Apple Watch update 10.4 stuck at Preparing

Had the same issue... after multiple attempts deleting and restarting the download, only ever made it to "preparing" stage and watch battery drained quickly. Finally, deleted the download file and stopped trying to install the update. So far, battery life is holding up. I will wait until Apple figures this out.

according to Apple, I have 46gb left on my iCloud storage family plan and yet I still can’t get my watch or my husbands watch to update. They are stuck on preparing and draining the battery. Any other suggestions?

I'll add to this dumpster pile! My watch died during the night while wearing it even though it was at 100% when I went to bed. It has always been between 78-85% each morning but was dead. Recharged to 100%, worked out and an hour later battery was down to 10%. Tried to update to 10.4 and it stuck at "preparing". I deleted the download file, unpaired the phone, repaired and tried to download update again to no avail. I'm assuming Apple knows about this issue so hopefully they will get an update out soon that actually works! My watch doesn't last 2 hours anymore without dying.

Having the EXACT same issues. Battery drain is making my watch unusable. After multiple attempts at downloading and installing 10.4, I'm at my wit's end. My watch has been off my wrist and on my charger for almost 10+ hours today during all of my troubleshooting attempts and I've thus destroyed any fitness streaks I had going.

I've tried all of the usual suggestions:

• Force restart of watch and iphone.
• Deleting and re-installing the 10.4 download.
• Unpairing and re-pairing.
• Turning off bluetooth during download and using only wifi.

Ultimately, I made an appointment at my local Apple Store today to see if I could get some professional help working through this issue. At the store, the tech had me unpair and re-pair my phone and watch as "new." She also checked my overall watch battery health. Because I'd had the watch on my charger all day during many attempts at install of 10.4, there was no data on current performance but I have 93% battery life left. My ticket was closed and I was sent home to retry the download and install process (for the 6th/7th/100th time). I am once again stuck at "preparing" and ultimately back at square one.

Same problem with me - I have been on update 10.4 all day now. Only option is to delete in storage and see what happens overnight. Can't understand why Apple hasn't fixed this problem - assuming they know how to undo what they did!!

I've had the same issue my watch has been stuck preparing the 10.4 update for hours. I've tried deleting app, restarting everything but the preparing bar gets stuck right above the "t" in features. I also noticed my watch lost full battery within 2 hours after it was fully charged. I hope they can fix this soon

Same thing is happening to me. Before yesterday my Apple Watch worked fine. Beginning yesterday, I cannot hold a charge for more than a few hours. 100% to dead in two hours. Update stuck at preparing. Making my watch unusable.

I also am having the same problem. I have done all of the steps identified above. I have worked on this for about 5 hours today, and am still in the same place. Stuck with preparing. I charged my watch before I went to bed at 2 a.m. today and when I got up at 7, my watch battery was in the red zone. I am frustrated.

I have the same issue!! And i was forced to update to watchos 10.4 because out of the blue the battery started to drain from 100% to 0 in 3 hours. This is sick! Apple, do something! I can’t use my watch anymore because it is stuck in Preparing mode for 2 days and the battery is broken because of your bugs!

I am having the same issues that others have described. I have re-started my iPhone and iwatch numerous times and have tried to download the update and it keeps getting stuck in the “preparing” stage. My watch is then going into the “red” by morning, then need to charge it again before I retry the process. Help!

Same problem, Tried just to install on the watch. Hanging. Watch OS 10.4 is a disaster.

Shame Apple sent out an untested update, they used to be so much more professional in checking their software

I just bought a refurbed watch and I cant get it running at all bc of this issue, as this os needs to download to it first but the os install wont complete at all so it doesnt even show in the watch app. Any suggestions as it seems apple still hasnt fixed it and now Im stuck with a bricked watch…

April 21, 2024 and it's still not resolved. I'm having all the same issues. Not sure what the "corruption" is, but I've never seen Apple move this slowly before on a fix for something that shouldn't be causing all these problems. And, not posting something about it somewhere - or just updating to 10.4.1 instead! Really haven't seen this for quite awhile, so wondering if the engineers are on vacation?

This is ridiculous. I'm having the same issues. Unable to complete the update and having to charge the watch twice a day. The update is stuck on a loop. At one point the update showed "About 3 days remaining". I don't have the time for this.

So,i have a problem i have an apple watch 6 and it was on os9.6 so when i got an update of os10.4 it started to get stuck on preparing and after 2-3 minutes it started to say update failed so i unpaired the watch and reset it and now i cant even open it because first it says i have to update it