topic Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2) in Devices

Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Snook — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 22:22:36 GMT

Hello 🙂

Anyone who's reading these forums likely knows what a disaster the Apple Watch Cellular Plan is with Three at times, leaving many people months without service for months when they get a new device. So I was hoping, considering many people may be upgrading on the 22nd Sep when the new devices come out, what's the proper process or the best way to do it, to achieve a good outcome?

I've heard different approaches:

Remove the Plan from the Old Device; wait a while then setup the new Device
Just go straight for setting up the new Device and during setup, just enable Cellular and it somehow works.
Factory Reset the old Device, then setup the new device.

It would be good to know which of the following approaches (or any others I've missed) worked for people, to successfully transfer the plan without having to spend 10+ hours with the Three Support team and many months and still be unsuccessful? Trying to make the process as smooth as possible - and hopefully this thread can help others too.

@JonathanB - Could you give your input here if possible please?

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

ChrisB1972 — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 12:54:50 GMT

I have had this issue for 3 months now, And just got my latest Bill which again is showing the Pairing !

Just been on the phone and they have confirmed the Add on will end on the 3rd October and given me a 7 pounds credit for this month as I was assured I would not have been charged !

Seems the only way round it is to give them 1 months notice and then re add the add on, and there system cannot cope with a simple swap over that the likes of o2 have !

My wife did the same with o2 the same day as me, and hers swapped over instally !

Three continue to try the its Apples fault, when it clearly isn't !!!

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Lukeapricey — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 23:08:21 GMT

I’ve had to do exactly the same thing, cancel the smartwatch pairing add on and wait a month for it to be deleted from my account. It’s a complete farce and amateurish. The worst part of it is, nobody in technical support had/still has any idea what to do or how to fix the issue so my advice would be not to waste your time. Just call billing and cancel the add on - this can’t be done in the Three app (some advisors will try to fob you off and tell you to go away and use the app to cancel it yourself which you can’t do). When I spoke to an advisor in billing she had absolutely no idea what smartwatch pairing was, let alone how to fix it. So in a few weeks I’ll have to try and re activate a data plan on the Apple Watch app and hope it works. All in all, a scam.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

JonathanB — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 15:31:21 GMT

Hi @Snook,

Sorry for the delay in answering, and thanks for starting this thread, I think it should be really helpful especially with new Apple devices on the way.

To my understanding you'd want to unpair the existing Apple Watch first using the info here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204568

Then once that's completed you should be able to pair the new watch. Your existing add on should still be intact on your Three account so that you don't need to remove this and wait till the next bill cycle.

I wouldn't recommend going straight into pairing a new device, as the IMEI of the watch is stored in the background systems, conflicts with more than one IMEI can cause errors.

And for the factory reset suggestion, this is advised by Apple but only if one of the devices, phone or watch, is lost/stolen, similar to the previous scenario the IMEI may not remove itself from our system.

Please let me know if there's still any errors when following these suggestions.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

daschles — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 12:33:43 GMT

Hi - sent you a DM as both my wife and I are having terrible problems with the swap. She activated but is no service; I'm stuck in an activation loop. Customer service advice is "wait" which doesn't inspire hope!

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

mysite123 — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 01:37:05 GMT

After 10 days of lots of calls to Three, numerous resets of my new Apple Watch (and new iPhone) I managed to get it working myself.

The key for me was to reset my Three password to one that did not include characters. I don’t know why this worked (the Apple Watch I replaced was only set up for SmartWatch pairing 12 months ago and the password was fine). Anyway,

I changed the Three password to one with numbers and letters only.
I cleared the Safari history on my iPhone.
Set my display auto-lock to ‘never’ (temporarily of course).
I unpaired and paired the watch again (whilst on charge).
I opted to keep the smartwatch pairing plan (sometimes it asks when unpairing/pairing - other times it does not???).
I made sure the Watch and iPhone were on the latest OS and it all worked!

One point to note, in the watch app under Mobile Service/ Mobile Plan it was stuck on ‘activating’ for at least 25 mins. I stayed on this screen for the duration. Eventually the message changed from ‘Activating’ to ‘Three’ and the Watch is now paired.

The Watch App still had a red ‘1’ on the message ‘finishing set up this Apple Watch’ or whatever it says. I selected it and closed the App a few times - it would not go, eventually it did. Reminder, set display back to auto-lock.

Hope this helps someone.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Bernardclissett — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:12:24 GMT

Morning,

I have just come across these posts and it alarms me to see that this pairing issue is still a big problem, which I am experiencing myself at this moment after to visits to my local three store and many phone calls to three I am still unable to use my data plan add on from my new Apple Watch I’m losing the will to live this is a problem that no one at three seems to be able to sort out this is very frustrating.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Abysmalthree — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 09:34:12 GMT

Good morning well it's a year later and still they have no new training as the same problem that they were telling last year is still happening they can't get the new watch to attach to three they just told me to wait for a month and still pay for he service that don't work I did everything you have said in your post still no help as the tech department is not helpful at all spent hours trying to fix this

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Abysmalthree — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 09:49:09 GMT

Lol I was just told to remove the addon watch service myself using the app and as we all know this is not available. The guy from 3 told me sorry you are not happy and hung up on me

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

IanM — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 14:45:14 GMT

Found these instructions which worked! No need to contact Three.

Transfer an existing cellular plan to a new Apple Watch

You can transfer your existing cellular plan from your Apple Watch with cellular to another Apple Watch with cellular by following these steps:

While wearing your Apple Watch, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
Tap My Watch, tap Cellular, then tap

next to your cellular plan.
Tap Remove [name of carrier] Plan, then confirm your choice.
You may need to contact your carrier to remove this Apple Watch from your cellular plan.
Remove your old watch, put on your other Apple Watch with cellular, tap My Watch, then tap Cellular.
Follow the instructions to activate your watch for cellular."

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Fwuffybunnyfeet — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 22:07:55 GMT

Anyone got this to work on a series 10? It has been saying activating for well over an hour after advised to remove it as wouldn’t pair grrr

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

IanM — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 06:34:11 GMT

Yes, I was moving the plan rom Apple Watch Ultra to Apple Watch 10. It took about 30 minutes.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Poly_phonic — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 13:15:41 GMT

Hi Jonathan

Three years ago, you were helpful in resolving an issue with a delay in activating cellular service on my Apple Watch Ultra. I got it to work eventually, but only after waiting nearly 3 weeks (and a new billing cycle).

I wondered if you could help me again?

I've just bought a new Apple Watch Ultra and I want to transfer the service from one to another. I've found contradictory information on these forums, so could you tell me the process to transfer the service from my old watch to my new one? After the delay and hassle last time, I'm a bit paranoid! Thank you.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

IanM — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:21:24 GMT

I bought an Apple WatchUltra 3. As part of the setup process it asked if I wanted to move my cellular service to the new watch. And then it just got on and did did it!

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

MichaelP — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:50:10 GMT

Hi there @Poly_phonic,

Thanks for reaching out to us here.

Apple have some helpful steps to guide you with transferring your plan to your new Apple Watch.

You should also see some more guidance directly from your new watch when you power it on😀.

Please give that a go and let us know if you encounter any issues.

Thanks,
Michael

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Poly_phonic — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:45:11 GMT

Thanks, IanM. Did you remove the cellular service from the old watch first, or just go ahead and set up the new one?

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

IanM — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 12:56:42 GMT

No, I didn’t remove the cellular plan from the old watch first. I was amazed how easily the setup process handled it. Almost instant.

Re: Transferring Apple Watch Cellular Plan to new Device (Series 9 / Ultra 2)

Poly_phonic — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:12:55 GMT

That’s really helpful. Thank you, IanM.