Apple Watch Stuck in "Preparing" during watchOS 9.6 update

Tried the re-pairing but cannot get past needing update on iPhone. Then try to update and gets stuck in preparing.

Deleted, rebooted, restarted a number of times - still not updating. Have spent enough time on this - Apple needs to address this issue!!

I have tried these steps repeatedly and the watch never moves beyond preparing. Something is wrong with this update. Apple please fix this

I tried this. It still didn't fix my issue. :(

I’ve done this twice, still no joy. I’ve just deleted the files via my phone then my watch battery just drained . Apple this is not good

How long did it take? I left my phone and watch for hours... no luck!

Same

How do you delete a file that isn't there because it never get's past the "preparing" point?

Tried all methods on this thread and still stuck in "preparing".

Was on the phone with tech support for two hours tonight and they couldn’t figure it out. And my watch battery is draining in the meantime.

Same so many times I’ve tried. The only reason I care to update is because I read that it’s a fix for the battery draining fast which just started two days ago.

Because the watch is stuck in "preparing" mode, it keeps draining the battery life on my watch. It is only lasting 5 hours!

Yes! Same problem for me!

Thank you so much for this. That did the trick! ☺️

I did that too -- put both on charger, made sure both were 100% charged, just got the same old 'preparing' loop.