"Sign in to Complete Purchase" message after updating to Apple Watch OS 6.0

Just to add to this solution, it helps to also perform a soft reset of your Apple Watch after you complete these steps. Just hold down the Watch dial and side button at the same time for about 10 seconds.

I kept getting the “Sign in to complete purchase” message even after reinstalling the watch and after the fixer update. At some some point in the past I had ended up with two Apple IDs. The message was referring to the first one. I finally just typed in my password. I have not received the obnoxious message since I did that.

I get this error which has only started since I got my Series 4 last week. It never happened on my Series 3 which had been happily upgraded to OS 6.0.

I have two Apple ID's: one for iCloud and the other for the App Store. The error applies to my App Store ID and the fix above does not work for me. I'm in the position now where I can't install 3rd party apps onto the watch which is a nuisance.

Hopefully, it's a bug in iOS 13 and Watch OS 6 that'll be fixed soon.

I unpaired my Series 4 watch and re-paired and then set it up as a new watch. As part of the process, you have to sign in to iTunes and the App Store. This step failed so I think there is a bug in WatchOS 6 that is blocking some of us logging in to our iTunes account from the start. This then flows through to the problem of this thread. The iCloud login works fine.

I'm going to re-pair my Series 3 to see if the issue occurs on that as well.

I have the same issue, but it doesn't accept the password and gives me the message:Verification Failed. An unknown error occurred. I have 13.2 beta 2 installed and WatchOS 6.0.1 installed. If I try to enter the password on the iPhone apple watch app it doesn't seem to take the password there either. My icloud and itunes emails are different since there is no way to combine them after having an iTunes account before icloud was introduced.

Since the i watch upgrade , i get a continuous message sign in to complete purchase. I completed the recommendation to turn off auto app in settings and look for apps that trying to load and deleted them and nuts still happening!! Driving me nuts, please help

I’m having the same issue but I have a new phone as well so there are no old Apple ids associated with anything on my phone. I’ve turned the auto updates off and looked to see if there’s any that have had an issue and nothing. But I’m still getting the notification up to 10 times a day at stupid times of the night too!

I hope they fix whatever they did when it all updated. It never did it before and it’s absolutely frustrating.

Hi! This definitely put me on the right track. So thanks a lot for that!!

But I also had to do one more step on mine before it worked in my Series 4 watch. Some people may be having the same problem so I wanted to add the info just in case.

I did the settings fix outlined above. But I ALSO had to do it again in the actual App Store tab which you have to scroll down a little to see (it is in the 3rd block between “Activity” and “Breathe” on my Watch App.

Just tap the App Store tab and turn off automatic updates. Then follow the steps in post above to see which apps are trying to load.

I hope this helps!

This is the second time I've gotten this on my iwatch after updating - the prior fix worked. This time - it didn't change anything. I'm about to throw all Apple products out - why can't you fix this???????? What else do I need to do to get rid of the every 30 second buzzing of 'sign in to complete your purchase'??? I've uninstalled all apps shown - and reinstalled with my 'new' apple id - but still they persist. Any ideas?

This did not work for me. There are no apps that are only installed on my watch. I don't remember that old apple ID, either, to try to log in. Continues to happen over and over and over, multiple times per hour. It has become unusable. Help apple support! I'm about to stop wearing it.

Solution! Go to your iphone / click

on your name icloud / scroll down which you would see all your apple devices backs, if you have more then one of course / remove iwatch from your icloud /

now once you remove the old back up it should pop app a message on your iwatch showing your recent apple id and asking to enter the passcode/

once you do that your back on track/

you don't have to delete apps or remove accounts and you watch settings will not change . Hope these will help .

Thanks! That worked for me. I had two apps trying to update. One was Keynote. I deleted that, and almost immediately, the watch reset and updated. I don’t remember downloading Keynote. I thought it came with the system. If it had an old AppleID attached to it, I don’t know why.

Hey!! I am having the same issue since last night after my iPhone updated to iOS 13.1.

It also shows me an apple id I no longer use. Heeeeeeeelp