Music sync is incredibly slow

[borelli]

Hi, I just bought a new Series 3, my first watch. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but it takes forever to sync just a few albums. Well over an hour!

From what I understand, it's using Bluetooth to sync. Why? If the watch has to be docked in order to sync, power consumption shouldn't be an issue so it should surely be using Wifi and be fast!

Am I doing something wrong? Are there any tricks or workarounds anyone knows of for this?

 

[richard371]

I find when I got home on my wifi it was faster. Still nothing like an iPhone but much faster then on BT. Too bad they couldn't get BT5 in the AW3. Looking forward to BT 5.

 

[borelli]

Oh that's interesting. I am at home, and it's so cripplingly slow I assumed it was using BT. I switched my iphone to the 2G Wifi since Watch can't do 5G, I'd expect it to be slower but not like this, it's crazy.

 

[eboychik]

I agree. It was far faster on my Series One to sync music to the watch. And this watch has wifi!

 

[BA2020]

Oh that's interesting. I am at home, and it's so cripplingly slow I assumed it was using BT. I switched my iphone to the 2G Wifi since Watch can't do 5G, I'd expect it to be slower but not like this, it's crazy.

It shouldn’t matter what wifi your phone is on. Try turning your phone Bluetooth off so your watch will use wifi to download.

(I’ll have to try that myself sometime, as it’s excruciating slow for my downloads too)

 

[dave006]

And it does not matter about the Wi-Fi. Syncing playlists requires Bluetooth to be "On" on the iPhone and the Watch to be actively charging.

The recommendation for the initial transfer of music to the Watch is to "Add Music" overnight if you have a large library of music to transfer.

Dave

 

[BA2020]

And it does not matter about the Wi-Fi. Syncing playlists requires Bluetooth to be "On" on the iPhone and the Watch to be actively charging.

The recommendation for the initial transfer of music to the Watch is to "Add Music" overnight if you have a large library of music to transfer.

Dave

Not understanding why BT has to be on as a stipulation, but whatever.

Coincidentally, earlier today on my Mac, I selected some songs and gave them ratings so they would be auto added to a couple of my smart playlists (then load onto my watch when I charge it tonight). Hours passed and I see your reply... I turn off BT on my phone via settings app. Verified watch is on wifi, and put it on the charger. Entered my passcode on watch, put my Airpods on, navigated to one of the songs and it started playing. Then went to the other half dozen, and they each started playing.

Dunno. I did do a search and Apple’s own support docs say what you said. But maybe the playlist sync’d over BT before (?), and then songs came over wifi while on charger??

It did seem to transfer over a ton faster over wifi (than BT), in my limited experience.

 

[gigaguy]

Hmm, I've had every series, and the 3 was super fast compared to the previous models. I loaded 120 pics and 4 playlists - 200 songs in a matter of minutes. I didn't time it but just the pics alone used to take the same time as the pics and songs now, it was impressive, not sure why others with the 3 are so slow. If you go to settings on Watch, you can watch the count of pics and songs as they load, it was zippy.

 

[ericinboston]

I'm late to this thread but I have an iPhone 7S, my mp3s are 320Kbit, and when I tried to transfer 200 songs it was literally going 1 song per minute on the Watch 3 I purchased today.

I figured it had to be going over Bluetooth and hence for some bizarre reason BT was extremely slow (and it should not be this slow).

It turns out that BT transfers with the Watch 3 seem to be painfully slow (bug?) and the only workaround for me is:

1. Disable BT on iPhone (seconds later this should force the Watch to go into WIFI mode and go looking for the iPhone)
2. Ensure iPhone and Watch 3 are on the same WIFI network (remember, Watch 3 cannot be on 5G WIFI which I also find ridiculous since my 10 year old wifi router supports 5G). On your Watch 3, you can confirm WIFI by seeing a WIFI symbol at the top of your watch
3. Place the Watch on the charger
4. Go into your iPhone Watch app and when you transfer music now, it should be 1 song every 5-10 seconds.

I don't plan on updating the music often (2x a month), but this performance on BT is a total let down and the workaround is a total pain and so opposite of "it just works."

I pray this is a software bug and there is an OS fix very soon.

 

[BlueMoon63]

Hmm, I've had every series, and the 3 was super fast compared to the previous models. I loaded 120 pics and 4 playlists - 200 songs in a matter of minutes. I didn't time it but just the pics alone used to take the same time as the pics and songs now, it was impressive, not sure why others with the 3 are so slow. If you go to settings on Watch, you can watch the count of pics and songs as they load, it was zippy.

Agree with this post on my S3 while S0/S2 was slow. Also, the S3 and S2 were with my same iPhone 7 Plus.

Was painfully slow to the point I would just not wear my watch to bed when I needed to sync more than say 50 songs. Now, I was able to sync a 300 song, 320kbps playlist while I shower and get ready...30 minutes top.

I’m feeling lucky I guess because I can also fully charge from 80 to 100% in about 20 minutes or so and the only difference is the 2.1amp Anker charging block versus apples 1amp.

 

[cris.kgl]

Hi, I just bought a new Series 3, my first watch. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but it takes forever to sync just a few albums. Well over an hour!

From what I understand, it's using Bluetooth to sync. Why? If the watch has to be docked in order to sync, power consumption shouldn't be an issue so it should surely be using Wifi and be fast!

Am I doing something wrong? Are there any tricks or workarounds anyone knows of for this?

Easy to fix, ive just realized. Take your phone like 3 metres away from ur watch. This worked 4 me.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Seems like everything is slow downloading to the watch. My AW3 is much faster than previous models but it seem to take forever to just do an update. Not a big problem, guess it is due to the processor not being very powerful to save on the battery.

 

[igrover]

Old thread however just wanted to add that today I needed to unpair and repair my Apple Watch Series 3 LTE with my iPhone X. I previously had 529 songs on the watch and after repairing the watch and phone I noticed it was taking a very long time to sync the songs over to the watch. So I tried the suggestion above about turning off bluetooth on the phone, then connecting the phone to my home wifi 2.4 gHz network (instead of the normal 5 gHz network) and sure enough the watch connected to the phone using wifi instead of bluetooth and I am now looking at the remaining songs transferring over to the watch considerably faster as compared to using bluetooth.

I do have the watch on its charger right now - why would Apple not automatically switch or at least ask to switch to the faster wifi? I suppose it has something to do with the watch not being able to sync to a 5 gHz network.

Really frustrating.

 

[madeirabhoy]

cant believe this isn't more of an issue, guess people just use apple music and don't copy music onto their watches.

its my biggest bugbear.

its not just the speed, its when it stops and you cant get it restarting without deleting and starting again. its the uncertainty of whether its working.

and its just the sheer stupidity of the whole setup.
the watch needs to be on the charger. why? if it can stream music without being on the charger whats the difference?
is it just me or does it only work remotely reliably when the music is physically on the phone not on the cloud. why does it even have to come via the phone? if I can access the music on the watch from my iTunes match why cant I download it?

and why why why Bluetooth. wtf.

and why does your music often disappear if you have to login using a different app store on your phone? I have to logout sometimes of my Portuguese account to update apps from wifes uk account. if I do so, then normally, not sure if its all the time, my watch dumps all its music.

tried last night to put 3 cds worth of music on my watch. sat for about 4 hours with watch on charger. phone near. kept waking the phone up in case that helped, with the watch app open. copied about 8 songs.

 

[swandy]

cant believe this isn't more of an issue, guess people just use apple music and don't copy music onto their watches.

its my biggest bugbear.

its not just the speed, its when it stops and you cant get it restarting without deleting and starting again. its the uncertainty of whether its working.

and its just the sheer stupidity of the whole setup.
the watch needs to be on the charger. why? if it can stream music without being on the charger whats the difference?
is it just me or does it only work remotely reliably when the music is physically on the phone not on the cloud. why does it even have to come via the phone? if I can access the music on the watch from my iTunes match why cant I download it?

and why why why Bluetooth. wtf.

and why does your music often disappear if you have to login using a different app store on your phone? I have to logout sometimes of my Portuguese account to update apps from wifes uk account. if I do so, then normally, not sure if its all the time, my watch dumps all its music.

tried last night to put 3 cds worth of music on my watch. sat for about 4 hours with watch on charger. phone near. kept waking the phone up in case that helped, with the watch app open. copied about 8 songs.

Yes the fact that is it done over BlueTooth is extremely stupid because it is also extremely slow. (Though someone posted - not sure in this thread or elsewhere - that he makes sure the Watch is connecting via Wifi not Bluetooth and the music updating happens faster. Have not tried that idea yet - I just let it do the updating at night when the Watch is charging anyway.)
And yes, it goes faster (relative term) if you first download the playlists to your iPhone first because otherwise the iPhone has to download the songs before sending them via Bluetooth to the Watch.

 

[perezr10]

When all the Apple pundits are asking what can Apple add to the Series 4 watch that people will want I always think “I just want to be able to use my 16gb of storage to move music/podcasts on and off my watch easily!!!”.

The Apple Watch SHOULD be the iPod Nano of today. It would be if not for the stupid transfer process.

 

[djbuddha]

When all the Apple pundits are asking what can Apple add to the Series 4 watch that people will want I always think “I just want to be able to use my 16gb of storage to move music/podcasts on and off my watch easily!!!”.

The Apple Watch SHOULD be the iPod Nano of today. It would be if not for the stupid transfer process.

PREACH

I've spent the last HOUR waiting for my Series 4 to sync 3 mixes I made.

1 mix is 20 minutes
1 is 15 minutes
1 is 10

At 320kbit the total size 119.3 megs.

It's still going, it finally got to the last file. Again, AN HOUR HAS PASSED.

This is ridiculous. iPhone XS Max to the Series 4 and THIS is the speed using the latest devices?

 

[Xao70]

I did what some others suggested, turned off bluetooth. Be sure to NOT do it through the control panel, because if you go into your iPhone settings and pull up Bluetooth, you will see all of your BT devices disconnected EXCEPT for your watch!

I turned it off on the toggle switch, and went I went back to my Watch app, it said to turn BT on to connect to a device, but I hit cancel and kept both the Apple Watch and the iPhone on the wifi, now it and podcasts are syncing WAY faster!

Wifi synching for Music and podcasts should be default, not BT! It should also be able to keep items sync'd, locations in podcasts when it's NOT connected via BT to your phone or at least NOT on the charger. I have two AW's, and I wear them 24 hours for tracking health and sleep. With AUTO connect with wrist movement, the other Apple watch disconnected and it doesn't sync, because I put it on the charger, my fully charged watch connects to my phone, so not NEITHER watch is receiving podcast and smart playlist updates, because the connected device is not on the charger and the one on the charger is not connected to the phone.

I would be OK that first sync of the watch to the iPhone had to be on the charger to get the first full list, but after that, the iPhone should search for ALL Apple Watches on your network via wifi that the iPhone controls and do just deltas on the Wifi. Then all devices would use limited battery life, and all stay in sync much better!

I'll be putting a suggestion in Apples suggestion box for this new synching request.

PREACH

I've spent the last HOUR waiting for my Series 4 to sync 3 mixes I made.

1 mix is 20 minutes
1 is 15 minutes
1 is 10

At 320kbit the total size 119.3 megs.

It's still going, it finally got to the last file. Again, AN HOUR HAS PASSED.

This is ridiculous. iPhone XS Max to the Series 4 and THIS is the speed using the latest devices?

 

[djbuddha]

I did what some others suggested, turned off bluetooth. Be sure to NOT do it through the control panel, because if you go into your iPhone settings and pull up Bluetooth, you will see all of your BT devices disconnected EXCEPT for your watch!

I turned it off on the toggle switch, and went I went back to my Watch app, it said to turn BT on to connect to a device, but I hit cancel and kept both the Apple Watch and the iPhone on the wifi, now it and podcasts are syncing WAY faster!

Wifi synching for Music and podcasts should be default, not BT! It should also be able to keep items sync'd, locations in podcasts when it's NOT connected via BT to your phone or at least NOT on the charger. I have two AW's, and I wear them 24 hours for tracking health and sleep. With AUTO connect with wrist movement, the other Apple watch disconnected and it doesn't sync, because I put it on the charger, my fully charged watch connects to my phone, so not NEITHER watch is receiving podcast and smart playlist updates, because the connected device is not on the charger and the one on the charger is not connected to the phone.

I would be OK that first sync of the watch to the iPhone had to be on the charger to get the first full list, but after that, the iPhone should search for ALL Apple Watches on your network via wifi that the iPhone controls and do just deltas on the Wifi. Then all devices would use limited battery life, and all stay in sync much better!

I'll be putting a suggestion in Apples suggestion box for this new synching request.

Just tried this ....and it works, so much faster.

Wow, I feel bad for non tech people who want to sync their music. This is atrocious Apple.

 

[cooriander]

Still slow in version 4 - WiFI is faster, be sure to put on wiFI on phone and then reject the dialog that asks for turning on both bluetooth and wifi - transfer still works with only WiFI - and is faster (albeit not "fast").

 

[Jason Hensley]

I did what some others suggested, turned off bluetooth. Be sure to NOT do it through the control panel, because if you go into your iPhone settings and pull up Bluetooth, you will see all of your BT devices disconnected EXCEPT for your watch!

I turned it off on the toggle switch, and went I went back to my Watch app, it said to turn BT on to connect to a device, but I hit cancel and kept both the Apple Watch and the iPhone on the wifi, now it and podcasts are syncing WAY faster!

Wifi synching for Music and podcasts should be default, not BT! It should also be able to keep items sync'd, locations in podcasts when it's NOT connected via BT to your phone or at least NOT on the charger. I have two AW's, and I wear them 24 hours for tracking health and sleep. With AUTO connect with wrist movement, the other Apple watch disconnected and it doesn't sync, because I put it on the charger, my fully charged watch connects to my phone, so not NEITHER watch is receiving podcast and smart playlist updates, because the connected device is not on the charger and the one on the charger is not connected to the phone.

I would be OK that first sync of the watch to the iPhone had to be on the charger to get the first full list, but after that, the iPhone should search for ALL Apple Watches on your network via wifi that the iPhone controls and do just deltas on the Wifi. Then all devices would use limited battery life, and all stay in sync much better!

I'll be putting a suggestion in Apples suggestion box for this new synching request.

I tried this and it really does work better, thank you!

 

[Sword86]

I did what some others suggested, turned off bluetooth. Be sure to NOT do it through the control panel, because if you go into your iPhone settings and pull up Bluetooth, you will see all of your BT devices disconnected EXCEPT for your watch!

Yup. Did the same and my watch was still on BT in Settings on my phone. I turned BT off there and it worked fine. My network showed up right away on the control panel on the AW. It isn’t rapid by any means but at least the sync isn’t molasses slow like on BT, but don’t be expecting a miracle. Thanks. S
[doublepost=1541214043][/doublepost]

Yup. Did the same and my watch was still on BT in Settings on my phone. I turned BT off there and it worked fine. My network showed up right away on the control panel on the AW. It isn’t rapid by any means but at least the sync isn’t molasses slow like on BT, but don’t be expecting a miracle. Thanks. S

Syncing right now....about a track per minute.

 

[musicpenguy]

Make sure your iPhone or your Apple Watch isn’t connected to AirPods or any Bluetooth accessories - just being connected can cause a real bottleneck for data transfer

 

[menace3]

Does not take so long for me. I place the watch on the charger, place my phone on charger. open the music app and force sync. Usually takes 10 minutes most days.

 

[DimitryIam]

Easy to fix, ive just realized. Take your phone like 3 metres away from ur watch. This worked 4 me.

Really funny but only this advice from the top worked for me. I think only from the distance watch realises to go with WIFI