[Apple Watch] Unable to Check for Update - Not connected to the internet error

Hi. I am pairing my Apple Watch Series 5 to my iPhone running ios 14. The pairing is successful but unable to proceed with the set up because an update is needed to be downloaded first. I updated the os for watch but I keep on getting “Unable to Check for Update - Checking for a software update failed because you are not connected to the internet”. I am definitely connected to the internet.

Watch was reset to factory defaults and I am now pairing it as a new device but it fails due to the issue mentioned above.
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heisenbert
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  • I solved this issue by uninstalling the Watch app from my iphone and reloading it. After reloading the app I paired the watch to the phone and the update started loading.

    —
    wilderwayoutdoors

  • I will say one thing today was a frustrating day trying to get the watch to pair for a few hours. Finally I have success. My fix is the same as many but it took only one try when I changed the Country and Language. I decided to use language Portuguese, and country Afghanistan. It worked. so mad I could not see straight. But success, hope it works for you. It will.

    —
    patcwin

  • Apple Watch 3, iPhone 11Pro w/ iOS 14.6 - nothing works to update the watch and make it a usable device, it's basically a dud now. I've tried resetting the iPhone and trying to update the watch in different language. No dice!

    —
    CousinVinny

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Hard resetting iPhone fixed this issue.

Steps are:

  1. Press Volume Up and let go.

  2. Press Volume Down and let go.

  3. Press and hold the side button.

Note: This does not wipe any data from your phone
Posted by
heisenbert
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  • This didn't work for me.

    —
    Melissity

  • Same issue here. Reset series 3 Apple Watch to factory settings and tried to pair with iPhone X on iOS 14.6 and no matter what I do, I get the not connected to internet error when I am most definitely online.

    restart, reset, reinstalling watch, changing languages, changing region- none of that worked. Very frustrating!

    —
    Rrg20010

  • @Patcwin thanks, that worked for me

    —
    Angelokobe

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I struggled with this for 4 days but nothing helps(( aw3 and iphone 11. Are there still such people, or did some of the methods help you and should I try further?

Posted by
ShocKK29
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  • Change your language to Portuguese and country to Afghanistan, it seems to be finally working !!

    —
    Alainarose7
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I’m trying to pair my series 1 Apple Watch to my iPhone 13 pro max. Been trying for the past week and no luck.

Posted by
Pay10
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After reading and doing multiple steps for 2 hours repeatedly, I followed one users advice with changing the language to Portuguese and the country as Afghanistan and it finally showed installing watchOS 8.6!!!! Hopefully after installing for 3 hours, this works but it’s more progress than I’ve had in the last 2 hours!

Posted by
Alainarose7
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@apple, can we expect this to actually be addressed? This is ridiculous and none of these "tricks" worked for the phone. Seems to be something pretty simple in your code not properly checking the right connection, and this is going on 7+ years. Unbelievable.

Posted by
dejango
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Suffering this same problem and spent about 24 hours visiting multiple solutions without success.

I was pretty close on giving up, then decided to switch through various WiFi networks, seeing if using a fresh WiFi channel (and new bitrate) might unblock the update from happening.

It seems to have worked!

If you have an older watch like me, try connecting your phone via different WiFi standards. I use 802.11g by default on all of my devices, and temporarily switching to the slower, simpler 802.11b standard seems to have done the trick.

Good luck.

Posted by
Sp3ck
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  • What is the flashing prompt during the AW update attempt?
  • After pairing the AW and just before checking for an update, there is a quick flash prompting the user to update the phone before it quickly disappears until another prompt finally appears after the failed attempt connecting to the Internet.
  • See attached photo.

Posted by
Rubber-Chicken
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Fixed it! Iphone 11 / aw s3

After trying all the methods here without result. I read that some had solved it using older iphones, so i tried with an Iphone 6 and the download started!

Posted by
Galvisjuano
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