watch OS won’t update to 8.7.1

I’ve two Series 3 watches and neither will complete the update process for 8.7.1.

The watches get stuck while “checking for updates” and the associated phones get stuck “preparing”.

I’ve tried all the forced-restarts and factory-resets. Nothing works.

-Ryan

same problem here. Series 3 watch either "Can't verify because you're not connected to the internet" or sits on "Preparing..." for hours. Happens with three different iPhones, all manner of reset, etc. I hope they come out with a fix for this, my wife is ****** that her watch is bricked.

None of those steps fix this issue. Now my watch doesn’t do anything. Just a paperweight. Tried all the steps several times.

Hey there Sammi,

While you mentioned trying some of the steps listed here, we recommend trying them all as it addresses the error message you described: If you see 'Unable to Verify Update' when updating Apple Watch

If you still have an issue afterwards, we recommend letting Apple Support know what's been tried as they'll be in the best position to assist further with this: Get Support

Cheers.

Maybe they just want to force us to get newer watches. Wouldn’t be the first time they pulled something like that. They got in trouble a few years back for messing with batteries. If I remember correctly.

Apple support has been telling me this is a known issue with the series 3. Only solutions offered are waiting 72-96 hours for an alleged update that is in the works or taking it to an Apple Store where they can update the os manually. I’m skeptical but this is what phone support has told me on two separate occasions since last Thursday (Oct 13). Since I’m 2+ hours from the closest Apple Store I’m stuck with no watch while waiting for a purported update. I guess I’ll see what happens on Monday when iOS 16.1 drops.

my daughter had same problem - search for how to downgrade to iOS 15 on internet, then downgrade your iPhone by following the instructions : once you are back on iOS 15.7 it works fine.

major pain in the posterior........

I have the same issue, after multiple unsuccessful attempts:

• Tried updating with 3 different iPhones running iOS 16.0.3 (iPhone XR, 12 Pro, 8S) as well as with an iPhone SE running iOS 15.5
• Apple Watch was reset between attempts, watch app was reinstalled multiple times, I have also tried relogging into iCloud.
• Tried changing router frequency from 5GHz to 2.4 GHz
• Cellular data turned on and off
• Tried leaving iPhone next to the watch overnight while it was ‘Preparing…’
• Tried changing language and region of the watch before updating

Basically each attempt starts with downloading the 1 Gb update, then I get the error message ‘Unable to verify update - you are not connected to internet’. Then I press ‘Open app’ - since the only other option is to cancel the update. The installer downloads the update again, then jumps to ‘preparing…’ which never finishes.

I would be most honored to see an official response from Apple that they know of the problem and working on it, or even that they do not plan on fixing it. Anything certain, really…

I’m pretty sure iOS 16 it’s self broke it seems to be working on iOS 15 at least what I’ve heard I hope they fix this soon it’s ridiculous bought a new watch to get started into Apple Watches and get meet with not being able to use it for over a week now

So i had the very same problem, i just updated my iPhone 11 to iOS 16.1 and now it seems to be working. at least there is progress on the preparing bar. I'll keep you all updated once its done. Seems like it fixed it for me.

The update was finally successful. It took like ages but now my Watch is being synced with my phone. I needed to restart the pairing once, since it got stuck after installing the update. I hope you all will be able to update and set up your watches once again

I had the same issue with everyone on this thread for few weeks. But today I updated to IOS 16.1 (which was made available today on 8/24) on my iPhone and was finally able to update my Apple Watch Series 3 to iOS 7.8.1! I guess Apple added the fix in with IOS 16.1.

Chrismac80 wrote:

Has nothing to do with that. It was the 16.0.3 update had a bug and the 16.1 they fixed it. All I did was update to 16.1 and nothing else. Now it is updating.

Not so sure about that either. Some had older phones that didn’t support iOS 16 - so they had never installed any version of iOS16 and it somehow worked for them today. Anyways it should be working for most now.

It doesn't work for me. I cannot update to 8.7.1 even when my iPhone is updated to 16.1.

Nothing works. I have to mention that the problem was before, even on iOS 15 and earlier versions of watchOS (now I'm stuck on 8.5.1). I was hoping that iOS 16.1 would fix this issue, but it didn't.

It's not big deal since watch S3 won't get any new features anymore. You can install beta profile just to not see update notifications anymore. But some people report that they can't even pair watch with a phone. I'm afraid that if I would need to reset my watch to factory settings I won't be able to pair it again anymore. Funny thing that apple still sells this watch giving customers very limited support

Updated to iOS 16.1 last night and was finally able to update to watch OS 8.7.1 and repair my watch. Doesn’t get me back the almost 2 weeks with a bricked watch or restore the 800+day move streak but it’s finally working.