Apple Watch Series 3 stuck in pairing/unpairing loop

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Apple Watch Series 3 stuck in pairing/unpairing loop

My Apple Watch Series 3 was sent to Apple repair due to an easily-fixed hardware issue (replacing the screen adhesive). I had to unpair it from my iPhone 14 before sending it to them. Upon receiving it back, I am unable to pair it with the same iPhone. Going through many interactions of the pairing process, it tends to get to the “Restore from backup” step, thinks for a while, and then immediately begins unpairing from the phone. Then, it freezes and states to “continue the process” on the iPhone. Meanwhile, the phone has returned to “Start Pairing” screen in the watch app, causing an endless cycle. I have hard reset/factory reset the watch, updated all phone software, and restarted the phone multiple times.

At this point, I don’t care if I restore the watch from backup or set it up as a new one—neither of these options has worked, though. Does anyone know of a system to get through the pairing process?

Apple Watch Series 3

Posted on Aug 3, 2023 10:57 AM

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Answer 1

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LD150

Level 10

91,051 points

Aug 3, 2023 1:37 PM in response to tvdSeptember

series 1 to 3 Watches are difficult to pair because of relatively low storage but this has worked fir many users...

Ensure the iphone is on iOS16.6 or later.

Erase the Watch completely. Put your watch on its charger and keep it there until you complete these steps. (select the watch OS version) Erase Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK)

When pairing do not try to restore the backup, pair as a New Watch Set up your Apple Watch – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 2

tvdSeptember Author

Level 1

2 points

Aug 9, 2023 5:46 PM in response to tvdSeptember

To follow up, I brought the watch in store for a repair, though I knew it was unlikely they'd be able to fix it. They planned to just reinstall the software manually. I was re-quoted at $159 to pay for a supposed hardware issue they found: "There is a hardware issue affecting the normal function of the ethernet port". Upon unboxing the watch, it's now showing a red exclamation point, that pops up any time I try reloading/resetting, so I'm calling it dead. Though it seems like a software issue, this reddit user explains the possible situation well.

Either way, unpairing the device in the first place is what caused it to now be useless, so I really regret sending it in to Apple originally. Repair depots tend to leave out key information and I got nowhere with them the first time, which took over 2 weeks. I don't think $159 is worthwhile for replacing a product that has many faults (the lack of memory is a major issue), and will unfortunately just have to invest in a new model someday.

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