Unable to update Apple Watch due to lack of storage space

To Free-Up Storage

For songs, see the "Remove music from Apple Watch" section in:

Add music to Apple Watch - Apple Support

and for pictures, see the "Limit photo storage on Apple Watch section in:

Choose a photo album and manage storage on Apple Watch - Apple Support

To delete apps on your watch, see:

Delete apps from your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Also, try unpairing and pairing your watch again and restoring from the backup just created in the unpairing process. This deletes all temp and corrupted files and re-indexes the file system. This should result in no loss of data and in some cases can free a lot of storage.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Also see:

If you don’t have enough space to update your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Here is my experience with my two Series 3 watches:

I got the insufficient memory - delete stuff warning when trying to update.

Clicking on the ? in the dialog box took me to this support document which describes a special procedure for updating the series 3 - according to

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211283#unpair

you have to:

So after you unlink and relink the watch, and set it up as new, you then update - which worked, the two watches did update after a couple of tries. Note this is a lengthy process. Also note the watch is essentially new, you'll have to re-enter and re-bless your credit cards etc. in Wallet on the watch.

The problem I am having is that the only reason I updated the watches in the first place was to get iPhone unlock while wearing a mask, and for the life of me, I can only get the Watch app on my iPhone to accept one of the watches as eligible for granting the permission to use the watch as a password bypass.

The second watch, in that preference setting, remains grayed out and says it needs it software updated. But it is updated. Multiple restarts of all devices gets no joy.

MtD

Um, Apple is still _selling_ the series 3 watch. This takes built-in obsolescence to a whole new level: The device is obsolete before you buy it! Don't list Apple Watch 3 as compatible with OS 7.4 or 7.5 if you cannot upgrade to it. It's not that hard to provide a feature-reduced version of the OS that will install on lower-spec watches.

I did all of that and after it was set up as new it still gave me the same message of not enough storage. It’s easier to say that the update is not available for

this model than to keep us in a loop that will take us nowhere.

You can also delete files from the watch itself from Settings > Usage, and scroll down. I had to remove the 7.4 update before I was able to recover enough space (it was 2.6 GB, while 7.5 is 3.0 GB).

I guess we wait for a branch of 7.4 that fits into the space allowed. I have removed everything I can and can't get below 2.3Gb of space, even after removing the apps I use (all two of them) and a few of the default ones. Seems like someone knew this wasn't going to work. The unpair/reset and update/unpair/restore from backup is a lot of work and it seems like it's not reliable enough to try.

After five attempts at un-pairing and re-pairing and deleting files and apps I finally got it to work. You need to delete everything from your watch, including all deletable Apps, music, pictures, and then reboot the watch. Your usage needs to show 2.6g of free space. I upgraded from 7.2 (never had enough space to install 7.3…) ugh… but now I can unlock my phone with mask on.

I don't want to need that…I don't have faceID so all I really care about are bug fixes/security stuff. Bluetooth headphones or Fitness+ sound good but I already tried and cancelled Fitness+ before they extended it to my old AppleTV 2. So that's no value.

When it was designed, watchOS was smaller. But the Series 3 has been around for multiple watchOS major updates, and watchOS has grown in size. Typically the most software expands to fit the space.