Apple Watch update 10.4 stuck at Preparing

Update to this update!!

I ended up calling Apple as it was so *****! I linked the charger to my laptop in case I’d missed an update somewhere & this was causing the issue (it wasn’t!).

It took a number of attempts & it took a while, but I kept deleting it from the watch and starting again.

The adviser did ask me to do a forced reboot of the phone and the watch.

I actually couldn’t get the watch to reset but shut the phone down & went from

there & it did go through.

The prep took ages & the adviser said the download will take twice as long, and it really did!

If it still won’t work, call them! It took about an hour but they walked me through it.

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!!

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.

April 12 - I had the same problem - stuck on "preparing" forever. I finally did the scenario:

Closed out the Update Screen on my iPhone

On my iPhone - went into Apple Watch App/General/Storage

In Storage, I deleted OS 10.4

Turned off my iPhone for a Restart

Turned off my iWatch

Waited a few minutes

Rebooted my iPhone and my IWatch

Went on my iPhone back into the iWatch App/General/Software Update

Selected the OS 10.4 update and selected Install

It took about 20 - 30 minutes but it went thru the entire install (but slowly)

Now I am waiting to see if I have any problems tomorrow on the charge on my iWatch

I deleted and hard rebooted both phone and watch and it worked on the third try.

1) Watch app -> General -> Storage -> Delete the update watchOS 10.4

2) Hold both buttons on the watch and it'll hard reboot

3) Just regular restart your phone

4) Try the update again and cross your fingers. Give it an extra min it looks like it's not moving but moves slowly. Also idk if it matters, my phone screen was on the whole time. I had it plugged in on my desk and was watching the progress.

super frustrating - but here's what finally worked for me:

delete the update from your watch and check your local phone storage. settings>general>iPhone storage.

local storage on iPhone remaining was something like 20-30GB (plenty, you'd think!). started getting rid of backups, app data (lots of downloaded podcasts...), local photos (use Google Photos for that anyway so no need for local storage). as I kept deleting I noticed that the "preparing" bar started moving again and then - done!

good luck 👋

Went to apple watch series 8 Settings-General-Storage and deleted watchOS 10.4 file. Then restarted the installation of 10.4 and it works. My watch also noticed before the upgrade that discharged from 100% charged overnight to 10% in less than a day, very unusual. Hope it helps

Ok mine is done. Solution from here, thanks. Deleted file from storage and installed from Watch. In the mean time I deleted a few files and apps from my phone for good measure. Not sure which solution actually sorted the problem but it is now up to date

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!

I finally got it to work! Deleted the update, restarted both watch and phone then put both on charge, restarted the update and then just left them for a couple of hours as I had read on another thread that the update takes between 1.5 - 2 hrs

My Watch 8 was losing power fast. I looked at the watch app and it was stuck on “Preparing”. It was at 49% battery. I waited until it was 53%. Then I closed the watch app, powered off the phone, restarted the watch and turned on the phone. Then relaunched the watch app on the phone. Went to software update and it started downloading an then had the install option. It installed fine after all that.

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.

Here's how I fixed mine. Not sure if every step is necessary but ultimately everything worked.

1) On iPhone "forget" the Bluetooth connection to watch, and delete the watch app as well.

2) On watch make sure it's connected to Wi-Fi

3) Put watch on charger and check for Updates. The latest update 10.5 will display and now the update can be installed from the watch.

4) Using the Settings on the watch select Reset and reset the watch

5) Install the watch app on the iPhone

6) Establish the Bluetooth connection between the watch and the phone

Lot's of steps but for the first time in what seems like months everything is working perfectly