Watch iOS 26.1 Update with Ultra 3

Question

Level 1

4 points

Watch iOS 26.1 Update with Ultra 3

Apple Watch update to iOS 26.1 is frozen on Preparing... I've tried troubleshooting steps below, plenty of storage, and phone is updated.

Try these steps:

Make sure that your Apple Watch is connecting properly to its charger.
Restart your Apple Watch.
Restart your paired iPhone.
Try again to update your Apple Watch.

If the update won't start:

Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Tap General > Storage.
Delete the update file.
Try again to update your Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Ultra 3, watchOS 26

Posted on Nov 4, 2025 2:25 AM

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Answer 1

Ingo2711

Level 10

80,181 points

Nov 4, 2025 3:16 AM in response to Gisw12

You iPhone is being charged as well during this process and both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi, placed next to each other, and there is no VPN or Firewall enabled?

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Answer 2

Nov 4, 2025 12:40 PM in response to Ingo2711

Are you sure it’s “frozen”? My update took significantly longer than 2 hours to update! Really bad behavior in terms of customer experience. I have 43+ GB memory available on the watch. Updated iOS (to 26.1 yesterday) with plenty of memory on the phone as well.

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