Unable to update 10.4 in my Apple Watch 10.4 over 50% of preparing stage

I have been trying to update my watch, Series 6, for the last few hours. The

update successfully downloads, but when it reaches a little over 50% of the “preparing

stage” no further progress is made. I am currently on my sixth attempt of

updating my watch, and for the sixth time, the update stopped during the “preparing”

stage.

I have tried to following: 1) deleted the update file “watchOS 10.4” and

restarted the update. 2) Performed a “hard restart” on my iphone 13 pro,

deleted the “watchOS 10.4” file. 3) Performed a hard reset on the iwatch.

All these attempts failed, so if anyone has a suggestion to overcome this annoying

issue, it would be welcome.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Apple Watch Series 6

Posted on Mar 7, 2024 1:51 PM

Top-ranking reply

pbGuy

Level 1

130 points

Posted on Mar 8, 2024 7:10 AM

Happened to me as well (Watch 9); stuck on... Preparing.

Steps I used to correct: {At this stage, download of watchOS has occurred solely on the iPhone, but Install to watch has not yet begun. BTW, it certainly was not an iPhone storage issue; I've got about 80 GB free.}

Did a shutdown-restart of of iPhone (13mini) &
Shutdown-restart of watch. {I'm not sure if these 2 steps were necessary.}
Last step: In Watch app (iPhone) -> General -> Storage -> watchOS 10.4 download is there -> Deleted watchOS 10.4

Upon completing the above, navigated (Watch app) back to General -> Software Update & started Update a 2d time. ...Update completed normally.

This issue is the 1st time I've experienced it (including all my previous Watches); I've no idea what's the cause. But at least, the above steps was a reasonable correction. And if such happens again, I'll know how to proceed (rather than waiting more than 2 hours, being stuck on Processing).

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Unable to update 10.4 in my Apple Watch 10.4 over 50% of preparing stage

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