Mike Peterson
Apple is now prompting Apple Watch Series 3 users to unpair and restore their device before installing a watchOS update.
Apple Watch Series 3 owners have run into problems installing updates for some time. The issues mostly involve a lack of sufficient storage to perform an install on GPS-only Apple Watch models.
In past versions of iOS, Apple advised users to delete some content before installing, but in iOS 14.6, Apple appears to be showing a different prompt telling users to restore their smartwatches before the installation can proceed.
As noted by a 9to5Mac reader in a Portuguese-language tweet, Apple is now telling users that they need to unpair their Apple Watch models and then re-pair it to an iPhone before watchOS can update.
@MacMagazine o iPhone no 14.6 s desistiu de instalar o watchOS 7.5 no Apple Watch series 3 direto haha j fala direto pra desinstalar #aloadt @filipeesposito antes falava que no tinha espao pic.twitter.com/Urp0OHrzky
— Nicolas Lehmann (@NLehmann) May 27, 2021
First released in 2017, the Apple Watch Series 3 is still being sold by Apple. It's also had a long run of watchOS update support. However, the new prompt could indicate that the relatively old model may not be supported by watchOS 8 or future updates. If that turns out to be the case, it could be discontinued.
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26 Comments
Are they out of their minds? That's ridiculous. However, I was able to do the last update with little to no issues. I have a cellular S3.
And it takes upwards of 3-4 hours to do this.
Last weekend a friend of ours was visiting and complained about not being able to update her Series 3. She said she had been getting an error referencing a lack of available storage, but she was confused as she only had the stock apps installed, no music synced or anything else “extra” that she had added. It had only what it had out of the box. When I tried to update for her I saw the message that she needed to unpair first.
It seems odd that she wouldn’t have enough storage to run the update. She’s more frustrated because she just bought it a few months ago (against my advice encouraging her to purchase a newer model) when the display on her Series 2 fell off.