Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mr. Dee

macrumors 603
Original poster
Dec 4, 2003
5,990
12,840
Jamaica
This morning, I updated my iPhone X to 14.6 from 13.7, after updating, it said my Apple Watch is outdated. So, I said, alright, how bad could it be to update to 7.6? Well, I finally experienced what others have been complaining about. The unpairing process is not as bad as I thought it it would be. But apparently, I was on an older version of watchOS, so it had to first update it to 6.3 before it could update to 7.6. At one point the watch just shut off and I had to restart it just to get the update going again. Now, the big shock is that the update to 7.6 is gonna be a 3 hour process. In hind sight, I should have done this at bed time and I wouldn’t have to worry. But, the fact that updating is such an involved process of unpairing and pairing again and you have to update the software version before you have to update to 7.6; it kinda would have defeated the purpose overnight updating.

Hopefully, Apple is working on making this process much smoother. I should just be able to connect to WiFi and it downloads the latest version in the background without issue. Also, that unpairing and pairing process also has to go. Its really time the Apple Watch becomes fully independent of other iOS devices and stand on its own two feet. Regardless of this, I am glad Apple still supports the Series 3. Hopefully, they can push it to watchOS 9. 2023 is the year I am looking to update all my Apple devices.

When I first saw the size of watchOS 7.6 I had an amazed moment. 20 years ago desktop operating systems like Windows XP and OS X were approaching 1 GB in size. I thought it was just outrageous at the time, but to think a couple decades later, you now have an operating system for a watch thats the same size that fits on your wrist. I guess in 10 years time, it shouldn’t be surprising to have a watchOS thats hitting 12 GBs in size.
 

iFan86

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2020
36
52
Curious how much space was available to you after you unpaired. I have yet to be able to get my series 3 to update since 7.2. Each time I unpair and try to update I get the not enough free space error. I finally just gave up since it is such a long process. Right now I have no apps, no music, no podcast.... and it still shows I only have 2.3gb of free space.
 

iFan86

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2020
36
52
Well, tried it again today and it finally worked. Not sure what I did wrong before. Still, I won't do this every time. It really does take nearly 3 hours to complete the process and then setting it all back up again.
 

Bazza1

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2017
754
588
Toronto, Canada
A previous OS update required the whole unpair / factory reset, download / install rigamarole on my 3 (despite having plenty of room on my Watch), but this most recent one it just updated as usual - albeit via the incredibly slow and laborious process. And I've never had success with the overnight update.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.