After all, it should be technically possible to push a firmware update via some DFU-like mode - if Pebble's designers could figure out, I'm sure Apple's could, too.
 
Don't use your production equipment for development. That's something I learned way back with the iPhone 3G.

Anyway, people have had luck un-pair then re-pair, but only if you have a 1.x backup. So theoretically you can unpair with 1.0.1, upgrade to 2.0, then when you want to downgrade unpair/re-pair and restore the 1.0.1 backup.

I'm not about to try this myself.
 
Embarrassingly I did exactly the same thing :/ but it happened to my watch after putting beta 3 of iOS 9 on my iPhone. Watch was running beta 2. Now I can't connect and it doesn't show up in the list for manual pairing.

Going to an Apple Store tomorrow but I've seen online that for the watch to be downgraded it needs to be sent off. Which is fine, but if it's software + hardware like you say did you have to have AppleCare for them to send you a replacement?

Because again unfortunately I didn't get AppleCare for my watch...
 
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