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

Nothing worked for me so far... tried following options...

• hard resetting iphone

• hard resetting apple watch

• switching to mobile internet instead of wifi

• switching to 2.5 ghz wifi from 5 ghz wifi

• changing region to Canada/English (correct for my app store account and physical location)

device details: watch 4 with iphone xr running 14.4

AmartinV's method works

Thank you so much!

I own Apple Watch Series 1 and I tried all the above solutions for 2 days and nothing worked for me.

Below are the steps that worked for me, I hope it helps someone!

Please note: My problem started when I Erased all my settings and contents on the Apple watch, when I started to connect my watch to new phone then this problem arisen.

1. Made sure my Iphone is up to date with all the latest software updates

2. Sign out of the ICloud account on your Iphone

3. Hard refresh the Iphone --> Pressing Volume UP button once, down button once and holding the power button until the phone is turned off.

4. Delete the Watch app from Iphone

5. Hard Refresh the Iphone again

6. Hard refresh the Watch

7. Install the Watch app again

8. Then tried to pair the watch with the Phone worked, it started downloading new update.

Hope this helps someone! Good Luck

I tried all the methods mentioned here. Nothing worked for me. Then I tried with "setup watch for a family member" option. Then the update worked and installed to phone. After that, when the app prompted to login in with family member apple ID. I gone back to choose set-up for myself option. Then app notified it will reset watch, I clicked ok. Then turn off and turn on the watch and do the usual pairing method. It will work.

I think this error is due to some records/data of previous watch is still there with your account.

So the trick is this, try to update and install new os in watch with "pair for family member" option. Then exit the setup and pair it with 'setup for myself option'

I changed the region on the Apple Watch at the manual set up stage (after reset everything on the Apple Watch) to Antarctica and it worked....

I have same problem and nothing worked me. Watch Series 5 GPS. How do i return this peace of S to Apple?

@Beem335i I tried their steps 2 times without success - including forgetting my Wifi to reset it.

On the 3rd try, I turned of my Wifi before pairing and left only LTE Data on (Apple watch won't be able to download the update by LTE). Once in pairing, the "Checking for Updates..." screen populates but nothing is happening as the WiFi is still turned off. Go ahead and turn your WiFi back on your phone, and then it picked up the update and FINALLY my apple watch and phone are paired. Took me 1 hour to troubleshoot this

Not going to suggest my method of fixing it is universal given how many different solutions are in this thread, but I fixed it by signing into appleid.apple.com and removing the device from my account. It failed to find the update the next time, but after ~3 more retries it eventually worked. Godspeed.

I’m having the same issue and nothing works, I even talked with apple about it and they can’t fix it either. It’s such a irritating little issue that stops you from pairing/using the watch.

"Not going to suggest my method of fixing it is universal given how many different solutions are in this thread, but I fixed it by signing into appleid.apple.com and removing the device from my account. It failed to find the update the next time, but after ~3 more retries it eventually worked. Godspeed." by ron.c

I'm in Italy, and i have same problem; but i test this way suggested by ron.c and then it work for me !!!

1. signing into appleid.apple.com and removing the device from your account;

2. after 3 retries the update will work !!!

Thanks Man !!!

I tried absolutely everything to get my watch to pair and I was about at my wits end; but all I had to do was change my region to Canada on my phone and watch and it started to update. Such a pain! Hope it works for all of you as well.

Setup Manually works for me!

• apple watch 2

• iPhone 12 pro

THANK YOU BEEM335i. I have been scouring the web for a solution to this problem, I was about to give up when I found this post. You're a hero

Tried heisenbert’s, Beemi335i’s, and AmartinV’s solution and none of these work for me. Has this issue been resolved by Apple?

FIXED - issue with ‘not connected to internet’ error

1. Hard reset watch.

2. On phone ‘Reset Network Settings’ — General > Reset > Reset Network Settings (This appears to be the fix)

3. Hard reset phone

4. Start pairing process as usual

-Updating series 2 watch to 7.7 was nearly 4 hours, be patient
-Simply hard resetting as mentioned in a prior fix did not solve the issue, only after ‘reset network settings’ did I finally get past the not connected to the internet error.
*note - I also turned off second line using DualSim, not sure if this matters

I have finally resolved the issue... none of the advised steps resolves the issue but i would say i probably ran into an edge case...
i was on an USA cellphone service provider while on Canadian soil with App Store canada account and that apparently caused the issue (and yes connecting to wifi did not fix the download-update issue).

For me it was rather a tricky and funny fix...

• tried to pair the apple watch with a different iphone on Canadian network.

• update of the watch OS worked this time

• quit after finishing update

• tried to pair with the previous phone once again and this time pairing process went directly to the next step without asking for update and pairing worked.

Try this! It took me 2 days and I tried everything possible but the solution for me was so unbelievably simple:

1. Switch off screen lock on your iPhone.

2. Wipe Apple Watch.

3. start pairing process from scratch.

4. go ahead with updates.

5. DONT USE YOUR IPHONE FOR ANYTHING ELSE!!!

It took me two full cycles to complete successfully as the first time I said download all apps and nothing responded.

second time around worked like a dream.

tbh the 2 days before removing screen lock, I’d tried almost ten times, getting stuck on an error about internet access which was incorrect.

good luck, hope this helps.

Love how everyone has different solutions to all this. Obviously there’s no exact solution, it’s just when your Apple Watch decides to participate with you. Apple please fix this problem, I’m not gonna just buy a new one like you want us all too.

I was able to fix this!!!

I have used every trick on this thread for the past few months with no luck, and I finally stumbled upon a woman who said she just turned off her cellular data and made sure she was running off of just wifi and it worked!! Both are updating!

And my watch is a series 1 and I have an iPhone 11 But yeah! Hope it helps!

I tried everything solution from all of these answers and still had no luck, but I discovered a fix that worked for me!

I reset the watch to factory settings with a hard reset, then when prompted to pair the watch to my Iphone, I turned on airplane mode (while connected to wifi) and the the Iphone almost immediately began the update as normal.

Hope this helps!

If you read this, please do not wipe your watch, I have better solution, go to setting in your watch and software update there. That is it, iphone will show update right away!

Setting the language to English > United States did the trick for me!

Advm301 I was getting very frustrated so I changed the Country on the watch and paired manually. I didn’t expect that to work but there’s a different screen now and it’s saying it’s downloading so THANK YOU! Weirdest fix EVER!

I've been trying to fix this watch on and off for almost two years. Even the Apple Store couldn't fix this for me. They said it was likely a hardware failure and recommended that I just but a new one. "The cost to repair will be about SGD$365 and the cost of a new SE model is around $415, so it's only $50 more to get a new one that will have a one year warranty."

But a combination of suggestions above worked for me. I hope it works for you, too.

Details of my devices:

• Series 3 38mm watch

• iPhone 7 plus

Steps that worked for me:

A: Make sure your phone has the latest version of iOS. This will be needed since the phone OS needs to be current to support the newest version of WatchOS which will be installed by the phone.

B: Hard reset the phone (my main phone is an iPhone 12 Pro, but I have an old iPhone 7 Plus I was able to use. I don't know if the solution is specific to devices.)

• Press and hold both the volume down button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

• When the Apple logo appears, release both buttons.

C: Hard reset the watch

• Turn off the watch completely from the side button below the digital crown.

• Turn it back on, and when you see the Apple logo, press and hold the same button for 30+ seconds until it tells you you're about to wipe all contents from the Apple Watch.

D: Start the pairing process.
I've seen some say to use the manual process where you enter the code. Mine worked just by placing the two devices close to each other and following on-screen instructions.

NOTE: This entire process took HOURS to complete. My WiFi is very fast, but maybe it was the fact that the devices are older. It took about 3 hours to get through the downloading/preparing/installing phases, and then it actually stuck at the verifying stage overnight. I finally just pulled the watch from the charge and restarted it, and it was paired at that point and worked just fine!

I got the same error after trying to pair a series 3 following a factory reset of the watch. Unfortunately, the iPhone hard reset didn’t work, but after days of trying to figure it out, I finally got somewhere.

All I had to do was remove all backups under Settings>General>iPhone Storage>Watch.

No more error after that!😃