Apple Watch on iPhone is stuck on "preparing the update"

Similar issue. Phone's plugged in, watch is fully charged and on it's charging pad but the update seems stuck. It's been saying "Preparing" for the last 2 hrs or so. Any fix? Thanks.

There is a simple solution, simply open the watch app, go to general, scroll down to storage, select the watch OS update and delete it. You can now go to Software Update in the watch app and it will ask you to download it again

Still can’t update 10.2 and I’ve done all of the fixes mentioned. And since I’ve unpaired my watch, I can’t use it at all because it won’t reset without being updated. Has anyone had success?

I’m having the same issue with my series 9. It’s been on “preparing” for over an hour. You pay all this money for these devices & then this occurs. So frustrating.

my watch series 9 stuck in 10.2 update with preparing....how to fix this problem?? help

I figured out the issue with the 10.2 update not loading to my Ultra 2. I turned off the vpn on my iPhone, tried and it started downloading immediately. So if you have a vpn on your phone, try turning it off to do the update…

Same issue on my Apple Watch SE. Been stuck on ‘preparing’ for over a month. Restarted / reset phone, not on a VPN, nothing helps. Useless POS….. I’ll be moving permanently back to a Fitbit soon. Ridiculous

First time I have had an issue updating my Ultra. At first the update wouldn’t download. After turning the watch and phone on an off several times, it downloaded but is caught in a “verifying” loop for hours. The watch gets extremely hot during this extended verifying process. I then turned the watch and phone off several times and again the same problem. No VPN, iphone is up to date. It’s very frustrating. Is there a solution?

I’m having the same issue with my 2 day old Ultra 2, it will not update after many attempts, restarts, unpairing, etc. Plus I get no audio from Siri. My first Apple Watch and not making a very good first impression.

Apple Watch on iPhone is stuck on “preparing the update”.

I had my Apple Watch on the charger while it was preparing the update when there was a power outage that lasted an hour. Now it is stuck. What can I do because it is frozen now on the Watch app? I can still use my Apple Watch like normal. Is there a fix?

FWIW, I just ended up resetting my WatchSE and the update completed fine.

Same thing. I did the following:

1) turn off VPN and the “on demand connect” setting in the VPN you’re using.

2) turn off wrist detection in watch settings.

3) plug in iPhone and watch.

4) hard reset both devices.

5) restart install from settings on watch.

6) do not let watch screen go off and lock until update complete (i just rolled the update screen back and forth).

This finally worked for me about 10 minutes ago. I tried several other combinations of the suggestions above, but this is the one that worked for me.

Reset the phone and try again.

Try using a different wifi network; office, neighbor, cousin, grandma, library, coffeeshop.

Tried everything. The 10.2 update is frozen on updating for hours. Left it overnight and restarted the phone and the watch. Still no joy.