Watch 3 not enough space to install watchos 7, cant delete anything.

Same here...literally just deleted every single app that I could on my watch (can't remove apple ones), there is no music, or no pictures stored on my watch and it's sitting at 3.0 GB out of 4.7 GB

Maybe if Apple allowed us to remove some of their unnecessary apps that are forced onto our watch

I guess this is one way to force people to upgrade 🤦‍♂️

I had this problem too. The only way to solve it is to unpair your Apple Watch and pair it again. Go onto the Apple Watch app on iPhone > All Watches > Information button next to your watch > Unpair Apple Watch

I keep hearing from people on this forum, the Mac Rumors forum, and from apple support personnel that I should submit feed back about this and a couple other ongoing issues ( https://www.apple.com/feedback/). And I’ve done it a handful of times in the last year but the problems remain. What happened to the old Apple?? The Apple that made sure things worked and when they didn’t work they made sure it got fixed ASAP? Steve must be rolling in his grave these days. It is not just this issue, the pattern repeats for other products and software issues. Worse yet, the support process has become worthless- I have come to the conclusion that one should only call or chat them if you’re prepared to lose all of your data and settings because they aren’t taught how to fix problems any other way. It is so disappointing to have been a loyal Apple customer my entire adult life and see the excellent qualities that used to define the company ebbing away.

I just got off the phone with Apple support. They told me this is a known issue and are tracking it internally based on Feedback posted at Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

Representative told me there are other watches that run into this problem as well. Seems like a chronic problem, but I was asked to submit feedback.

I find it shameful, Apple doesn't publish this as a known issue, wasting Apple support staff time and customer's.

Yup, literally just did that and it cleared another 1 GB of memory off my watch...there must have been some cached/system/corrupted files somewhere that get cleared.

Seems like that's the fix

1. Unpair Watch from iPhone
2. Re-pair Watch
3. I selected New Watch vs. restore from backup just to be safe

Here is Apple's support document on the topic, suggesting to first try to removing media and apps, and if that doesn't work to then unpair and update: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211283

For updating watchOS from 7.2 to 7.3.2, I found that restarting my iPhone and closing all of its open apps did the trick.

Here's how it went down for me...

• When I updated my iPhone from 14.4 to 14.4.1, it automatically tried to install the new watchOS. This is when the space error came up on my watch. I was busy, so just dismissed it.
• Later in the day, I noticed my iPhone was missing some app push notifications, so I restarted iPhone. To be thorough, given that iOS re-launches all open apps on a power off/power on, I also closed all running apps including the Watch app. (Reminder: to get to the app switcher, for iPhone 12, swipe up from the bottom of the screen. For older models, double press the Home button. Then, swipe up on an app card to close it.) I had 15-20 running apps.
• As I was checking out the Health app before I cleared it away too, I received a popup that a new Apple Watch was now associated with my Apple ID. This was unexpected. I dismissed the message.
• I then opened the Watch app my iPhone, noted that it no longer said I had a pending Watch version update (the red circle notification did not show), and went to General > Software Update within the app.
• The update was found and installing it worked this time: it was downloaded to Watch, prepared, and installed. Yay!
• FYI, after the update, I confirmed in iPhone Settings > [My Name] that there is indeed only one Watch associated with my Apple ID.

I found a solution that seems to work...

1. Use the app on the iPhone to "erase all content and settings". This will generate a backup of the watch and then unpair the watch.
2. Re-pair the watch setting it up as a new watch (don't use the backup)
3. Install the OS update
4. Once the watch installs the new OS update, once again use the app on the iPhone to "erase all content and settings" which will do another backup and unpair the watch
5. Re-pair the watch this time restoring from the backup that was written during step 1

The watch should now have the latest OS and also all the previous information. Overall this process took me over 4+ hours :(

I‘ve been through all these tips with the previous Watch OS update (7.3) where I succeeded after a full reset unpairing and then re configuring everything.

Today the 7.4 update dropped and I expected the same issues - sure enough I was short of space. I did the full reset, re-paired and once it had completed the pairing it was already over the space limit!! Tried several things - eventually thought I‘d set up with a different apple id - but the setup for someone else option does not work with Apple Watch 3.

My storage was all eaten up after pairing - so I thought my Apple profile might be an issue. Long story short:

On iPhone

• check your phone and watch is backed up.
• sign out (settings -> your name -> sign out) <<< This is the novel approach
• watch app factory reset
• skip as many sign in / setup options as you can
• wait for the initial sync to complete <<< As phone is signed out there is much less to sync!!
• update watch os

Now you can restore from back up or re sign in on iphone and watch.

I also had to re setup and authorize my credit cards in Wallet.

Steve

I unpaired watch and re-paired. Then selected New Watch and Update Software. It is running for whole night and still downloading to watch..... 2 hours remaining. On watch it says 'Please continue setup on iPhone'.

So... after restarting... it took a couple of hours to erase all the data. Immediately after restart I had 2.8GB free; a couple hours later I had 3.2GB free. Of course installing the OS is having it's own challenges... can't verify the download... need to re-download... so far this is turning into a 1/2day event just to install the new OS :)

Try a forced restart on your watch by holding down both buttons. My series 3 had 2gb free with no apps installed and nothing left to take off. I restarted it and the watch booted up with 3.4gb free. Another options is to unpair the watch but try the reboot first.

I had the exact same issue but did as below here in the UK and it worked - unpair and re-pair the watch. Use your back-up if you want and you'll find it frees up a LOT more storage and therefore allows the download and install of WatchOS 7. Must be a system issue or invisible cache that gets cleared when you unpair and re-pair.

I deleted all photos and podcasts and then deleted all the installed apps (that I could delete). I then restarted the watch and when it finished restarting there was 2.8GB free. A few hours later I checked again and now there was 3.2GB free. So it appears like after the watch restarted it took some time for it to free up space.

I was able to resolve this by going to the profiles installed on my watch and removing the WatchOS Beta profile I had on there. You can find and remove this profile from the Watch app on the phone or directly from the watch itself. That freed up enough space. I similarly had to remove the iOS 13 beta profile from my iPhone for it to even see iOS14.

Hope that helps someone out there.