I got a new Apple Watch series 3 for Xmas and have been trying to pair it with my phone for more than 8 hours. It is now showing it is installing but it has been saying that for a while. How long should this take and what can I do if it takes much longer?
This happened to me, too, as the watch tried to download an update during installation. It gave an estimated time remaining of 19 hours! I reset the watch, restarted, started over and was able to pair the watch in a relatively short time. The update had actually downloaded, but for some reason didn’t progress to the next step until I restarted. I also wonder if the Apple server is overwhelmed by people pairing all of the watches people received as Christmas presents. Several people in help forums complained about updates taking excessively long.
This happened to me, too, as the watch tried to download an update during installation. It gave an estimated time remaining of 19 hours! I reset the watch, restarted, started over and was able to pair the watch in a relatively short time. The update had actually downloaded, but for some reason didn’t progress to the next step until I restarted. I also wonder if the Apple server is overwhelmed by people pairing all of the watches people received as Christmas presents. Several people in help forums complained about updates taking excessively long.
The iPhone XR. I turned everything off then tried again and it worked so I am good now thanks for the help
I have done everything it says it is just taking so long I didn't know if I should stop the process restart both devices and start again. Just wondering if anyone else's pairing has taken this long.
Which phone are you trying to pair it with?.
See if this Apple document will help
Set up and pair Apple Watch with iPhone
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/watch/apdde4d6f98e/watchos
Taking more than 8 hours to pair my new Apple Watch with my iphone
