apple watch keeps unpairing during initial set up

I just purchased a new Apple watch series 8 and began to pair it with my iPhone 12. I got past where it is paired and I tell it which wrist I wear the watch on, and it began doing something else that would take a few minutes and then it starts to unpair. It has done this several times, and I'm not sure what to do. I've shut down each and restarted, but still does the same thing.


Posted on Nov 17, 2022 5:34 PM

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44 replies

Sep 5, 2023 11:27 PM in response to Haylee405

It means series 3 will nit pair with that responder's ios16.1

series 1 to 3 Watches are difficult to pair because of relatively low storage but…


Ensure the iphone is on iOS16.4 or later.


Erase the Watch completely. Put your watch on its charger and keep it there until you complete these steps. (select the watch OS version) Erase Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK) 


When pairing do not try to restore the backup, pair as a New Watch https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204505




Sep 18, 2023 12:21 PM in response to R2D2_1973

My phone is in for repairs... so I am using an old 2016 SE temporarily, but while my good phone is away, I would like to be able to still use my watch, get calendar updates and notifications etc. So there is no way to unpair and reconnect to another phone without resetting the entire device. So eventually decide I have had enough, and reset watch. But now it does not pair. Search the internet, apple gives a whole lot of suggestions, none work. As soon as it pairs, it unpairs again. Then thanks to a bright user somewhere, try checking for phone updates. Okay great phone update is available. Try pairing - pairing fails. But now it tells me I need ios 16 to pair a watch, and I am on 15.7.9 since SE 2016 is not able to install 16...

So why could my phone not have told me when I first tried pairing that the IOS version was not high enough to pair in the first place and prevented me from resetting my watch? So now I am without a watch till my phone gets repaired? I have supported apple for many years but there are just too many things that are becoming painful about their service, I think it is time to start looking at alternatives.

apple watch keeps unpairing during initial set up

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