I have an Apple Watch series 9. Every single time I update watchOS, I almost pull my hair out. I can never get the Verifying step to proceed in a timely manner.
I’ve tried starting the whole update process both wearing and not wearing the watch. I thought having it unlocked and on my wrist when I started would help. But it doesn’t.
For example, right now I’m trying to go from 26.0 to 26.0.2. Right before the Verifying phase began, I removed the watch and placed it on the charger, noticing that it was already 69% charged. I saw a message that I needed to enter the watch passcode on the watch, but was never presented with the on-screen keypad.
After waiting 30 minutes with no progress, I finally removed the watch from the charger. I then typed in my passcode (using the normal keypad), after which my phone said I needed to enter the passcode on the watch to proceed. And this time, I was presented with the miniature keypad. After entering my passcode, I quickly put it back on the charger. But not fast enough, for the phone gave me a message saying the watch had to be on the charger to update. Once I dismissed the message, the install process finally started up.
And the whole update saga is still worse. On every update, at some point my phone reports that the update has completed, even though the watch’s screen shows the highlight dots still moving slowly around the circle. And it takes another minute or two before the watch face actually returns to normal.
So does anyone here have better luck, and what’s the secret? Honestly, I can update my iPhone, iPad, and Mac sequentially (not simultaneously) faster than I can update the watch. And the watch has almost 49 of the 64 GB storage available, so it’s not like it has too much stuff on it.
What I always do now is put the watch on the charger, start the update in the Watch app on the iPhone, and wait for it to finish. I’ve not had a problem doing this, particularly lately. Probably not since my Series 2, which I stopped using 6 years ago.
Right before you put it on the charger, were you wearing it, and if so, was it unlocked?
If yes to both, roughly how long had you been wearing it (less than 30 minutes, longer than 30)?
Are you prompted to enter the watch passcode for the install to proceed, and does the keypad appear on the watch while it is on the charger? Is it just this one time you have to enter the passcode during the whole process?
I just have mine set to auto-update and that has worked fine for several years now. I leave it charging overnight and in the morning there’s a notification that the watch has been updated. I used to have trouble updating manually as it is a finicky process.
Generally the auto-updates happen a week or two after release, so they aren’t as fast, but I’m not usually in a hurry. One exception is I manually updated to 26 because I got the new phone running that and wanted them to be in sync.
While I had problems moving my watch to the new phone (I ended up having to unpair and re-pair it with the new phone manually), I don’t recall any issues upgrading it to 26.
I updated to WatchOS 26.0.2 today after first updating my phone. I always update by placing the watch on its charger and then starting the update from the Watch app on the phone. Just downloading and preparing the update seems to take at least as long as the full phone update. The maddening thing is that the phone goes to sleep during the process, and you need to wake it up to check the progress. This is because the installation onto the watch does not proceed automatically. When the preparation is finished, you must tap an install button and then enter the iPhone passcode. The actual watch installation then takes about 5-10 minutes.
I have never tried an overnight installation because I wear the watch for sleep tracking (and I am impatient). I wouldn’t mind so much if I could initiate the update, providing any necessary licensing check-offs and passcodes at the start of the process, and then proceed with other tasks during the installation. However, the need to manually intervene in the middle of the process is undesirable
By the way, HomePod updates also take an unexpectedly long time, but at least they proceed without intervention..
Usually I update it at night, around 8 pm, so I’ve been wearing since I’ve been out of the shower in the morning. So, for hours.
The passcode prompt appears on the phone on the watch app, and, to be clear, I enter the phone’s passcode at this prompt, not the watch’s. I never look at the watch while the update is running.
A few days after the iPhone update rolls out, my Watch will notify me that an update is available and would I like to “update now” or “update tonight”. I always choose “update tonight”. The next morning, my watch is updated. This has worked flawlessly for several years.
The maddening thing is that the phone goes to sleep during the process, and you need to wake it up to check the progress. This is because the installation onto the watch does not proceed automatically.
Just a note to say that sometimes the watch downloads the update automatically, as mine did yesterday, and when you start the process, you already have that last step “Install” ready to go.
But that’s rare for me - usually, like you, my phone has not already downloaded and prepared the update, so I have to check to see if it’s ready to install. What I do not know is whether the watch app would notify me to install of I waited long enough - I just check every 15 minutes or so until it’s ready.
While not related to WatchOS 26, I currently have a Series 5 watch which works fine but the battery rating is at 77%. I bought a Series 12 so are there any tricks to switching? I have iOS 18.7.2 on my iPhone 12 and I don’t want to move to any of the 26 OS versions on my iPhone, iPads, Watch, etc. until about July of next year.
I think the current Watch is series 11. When I received mine I had to move my iPhone 13 Mini to OS 26. I don’t know of a way to connect the new Watch, which comes with WatchOS 26, to an older phone OS.
I had a series 5 Watch. The battery had degraded below 80% more than a year ago. I had it ‘replaced’ by Apple at the time, by which I mean they sent me a different Watch with 100% battery rating. So, I believe that’s still an option if you want to wait to move to iOS 26.