You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Stuck in preparing mode for watchOS 7.4.1

Stuck in preparing mode for watchOS 7.4.1? Been trying to update Watch for 6 hours. Have got to this point twice. All software downloaded, twice. Rebooted phone and watch.

Apple Watch Series 3, watchOS 6

Posted on May 21, 2021 9:16 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 21, 2021 9:42 AM

The apple watch 3 GPS only has only 8GB of internal storage, most of that is taken up by the operating system and other critical software. So installing a major update is not going to be easy;


1.Unpair and erase your watch to factory settings.

2.Set up the watch again,but setup as new not from a backup.

3.Update the watch, which now has enough free memory to update

4.Unpair and erase the watch a second time

5.Re-pair the watch with your phone, but choose the backup you made in step 1,another backup is made in step 4 but don't choose that one.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 21, 2021 9:42 AM in response to Moonbird1

The apple watch 3 GPS only has only 8GB of internal storage, most of that is taken up by the operating system and other critical software. So installing a major update is not going to be easy;


1.Unpair and erase your watch to factory settings.

2.Set up the watch again,but setup as new not from a backup.

3.Update the watch, which now has enough free memory to update

4.Unpair and erase the watch a second time

5.Re-pair the watch with your phone, but choose the backup you made in step 1,another backup is made in step 4 but don't choose that one.

Stuck in preparing mode for watchOS 7.4.1

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.