Apple Watch reboot loop.

Hello all,

I believe I have solved the issue. While I am disappointed in apple I still like their products. I believe the core issue is an app incompatibility between some third party app loaded on your iPhone that automatically gets installed on your apple watch and watch os 7.02 below are the steps to follow to hopefully get you out of boot loop ****.

1) Factory reset your apple watch

2) Select setup manually

3) Select add apps later

4) Once apple watch is ready THIS IS IMPORTANT do not press digital crown to start

5) Go into watch app select general then turn off automatic app install

6) Check that there are no thrid party apps installed on the watch is there are some make sure to remove them

7) Under the heading installed on apple watch should be blank

8) Now it is safe to press the digital crown to start your apple watch for use

I have not identified what app or apps that are causing the watch to trip into this boot loop behavior but I am convinced it is software related and not hardware. This is why I believe people who get replacement watches end up in boot loop **** again.

I have checked with two friends one with series 3 and the other series 5 watch os 6.8.3 and the other with 6.8.x and they have no issues also have very few third party apps installed from phone to watch.

Best of luck,

Eric

Mine was fixed the other day. I had to completely unpair it, set it up as a NEW watch, and when it asked if I wanted to update during the pairing, I said to skip the update. I’ve had no issues so far so fingers crossed.

HI anina291,

We see that after your Apple Watch tried to install a recent software update it has begun to reboot to the Apple logo and you're not able to proceed further. We can understand why you would reach out for help getting access to your Apple Watch again. You've come to the right place for help.

Let's start with a force restart of your watch:

How to restart your Apple Watch

Be sure to follow the steps under:

"Force restart your Apple Watch"

Have a good day!

Update all apps from the App Store and any OS versions. 

Force reboot the watch by holding both the buttons down. While the watch is rebooting restart your phone.

Uninstall any third-party applications from the watch. Just leave the stock apple stuff on it.

Remove podcasts, photos, music from the watch. Not sure if this is needed but it will make it much quicker to do the restore.

Unpair the watch from the phone. 

reboot phone. May not be needed.

Pair the watch to the phone.

Don’t add any third-party applications onto the watch yet. Suggest waiting at least a day between adding each one.

hope that works for you. Worked for me. The trigger for my reboot loop seemed to be pulling the watch off of the charger

I think I found the problem with my watch and its problem of showing the apple logo/boot screen intermittently. I believe that my problem was an app was sending notifications to the watch, but apparently the notifications were more or less ''crashing" my watch. I adjusted my notification settings and turned them off for this specific app, and up to this point, 24 hours later, I'm not having the issue anymore. Definitely a software issue.

I have an Apple Watch series 4, running the 7.0.1 update. The app that seemed to be crashing it with its notifications was the MLB app. I hope this info helps someone. Good luck!

I hope you've been able to get your issue resolved. For those of us that haven't, it is a known issue and is supposed to be fixed with a software update. (For the Version 5 anyway.) I communicated with Apple representatives regarding the same issue and sent them diagnostic logs as well as videos and time of day when the reboot loop happened. I was told to just sit tight and wait for a software update to resolve it. Mine started in August when I updated to the latest OS. I am currently waiting for the issue to be resolved. Unfortunately, there's not much else we can do.

It’s been working for several days now no problem. While I was having the problem , to speed up the sync I also removed all the music and photos and podcasts from sync to the watch so there was a lot less data to transfer over. I’ve not bothered putting them back on.

I forgot to mention that I would hard reset the watch and simultaneously reboot the phone prior to syncing each day when I was having to do the re-sync to get back going again.

I have an Apple Watch 5 series and it does this reboot thing multiples times a day. I tried many things to fix the issue such as force reboot, removed from my account, update the watch and still have this issue. Does anyone know how to fix this????

That’s why Apple Watchez Suck.... I repair all my Family, Friends, and even Friends of Friends iDevices. Every Apple Watch 3,4,5 that I’ve encountered seems to start acting up like the boot loop problem, or the question mark that’s red, and it’s funny that after people’s Apple Care runs out these things start happening to their devices? Ummm... Then every form gives them the Hold both buttons in on the side for 20 seconds to reset the device, or put it on the charger for few hours then try it again, or your charging cable is broke you may need a new one, but here’s the best one..... Take your AppleWatch into an Apple Store to see a Genius? Then it’s the well it’s going to cost you the same as buying a new watch if you want to fix it, and knowing your Apple Care has expired they tell you that you should just get a newer device anyways!!

Here’s the Kicker..... The so called Genius at the Apple Store can fix a boot loop by plugging the Apple Watch into their data cable that’s located in where the strap slides in and then upgrade the device then it’s back to brand new again just like the day it was purchased? Why don’t they do this you ask? EASY that’s because they want you to buy a new device that’s why they don’t sell anyone a Serial Data Restore Cable to anyone so they can’t fix their Watch it’s part of the Scam, they tell you it’s for security reasons but that’s bullish!t... Check out YouTube of people taking simple problem fixes for their device into Apple Store to see a Genius that tells you it’s going to cost as much as buying a new device, then they take it to a real repair shop and it cost $50 to fix the device... But for the Apple Watch you could fix it by an easy update to the watch if you had a cable and they know this is true and it’s sad, starting to think they are programmed so after the warranty runs out that it’s programmed to do this kind of boot loop...

lie I said the Apple Genius could use his Genius Powers and plug it in and fix it by an update but good luck on that one..... and that’s why Apple Watch any Series Suckz!!

I need to add one more thing my friend with the series 3 has many third party apps installed on her apple watch and no boot looping so this further ties things to watch OS 7.02 I hope apple releases an update soon as it sucks I cannot use the watch the way it was designed or how I would want to.

Eric

I disabled all third party notifications along with removing all third party apps. Haven’t had an issue since that time. So it has to be an app issue or notification issue.

Having the issue with for three days now. Can reproduce issue - Taking the watch off the charge stand when I wake up triggers the reboot loop. Only way to stop is to unpair reinstall from backup and it’s good for the rest of the day. This is with a series 5 that is less than a month old. Running 7.0.1 software.

wife has a series 3. Hers goes in a reboot loop in the afternoons for no apparent reason. It stops after a while.

I am having the same issue on my series 5. It's to the point that it constantly reboots, the apple sign is always on, and then it is dead by midday and turns off completely. It is EXTREMELY frustrating and they need a fix. I keep checking to see if there is an update to hopefully fix this but no such luck yet.

Let me know how long that works for you. I’ve had the same issue on my series 4. Saturday I set up as a new watch. Left all third party apps off of it. Worked great until tonight. Back in the restart loop. Tonight I erased all data and restored to a backup from watch is 6.

Yup I have this problem as well. It is extremely frustrating as it feels tied to apps either on the watch or bloatware on it. If there isn't a consistent way to fix this then I'm strongly considering just getting a pure fitness tracking watch, apple watch quickly not worth the hassle if I am constantly stuck having to wait for it to sync