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

@patcwin ‘s method worked. Portuguese and selected Afghanistan. All to update a watch. To be fair, that has not been updated in 2 years.

But, says it will take 20 hours to update. Holy sh**z

Okay, so I found my old watch after 2years. iPhone 12Pro with Apple Watch Series 3. With 2.4GHz Wifi the download just started, but everytime the watch just rebooting randomly while the download is in progress. Tried to do the download on my arm. It is working. It is download the OS without any reboots but after the download finished the watch do a reboot then drop an error message that the Watch is not connected to the iPhone anymore. The iPhone shows Preparing... status. Anyone has the same issue? Any solution?

I purchased two Apple Watch Series 5 (a few years ago). I kept mine updated on a regular basis. My wife was using her for a while (I believe through watchOS6 or 7. Then she didnt use it for a while. It will now not update (giving the 'not connected to the internet error). I tried every single suggestion on the internet, and nothing will work. I even brought it to Best Buy's GeekSquad and they are less than helpful. This is completely unacceptable. I am fairly certain the reason is because I am trying to update from a very old OS version to version 9. Regardless, still unacceptable. Each of these Apple Watches was 400.00 and now one is useless. Why hasn't Apple come out with an official fix to this issue?

Can I get an actual Apple tech support employee on this thread to help out? This is insane.

@apple please do something about this! We can't use our apple watch because you guys required us to update it. But we can't update it because it is stuck on either preparing or "not connected to the internet thing" this is so frustrating and not good for the mental health of the people here

I was able to solve this issue by doing a manual pairing. I had reset the phone, redownloaded the app, reset the watch, none of it worked. But it worked on the first time when I did a manual pairing.

The watch MUST be on the charger, then open the watch settings while it is connected to the charger and bam! it will start to download the update.

Was having a similar problem occur with iPhone Pro 14 running iOS 16.1 and a refurbished Apple Watch 5 that I received as an AppleCare replacement. I found that the following fixed it. Change region (I switched from US to UK so I could still read everything) Once I did this the software update succeeded. 8. Change Region You could be experiencing the Apple Watch unable to check for update issues due to server problems in certain regions. It is common for Apple servers to go offline in some areas, and this could interfere with updates even if you're connected to stable internet. If this is your current situation, consider changing your region and see if the updates will succeed. You will have to unpair your Apple watch first before attempting this. To change your region on your Apple Watch: Switch to your iPhone. Go to Settings. Tap on General. Navigate to Language & Region. Tap Region and select another location of a preferred choice from the options. Re-pair your Apple Watch to your iPhone device and try updating it. Updating your Apple watch should now be possible.  https://convergeddevices.net/apple-watch-unable-to-check-for-update/

Contribute another solution

I met this problem and spent a couple of hours beofre fixing it accidentally.

When you see fail to connect to internet, instead of repeatedly trying to connect, you can try to restart. That means it will unpair first. After unpair, try to pair it again from the same place. Remember to use manual pairing.

Then, I see from my iphone screen that it discovered the update package, started to download it, and install it on the watch.

Hi there,

You might have better luck asking this question over in Apple Support Communities run by Apple Support.

Solution

I too had the same issue.

then I connected phone to WI-FI instead of mobile data. Apple Watch got updated.

I am also using Watch 5 series and I phone 12.

Try this way

Ultimate Solution:

11/25/2022: iPhone 12 Pro Max with Apple Watch series 5(refurbished)

1. Reset Apple Watch by turning it off first then on, then when apple logo reappears hold down button below crown until it says to erase all settings.
2. Erase settings and let it reboot, and then turn off.
3. Sign out of iCloud on iPhone.
4. Turn off iPhone.
5. Boot watch
6. Boot iPhone and then sign in to iCloud.
7. Go to watch app and start process of pairing.
8. pairing and update occur as expected.

Good Luck and have a great day!!

MW

Place watch on charger for entire setup

When trying to complete Family Setup on a refurbished Series 6 watch I got the dreaded "Unable to Check for Update - Checking for a software update failed because you are not connected to the internet” error. None of the other suggested fixes I tried worked, e.g. manual pairing, changing language/region, unpairing my personal watch first, hard resets of both watch and phone. I did not have the watch on the charger because I had fully-charged the watch prior to attempting setup. On a whim I put it on the charger and then began Family Setup again. Boom! This time it showed the update (2.0GB!!) and the time to complete (2 hours!!!). I left it on the charger for the entire time it needed to complete the update, and now everything is fully up to date and I was able to complete Family Setup. Not sure if this is suggested anywhere in the preceding 21 pages, but I did not see it in my searching. Hopefully this helps someone.

I managed to make it work. Make sure you connect to 2.4ghz wifi on your iphone.

At first, i connect to 5ghz wifi. However, since my series 5 only have 2.4ghz, then it cannot connect to my router as my iphone is connected to 5ghz.

Hence, once i changed my iphone wifi to 2.4ghz, walla, the apple watch managed to get connected to find the update.

hopefully this will help others.

I GOT IT TO WORK ---

Not really sure which step did the trick. But here's what I did.

I had an Apple Watch 4 Series, connecting to iPhone 12 Max Pro with latest iOS (16.2). Nothing was working. Would pair, and then say "unable to update".

Initially when I would try to manually pair it wouldn't work. No pin would show up.

Finally, what I did was, I switched to 2.5GHZ wifi network (if you have 5G you can call your ISP and have them split your network into 2) and then I restarted the watch. Finally, I tried to do it manually after restarting over 20+ times. And boom... Miraculously worked.

I upgraded from a series 3 to an SE. While trying to pair my brand new SE to my iPhone 13 Pro, I too received the message stating the update required for pairing could not be completed due to not being connected to the internet. I was very much indeed connected and I tried different Wi-Fi connections and all other sorts of recommendations found in the many pages of this thread. What finally worked for me is this: upon receiving the above mentioned message of not being connected to the internet, I left the message up (as in I did not select either option given to try again or start over) and navigated to the Bluetooth settings in my phone. One of the connections listed was “Apple Watch.” Clicked on the “I” next to it , clicked “forget this device” and then went back to the watch app, clicked “try again” and the update initiated. I now am paired with my watch and enjoying the new product. I hope this helps someone.