Apple Watch Series 3 won’t update to WatchOS 7

I turned both my phone’s Bluetooth and my Apple watch’s Bluetooth off and back on. The iPhone watch app went from preparing to verifying. And the watch restarted and started installing the update right away.

by switching the Bluetooth off then back on again worked wonders

thanks A million

Pausing Bluetooth on the iPhone and turning it back on worked to restart the installing process from the "preparing" state for 7.0.1 update as well. Apple ought to make this part of the routine if that is what it takes going forward. Thank you everyone for saving me untold time and frustration.

OMG that’s horrible!!! To erase your watch with all that data??!!! That’s awful! :(

For my issue updating, I had made no changes when I started the update. My Apple Watch app indicated that the install was “preparing” and was stuck in that mode for however long it was before I tried to find a solution. (A half hour maybe.) I had tried turning my watch off but was unable to. So I turned the Bluetooth on my phone off and turned the Bluetooth on my watch off then went and turned the Bluetooth on my phone on and then the watch on. The time the Bluetooth was turned off was only seconds. It seemed like the moment both devices had Bluetooth back on, the preparing message changed to verifying and the installation progressed normally. When I messaged my husband about the issue I had, he replied that he had trouble too and will try my solution when he got home. It didn’t work for him! I just now asked how he managed to finally get it to work and he said “I just had to restart both devices a few times. Eventually it worked.” It’s very frustrating that not only does this issue exist, it also doesn’t seem to have a one-solution fits all. :(

We both have the iPhone 11 and series 3 watches.

😂 I did! It worked. At first I was thinking it was stalled again and kept messing with the Bluetooth and even turned my watch off. Then I decided to just let it sit while I did other things. When I came back it was still on preparing but I was able to see the progress bar slowly crawling up. So I finished my whole morning routine and when I checked again it was done!

Hallelujah! After about 6 tries and hours of time finally updated my S3 to 7.0.3. I had to reset my watch (no big deal since it was empty). After I setup my watch I rebooted it and my iPhone. Then I turned off Bluetooth on both devices. I kept Bluetooth of the entire time the update was doing it’s thing. Worst update experience ever. I complain, but love my Apple Watch and will get a S6 or S7 whenever I can afford it. Will be nice to get an Apple Watch with a real-world amount of storage.

Updated last night. As others on this thread, I believed that my watch was 'stuck' on preparing. That wasn't the case, it just took a real long time to prepare and install (2+ hours). Don't give up just keep letting it do it's thing.

I am RAGING with you Apple. I have had my Apple Watch for barely two years, and the latest software update has nearly broken me! I have had all of the problems on this thread. Prompted to upgrade to the new software, then it didn't work because my watch did not have enough memory. I was told to delete apps. There is nothing IN any of the apps I have, but I deleted them all anyway - every single one that it would allow me to delete. Still not enough memory. The only other option was to 'unpair' and try that way - and this took four hours (the Bluetooth trick definitely helped - thank you to those who suggested this). Even so, the very very last bit would not go through - even though the watch said it was ready to be paired, the iPhone was hanging. So I said 'cancel' - and THEN it allowed me to pair it. Phew! 30 mins more whirring, and then it worked. BUT it has deleted the last two days of my data, and thus ended my 130 day streak of closing all of my activity rings!!!!!!!!!!

Apple - if anyone from your company reads the teeth gnashing of your loyal customers on this thread - how dare you do this to us? It might not seem like much to you, that you have deleted my streak, but this was such a huge motivation to me to keep going with my exercise regime under lockdown. I have lost nearly two stone (28 pounds) since March, and the psychological boost of knowing that I was keeping active and keeping up my streak was a massively positive thing for me, and made me keep going when all I wanted to do was stay in bed. After you deleted my last two days of activity, plus a record breaking work out, I cried my eyes out and drank half a bottle of wine and ate a chocolate bar. I also had a massive row with my husband, as he couldn't understand why I was so upset about a 'streak' (or indeed what one was, as he is a luddite and does not even have a watch, let alone an Apple one). I share this message with you so you can take it home to your tech teams how much pain these ill-thought through software upgrades are affecting your community. I should not NEED to buy a new smart watch after two years. It should not be this difficult to upgrade the software, and to see that there's HUNDREDS of messages on this thread, and no acknowledgement whatsoever from yourselves, is shameful. Apple, thought you were better than this. Anyway, I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED by your cruel deletion of my activity data. I ran 5k this morning and I am going to shift the rest of the weight with or without your help. And when this Apple Watch gives up the ghost, I will certainly not be buying another one from you unless I receive a proper reply and explanation / apology from you. So there. I feel a lot better for typing this and I hope it helps you other disgruntled customers, as there appear to be many of them!

On your watch, ‘pull up’ from the bottom to see BT, charge, airplane mode, etc. Just click on BT to turn off—and on.

1. Push crown once
2. Select the settings icon (or from list)
3. Scroll to Wifi & click on it
4. Choose WiFi network

Best thing to do is don’t update right now . watch os7 doesn’t play well with series 3

Had the same issue, removed the watch from the charger; phone said unpairing watch; then stated setting up watch. it is now installing.

Pull up from the bottom of the watch and see above. Just click off the bluetooth

So ****** guys!

Worst experience updating ever

Apple really needs to fix the updating mechanism!

A few weeks away from a marathon and I have to reset and erase my watch with years of data on it! What a **** watch

Im honestly considering just going to buy a garmin right now

Please help

Stuck on preparing

ie I failed at the update process and pairing my watch many times

It eventually managed to pair finally and download the watch os

I turned off bluetooth for the downloading phase

Now I have a question:

AFTER DOWNLOADING - it SWITCHES TO PREPARING—

In this phase SHOULD MY BLUETOOTH BE ON OR OFF?

Trying again now

In this preparing phase is it wise to turn on n off apple watch and phone?

Apple watch is in the mandala screen

already wiped and reset watch 100 times since lastnight

Very frustrating since Im doing marathon training blocks

What a dumb watch

please help

restart or leave and wait? Been stuck for an hour

Also when preparing after download should i switch bluetooth back on then?

thanks alot

btw using iphone se and watch 3

Interesting—which makes me wonder what the issue is—yours would be set to factory settings—many of ours have been updated over a number of years with WAtch OS updates and with 3rd party apps and complications—and the answer for us seemed to be to set back to default and reinstall. Glad yours is working. The 3 is a very nice Iwatch and was such a big update from the original watch (which I had before 3).