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The series 3 watch no longer has enough memory to install updates even if nothing is installed on it. When is apple going to rewrite the update software so it operates with a reasonable free memory requirement?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251709584?page=5
This is where the topic is fully explored. It took me a while to find it, but it is a known issue at Apple that they have yet to issue any guidance on. The best answer I've seen so far is sell the watch back to Apple and buy one with more memory.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251709584?page=5
This is where the topic is fully explored. It took me a while to find it, but it is a known issue at Apple that they have yet to issue any guidance on. The best answer I've seen so far is sell the watch back to Apple and buy one with more memory.
Yeah, I've already done it all. Forced restart creates more free space, but not enough for what it is asking for. The series 3 watch only has 5 GB of RAM to start with so best case is you've got about 2.2 GB free. It used to be able to run updates of all sizes with that, but not any longer. The 7.4 update was a little more than 600 MG and the error message says I need 3 GB free to run it. The Apple Support says just unpair the watch, pair as new, run the update, unpair for a second time, pair again only with the restore from backup this time. It works and it is horrible because it takes forever.
The issue is the update is so inefficiently coded that it requires five times as much free space as the size of the update in order to run. The Series 3 watch is still a product being sold by Apple for a low cost entry point meaning that there is a strategic decision to keep it whereas the 4 and 5 are gone from Apple's store. If they want to keep selling it, I think they have to suck it up and write better code that fits within it's limited RAM. I was ready to buy a Series 6 until I saw they are still selling the 3 and then I was just really irritated.
Write a lot of code do you?
The Series 3 has 8GB or RAM but you lose some of that to formatting and more to the system files and some installed apps, watch faces (have you removed those), etc. The watchOS download is a heavily compressed file which must be unpacked (it has to have space to do that) and must have swap space for the installation. I'm sure the programmers did as much as they could and apparently it works because I know a number of people who have updated theirs and I'm not seeing anything that would show millions of people are having the issue.
How much free space do you have? Have you tried a forced restart of the watch just prior to updating.
I would guess that iOS 7.x will be EOL for updates for the Series 3.
The series 3 watch no longer has enough memory to install updates even if nothing is installed on it. When is apple going to rewrite the update software so it operates with a reasonable free memory requirement?
