WatchOS 2 Update for Apple Watch Available to Download & Install
Apple has released watchOS 2 for Apple Watch owners. The update brings a handful of new features to the Apple Watch, including native apps, a variety of new watch faces, third party complications, an optional nightstand mode, and overall improvements to usability and performance of the device.
The update is recommended for all Apple Watch owners to install.
Downloading and installing the WatchOS 2 update is requires iOS 9 or later to be running on the paired iPhone. The download itself weighs in around 515mb and arrives as an Over-the-Air download from the Apple Watch app, making it fairly simple.
How to Download & Install WatchOS 2 Update on Apple Watch
Updating WatchOS software is the same on all Watch devices:
- Connect the Apple Watch to its charger, be sure it has at least a 50% charge
- Join a wi-fi network with the iPhone paired to Apple Watch
- Launch the Watch app on the paired iPhone and go to the “My Watch” tab
- Choose “General” followed by “Software Update” and then tap on ‘Download and Install’
You’ll need to agree to some terms of service (after carefully reading it of course) to start the installation of WatchOS 2.0
Because the WatchOS 2 update has to download from Apple Servers and transfer over Bluetooth to the Watch itself, installation can take quite a while. Downloading the update to the Watch can take from 1 to 4 hours on a reasonably fast broadband connection, so don’t be alarmed if the update takes a while. Likewise, if you’re in a bind for time, you may want to put off updating to WatchOS 2 until you have adequate time to let both the iPhone and Apple Watch complete the download and installation of WatchOS 2.0.
Because there is no user accessible port on Apple Watch, you’ll want to be cautious to not interrupt the software update during its installation. Aside from basic troubleshooting like forcing it to reboot or resetting and erasing an Apple Watch, a stuck Watch would need to be given to Apple for support, either via an Apple Store or through a mail in support service. That’s obviously inconvenient, but any problems in watchOS updates can usually be avoided by following proper protocol to install WatchOS and Apple Watch system software.
WatchOS 2 was originally intended to arrive alongside iOS 9, but was delayed at the last minute to address an unspecified bug.
Apple Watch in horizontal nightstand mode shown above.
Just updated mine in less than an hour and seemed to work fine. My Internet speed is 60mbps and have a fast wifi (had to use the one at the office because the one at my house is not supported by the apple watch). Biggest complaint is that with the new upgrade I still can’t get both devices to notify at the same time. Missing custom ringtones and sounds so I know who is calling or texting.
This error in my download I can’t Belive is a new watch
🤕🤒⌚️
WTF! Just went from 14 hours to around 9! SERIOUSLY! Steve is rolling over in his grave!
Hi, I just got some trouble with the 1 OS, after 20 days, it stop taking dictation, and siri couldn’t hear me, either if wanted to make a call or sent a voice note or phone call, it was all blanck noise. I made my research and found it was like a software issue, so… A few days later I got to update my iphone 5s software and also 2.0 OS for my watch, solving the watch mic issue but now… If I try to use siri, she’ll text me that niether iwatch nor iphone are unable to connect with siri, although I can make calls, if I want to send text notes thru dictation it won’t work, more over, I can’t send voice notes as they will be rebound, as it couldn’t been sent even when I’m on wifi connection. Any ideas?
This watch is a piece of garbage, the update sux, and there is absolutely no support from Apple when their crappy system sits there waiting to install with absolutly no one at the Apple Store who knows what to do???. Wtf !!! Everything is hooked up, restarted but it just sits there.this is garbage!
My watch gets to the last seven seconds of the update, then says unable to verify update. Why?
I was having trouble and I turned off my passcode on both my phone and the watch. I have a work email on my phone and it was blocking the install. Once those were removed and I did a reboot of the phone and watch it started installing. Thanks for all of the help to those who have posted on this message board.
IS it normal for the apple watch update to take 8 hours or more?????
I keep going through the process only to get a “Cannot install – not connected to the internet” type of message. I am connected, my watch has 100% charge and is connected to its charger, my phone is 100% charged and connected to its charger……..I keep repeating the process but nothing changes.
I just unpaired and repaired my watch, setting it up as a new watch instead of restoring it so we’ll see if that works. Anyone had this issue find a fix?
Finally got it to work. Unpaired and then re-paired my watch to my phone. Worked with no problems.
I’m on reasonably fast WiFi 50-70Mb. Phone is saying “2 days to install software” ??????
Just updated phone to 9.0.2.as well
Expecting this watch OS install to be a train smash.
Come on Apple, you’ve gotta be smarter than this!!
When you get to the installing phase and see the apple. There is a progression circle that surrounds the apple. But you can only see it in a darkened room. I would recommend waiting when you have 4 hours or so to update. Updating watch made me late for work because I didn’t want to leave my phone at home.
Did wife’s watch update and had huge problems. Multiple reboots of both watch & iphone did little. Overnite it sat with ‘6 hrs remaining” but only restarting, re-“pair”ing, & restarting installation caused a success.. eventually!.
Now doing my watch now, and same baloney. “About 8 hours remaining…”, and “Downloading to Watch…” appears.
8 hours to download 512 mb data to the watch?? Come on….! Nuts..
….oooops …As I’m typing this. it is now ” 12 hours Remaining” on the download. I’m seriously upset at Apple.
(BTW – My High speed internet connection is not the problem)
This is worst Apple update of any of their products so far.
Fed up….after two days of struggle with two simple Apple Watches, I still don’t know how/why the first one succeeded and the second one is even worse…
This thread was SO helpful!!!! Thank you!!! Resetting the watch is the answer!
Mine has been stuck verifying for hours. I finally took the watch off the charger, restarted, put back on the charger, and re entered the passcode.
I restarted the app on my iPhone and started the installation process once again. The app went almost immediately to “installing…” and the watch face shows about 15% done in 10 minutes.
I’ve now been trying to update for 2 days. Tried all that has been suggested, iPhone 5S is on iOS 9.0.1, pass code is off, rebooted phone and watch, reset network settings and still it won’t get past “Verifying” stage. My last try was just before I went to bed, 6 hours later and it’s still on “Verifying”!
Please help if you can. Thank you.
Extremely frustrating, if this is going to be the Apple Watch update process, then I’m taking the watch back to Apple, life is too short, to waste endless hours on something that should be straight forward and simple. For someone who is an Apple fan, its rapidly putting me off. Goodness knows how new comers to Apple products must feel!
So glad I read all these comments. Shut off my pass code. Rebooted watch and phone. Finally got past ” verifying” to installing!!
I didn’t have any major problems with downloading the update.
Was about 2hrs & 40mins in total and the watch showed a progress circle while it was finalising.
New features installed before bed so I could try out the clock feature overnight.
Having just come back from Hong Kong, the cityscape is now my watch face.
It would be great if you could choose ANY major city for this feature though.
And I haven’t had a passcode on my watch since the day I got it and Apple staff showed me how to remove it.
Hi All – I was stuck on the downloading to watch and it indicated 1 day to go. Thanks to this thread I turned off my passcode on the watch, restarted both and I am now at 51 minutes to go. Thanks!
finally my watch is downloading.. the best advice is to take the security or password off your watch from the iPhone app, and everything starts to download much faster. i been frustrated with this all day, and now after reading the advice from this post… it is finally making some progress… enjoy
4-1/2 hours on verifying – I hope pass code hasn’t locked – nothing to indicate it has.
I had a similar issue. I tried updating yesterday but the screen kept getting stuck at verifying. I tried restarting my phone but it didn’t work. After reading this thread I restarted the watch and then while it was on the “preparing” mode, I was actively using my iwatch so it would not go to sleep (I didn’t want to turn off the passcode and erase my saved cards). After a few minutes I heard a ding on my watch and a prompt appeared to install the update. I clicked install and it said it would install in 60 seconds. It’s installing now. I’m not sure whether it was restarting the watch or not allowing it to go to sleep so I would get the prompt, but it’s installing now.
It did take a lot of patience, and after 90 minutes the watch’s screen went black. When 5 minutes later I had the courage to tap it, all was working, and watchOS2 was there. Relieved!
I have been having the same problem all morning with it being frozen on “verifying”. restarted the phone and still the same problem. turned off the passcode on the watch and still the same problem. finally restarted the watch and it worked fine.
Had same problem getting hung up on verify. Rebooted the iPhone then went to setting – general- reset – reset network settings. Then rebooted the watch ( by turning power off and on). Finally went to watch app on phone and restarted the os2 download. Worked like a charm
My watch was stuck on verifying for 2 hours, so I restarted the phone, but it is still stuck on verifying. I even turned off the passcode on my my apple watch. Solution PLZZZZ!!!
the turn off and restart of both phone & watch worked for me, a shame that I needed to research it on here though! Took about an hour all up. Battery life seemed to improve even though I’ve gone for the 70 second displaying option. Used the voice reply to email which worked OK, other than that seems all good so far. Siri is supposedly enhanced, but I’ve never done too well with Siri anyway. Looking forward to a deluge of third party apps and ‘complications’ – think they mean widgets – now to give the watch more functionality.
Ok I noticed that it started to check pulse every 10min ! How to turned it off?
Did someone notice that battery life is become horrible after update? It’s 8 am and since 5 am it’s 43% left! Wasn’t using at all. WTF?
after update messages are not updating on the thread, I receive the notification and can read the preview but the new messages are not present in the thread, only messages send from the watch are showing up
Mine is stuck on the last tidbit of Apple and ring….won’t restart, won’t finish, won’t nothing…..
After the upgrade i have lost the screen shot funtion ?
I go to the iPhone watch app and try to find the update but tells me that the “Software is updated 1.0.1” how to I find the iOS2 update!!!!
Yeah that did the trick reboot both items it went from having downloading after 8 hours it still said 1 day to go. Read the above ideas and now after rebooting says 41minutes to go
Thats the trick for me too thanks so much guys!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to leave advice, all. My watch was stuck on “verifying” status for two hours as well. I just rebooted both and it finally says installing!!
When it doubt, reboot. Thanks again.
cool thanks so much
After waiting for 3 hours, restarting phone and the watch helped!
Mine was verifying for over 2 hours. After reading the comments here, I restarted my iPhone and also the watch and it all worked pretty quickly after that.
Thanks for the tip!!
I’ve been trying for hours to update my watch and the progress bar keeps saying time remaining 1 day and it’s going really slow, surely it’s not going to take that long is it ?
After 5 hours of trying, verifying would always crank out. Then I would try to prepare/verify again, and again, and a again with no success. Decided to restart both the phone and my watch. And once again, the phone started verifying…then bingo, the watch logo popped on with a loading circle around it.
Restart your devices if need be.
Finally at installing phase of the watch… Rebooting both phone and watch did it i think….. Now looks normal apple logo with the ring
scratch that.. it says unable to verify now.. and it is download the software again on iphone.. eta 2 hours for download.. wtf
Not good. I now only have about to dots of install to go I think I have cracked it
verifying for an hour and half.. rebooting the watch now and do it again, it is doing preparing again…
Had to reboot watch to get past verify now installing after 3 hrs trying
Is anyone on the 9.1 beta having it show up as no update being available?
I am having that problem.
Using a friend’s phone that has just the regular iOS 9.0 to get around this issue. Major pain and extra time. That and I have lost all the exercise data from the watch.
Yes, having same problem. Does anyone test software anymore?
I’m having the same issue. I have 9.1 beta as well.
I had this same issue but I reset (Erase apple watch Content and Setting) then setup as a new watch and was able to upgrade fine. I have iOS9.1 Public beta installed on the iPhone
I hope this helps!
This helped!
Thanks!
Same prob. iOS 9.1 does not recognize “new” OS update. Any solution that saves user data coming from Apple?
My watch doesn’t show the update. Why?
Mine is doing the same. Very frustrating. Are you running 9.0 or 9.1 beta?
Sassoon as I unlocked my Apple Watch, which deactivates Apple Pay, it started downloading. I was stuck on verifying until I made the change. Hope this helps.
Thank you Paul, I just heard the “Ding” and it went from preparing to verifying now.. I will report back in an hour to let you guys know the progress…
Anyone has any luck updating watch 2.0? It was preparing then it requires the watch needs to be powered, not it is stuck with verifying.. this is so unlike Apple update. I can’t image how typical user deals with this.
Yes I updated to WatchOS 2 successfully, it will finish installing but it does take quite a while. Updating my Apple Watch Sport to WatchOS 2.0 took about 2 hours and 45 minutes!
The ‘Verifying’ part takes a while, then it starts to install after that, which takes another 45 minutes or so. The Apple Watch has the onscreen progress bar, which moves quite slow. Just let it sit on the charger and try your best to ignore it for a few hours, it’s a little frustrating that it’s so slow but it will get there.
Mine was verifying all night. This morning it is still not finished.
Mine has done the same. “verifying” for the majority of the night, in the morning still not finished. I have not found a solution for this on any forum. I’m running fast internet speed, so it can not be that. Had a similar issue the first time I tried to upload a playlist. Took 4 times before it completed.
Watch OS 2 update says ‘Unable to Install Update’
Ok, trying again.
I wonder when Apple will get their software situation stable?
Apple Watch update app stuck on ‘Verifying…’
then my Watch made a chime sound like a message came in, but no message came in, anyone know what to do? I will let it sit and wait, it’s been doing this for a while.
Apple Watch app will say ‘verifying’ before it switches to ‘installing’, it can take a while
When ‘installing’ starts, the Watch screen turns to the Apple logo and the Watch app on iPhone will not show progress aside from the ‘installing’ text. Just wait it out, it takes a while to complete.
I am having the same issue; I let it sit for a while and nothing happened so I started over twice…hopefully just leaving it will resolve this issue. Although, if every future software update is this slow, this could be quite annoying.
Is there a way to download it other than OTA? My iphone 5 got stuck in checking for update and won’t get past there.
Unfortunately there is no other way to update the Apple Watch except from the Watch app. There isn’t a port on the thing, so you have to use the OTA Bluetooth transfer mechanism for installing.
I say this while my Watch app on iPhone is stuck on “preparing…” and the Apple Watch shows no indicator anything is going on. It feels kind of precarious, so hopefully it works without any issue to install the update. It would be a big pain in the butt to send this thing in to Apple!
I got mine to work…all I had to do was th one thing I hadn’t tried: restart the damn watch. Now it found the update and is downloading
Thanks, that was the only thing I didn’t think about doing. I restart the iPhone, but not the watch.
Onto hour 2 of installing WatchOS 2 onto Apple Watch and the progress indicator on Apple Watch is not even 1/4 done yet
at this rate, it will be done installing in another 12 hours.
2 hour done 6 hours to go
I was stuck on verifying, until I turned off the passcode using the iPhone’s iWatch app. The next time I went to General and started the software update, it ran through the process in about 30 minutes.
For me the solution for the endless verifying is to simply turn off the pass code until after the update.
ARGGH!
No matter what I did I couldn’t get it off the verifying screen.
Rebooted at least 6 times and left it on veryfying for 2 hours and still nothing.
Refreshing the watch entirely, hopefully this will work.
mine was stuck on verifying over night!