I recently got a new phone and completely unpaired my Apple Watch, restarted it to factory settings. Now it requires an update before it will pair to my new phone, and the update never seems to finish. It has been stuck on Preparing and never updates

Any troubleshooting tips for an Apple Watch that will not update. I have completely reset it, charged it to 50% and updated my phone as well. Nothing seems to get the watch update to finish so I can set my watch up onto my current phone.


Apple Watch Series 3, watchOS 5

Posted on Oct 13, 2022 03:36 PM

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Oct 14, 2022 05:21 PM in response to torreyIke

Hello torreyIke,


Thanks for reaching out to us in Apple Support Communities about issues updatig your Apple Watch. We're happy to help by looking into this more! 


The following support article provides some troubleshooting steps to try for this behavior: Update your Apple Watch - Apple Support


If you need help updating

Try these steps:
1. Make sure that your Apple Watch connects to its charger
2. Restart your Apple Watch. Press and hold the side button until you see Power Off, then drag the slider. To turn your watch on again, press and hold the side button.
3. Restart your paired iPhone.
4. Try to start the update again. 

If the update won't start, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap General > Usage > Software Update, then delete the update file. After you delete the file, try to download and install watchOS again.
Learn what to do if you see 'Cannot Install Update' when updating Apple Watch.


Hope this helps.


Best Regards.


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I recently got a new phone and completely unpaired my Apple Watch, restarted it to factory settings. Now it requires an update before it will pair to my new phone, and the update never seems to finish. It has been stuck on Preparing and never updates

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