Apple Watch pairing error

[JonathanB]

Hi everyone,

We've moved everything relating to Apple Watch pairing issues to this new conversation and will be providing all future updates as edits to this post, so that you won't need to go searching through the comments for these.

I appreciate these pairing errors must be very frustrating, especially for those of you that have been running into issues for several weeks now. Technical specialists are continuing to look into this, however based on what they've seen so far, this does not seem to be one overall fault that we can apply a blanket fix to.

With this in mind, please make sure you have followed the advice on the private message we've sent to each of you, this will ensure that your individual case has been escalated. We've originally sent these messages out a couple of weeks ago, so I'll double check that everyone that has commented has received these. You can find your community messages by clicking on your avatar in the top right of any page, then on "Messages".

Finally, please ensure you are following the Community House Rules when posting on the community, particularly points 8 and 13.

The private message mentioned above will put you in touch with a team that you can raise a complaint with should you wish to do so, any comments that share details of individual Three employees will be removed from the community.

JonathanB

---

**Update 26/10/2022**

Hi everyone,

We really appreciate your patience whilst we've been working on this issue. I can't imagine how frustrating it is to not be able to take full advantage of your Apple watches.

As I mentioned last week above, the errors do not seem to be one overall fault that can be fixed immediately for everyone. We do need a specialist team to do some work in the background on your accounts. With this in mind, I'd advise the following:

• Make sure you've taken any action we've recommended on private messages to your community account. If you're experiencing these issues and we don't already know, please reply on this post so we can reach out.
• Do not repeatedly attempt unpairing and pairing, this may be interfering with the work done in the background. Please wait for a Three representative to contact you and advise before you unpair and pair again.

We've seen some great progress towards getting this sorted in the last few days, I'm hopeful that it won't be too much longer till this issue is fully resolved for everyone.

JonathanB

---

**Update 17/11/2022**

 Hi everyone,

We’re really sorry that there’s been a considerable delay between updates on the errors with Apple watch pairing. As we’ve mentioned previously there is more than one error involved and specialist teams are working hard to address the root causes of these.

I assure you that all comments about this issue are read, and all feedback given is being escalated on a daily basis.

Whilst we’re working on this, we’d be grateful if you can do the following:

• If you’re new to this thread, please either private message me, or add a reply, and I’ll direct you to a team that can help further.
• If I’ve already sent you this information, please ensure you have spoken to that team.
• Please only unpair and re-pair your watch if directed to by one of our support teams as part of the troubleshooting and investigation of your issue.

I’ll provide another update soon.

Thanks,
JonathanB

---

**Update 02/12/2022**

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your continued patience. We’ve seen some great progress towards resolving these issues since the last update. As I’ve mentioned previously there is more than one error involved, and for many of you, your bill cycle will also affect when you can successfully re-pair the service.

Here’s some general steps that should help with common scenarios we’re seeing.

• Ensure that you’ve registered for My3, without a registered online account and password set, the pairing will fail.
• There are some instances where special characters at the start of My3 passwords have resulted in an error. We recommend that you have a strong password that is a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters but avoid beginning the password with characters like /!”£$|\. My3 supports these, but it seems to be causing an issue when this info is passed onto the smartwatch pairing system.
• If you’ve changed your priceplan, upgraded, or are instructed to wait for your bill cycle to complete, you should wait till the day after your new bill cycle starts to attempt pairing. So for example, if your allowances refresh on the 1st, wait till the 2nd.
• Although individual smartwatches can be unpaired from your account, cancelling or removing the add on completely will delay being able to reinstate the service till the following bill cycle.
• As mentioned before, don’t repeatedly unpair and re-pair, the failed requests may cause further issues on your account that delay this being solved.
• I’m continuing to regularly check for anyone new on the thread, just send a reply or private message me, and I’ll link you in with a support team that can help get your specific error looked into and make sure you get the best advice.

Thanks,
JonathanB

---

**Update 11/01/2023**

Hi Everyone,

As well as the steps on the last update, we're finding it helps to clear your temporary data from your iPhone before attempting pairing.

You can do this in Settings, Safari, Clear History & Website Data.

In case anyone is having trouble finding their private messages, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages". If you've posted on this thread, then you should have a message waiting from me with a link to a support team that will help.

Thanks,
JonathanB

[Marteymcfly73]

Gary,

I sincerely hope Three help you on this but if you check through these posts, apart from Mez who seemed to strike it lucky, you’ll be waiting some time I’m afraid.

the issue is indeed carrier end and not Apple. Their customer support team advise that they cannot run diagnostics on something that is not actually active on the Watch. The fact it will say no sim plan and not connected shows this.

I am due my final call back after several weeks of nonsense this Friday where no doubt I will have to unpair and re pair my Watch for a 5th time only for it not to work and I’ll then subsequently cancel the add on.

if for whatever reason a miracle occurs I will update all on here as to what happened.

cheers

[Ashasg03]

Nearly 2 months later and same waffle from three, absolute joke. If this isn't sorted my next billing cycle 25/11 I will be leaving 

[Clever-Trevor]

I too having this problem - despite trying - I get the ‘already paired’ error & am totally stuck! ( I did also try an O2 sim & works fine to add on their network - so is something with Three. The pain for me is it was working until I updated ( renewed ) my contract & the watch add-on was removed & now cannot get it restored - h-e-l-p 

[SteveH]

Hi - I am struggling to get my watch onto cellular - It was stuck showing activating, and I have been told to unpair it and rest it, and I am now getting the E53305 error (already have a paired device), so if anyone can help as I am struggling with Three support. 

[Marteymcfly73]

Steve, 

I hate to say this but you’ve got more chance of England winning the World Cup than Three sorting this issue out.

There is no solution only more of the same rubbish being peddled which is- ‘ we are working on it ‘ which they have been for the past 3 months now with no resolution.

the product needs to be stopped and re offered when all of the technical issues have been fixed.

I am cancelling my pairing contract as it is useless and just doesn’t work regardless of pairing and unpairing. 

I wish you the best of luck for trying to get resolution, I fear you will be in the same camp as the rest of us at the end of it though.

[Kadrong]

After months of waiting, false troubleshooting, 3 trips to apple (ThreeUK advice) and to the three store.. the problem has been resolved and compensation applied to my two mobile contracts for a waver of an entire month

 

[gbailey141]

What did they do to fix it for you in the end?

[hamid786uk]

@Mez - Your extremely lucky mate, i have tried your steps a few weeks back and it didn’t work.

i do however have an update:  I was told 3 weeks ago to wait for my “next billing cycle” which was 8th November 2022.  Today is 9th November and it’s still not pairing.  

i have been told the request has gone back to 2nd line support.

this is total shambolic service, you don’t introduce a service without the correct skills and knowledge within the business. - especially the size of Three UK.

Run run and cancel your contracts if you can on the terms of “mis-selling” a product - this is precisely what i am about to do today. 

[Gisc19]

My contract is done just waiting for my Vodafone sim to drop through letter box happy days 

[Mez]

So this is my first time posting, I'm going to explain as much as I can what I did with my watch to see if it can help anyone else. I was using my apple ultra connected to my three, 13 pro max, everything was working ok until I upgraded my contract as it had run out, to a 12 month sim only deal, then the connection on the watch stopped working and in the watch app it said not activated, I now know it would've been just a simple call to get it activated but me being daft I clicked "unpair Apple Watch" thinking this would mean I just re-pair it and I'm good to go, but like everyone else I was stuck with the error message and red triangle of doom saying error and to call three. I've spent days talking to three and countless hours, I'm not knocking the staff on the phone they've been very polite and tried as much as they can I just guess they are as in the dark as we are, that being said, they fixed the problem, today!! so ill give you a run down with the time frame.

Saturday morning on the three app where the box is "Add-ons" I noticed I had 2 active which were the smartwatch pairing 1m and smartwatch pairing discount 6m. I called three and asked them to completely remove these, after the call these add ons went from active to pending, I was told they would be removed after 4 hours however they didn't disappear from the app until Sunday midday. So now the add ons box in the three app says "Buy" so with these gone I thought maybe it would work, I tried to link the phone to the watch but just got the same error message. then, in the watch app, I went to settings, general, reset, remove all mobile plans. then I called three again and the operator seemed clued up and said if I leave it for 48 hours now then it should re-pair. ok so all day yesterday I kept trying through the day and night, same error message each time. Tuesday morning 8th November I tried to link and instead of the error I had a message saying smartwatch pairing 24m, buy now. so I clicked buy now, it installed the software and then literally 5 minutes later said 'three active" I then called three again and said I didn't want the 24 month contract and they changed it to a rolling 1 month contract alongside my 12 month sim plan, they then added the 6 month discount on top of that.

To be fair to the guys I think they just need training on the watches as quite a few I spoke to wasn't even aware what the ultra was and didn't even know you could connect your contract to it, but after explaining it all, they did their best to help.

I hope this helps someone else as this has worked for me, and if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer.

oh just a quick note:- after calling 333, I selected the options 4-3-4-2 and this seemed to get me through pretty quick.