Update won’t install on Apple Watch series 3

If you are pairing the watch and phone, your Watch Ap will only open to the pairing screen. You cannot get to the screen that allows you to do step 2 & 3 in the above post without updating to 8.7.1. All you can do is wait as the phone attempts the update. In my case and apparently lots of others, once the phone downloads the update and proceeds to the preparing stage, it sticks there forever. There are possibly several solutions but a new upgrade that works or allowing the watch to be setup prior to updating seem logical possibilities.

I have tried all the troubleshooting suggestions addressing this issue - restarting phone and watch, resetting etc.- multiple times. Nothing has worked. I have wasted numerous hours and had considerable frustration. Let’s just say my love of Apple products is fading rapidly. I hate to think that Apple would brick a device that they sold recently.

After leaving it in a drawer for a few weeks, I charged it, reset it, and started the process again. For some totally unknown reason, it worked. I can’t explain why. I was about to give up.

Good luck!

Try this

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap General > Software Update.
3. Delete the update file.
4. Try again to update your Apple Watch.