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

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**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

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**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

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**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

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**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

[JD1]

Ok so I tried multiple fixes here and nothing was working. I was getting the field missing error whilst trying to login. 

Anyway, not sure if this will help anyone but I managed to get it to work. I never unpaired or re paired the watch at all. 

1 Turn off WiFi and use mobile data 

2 change your password to something with no numbers or special characters

3 open the watch app and start the cellular section 

4 ENTER THE PASSWORD FIRST and then put the email in. I’m not sure why this worked but I had seen it on another post in this thread.

[ProTroller]

i found solution.

[rchrdkn]

It's incredibly frustrating to find that this is a known issue after spending multiple sessions on live chat to agents who clearly have no idea what is going on.

When setting up my new Apple Watch, I had it sitting on "Activating" for 24 hours. I then hit "Remove all mobile plans" in the watch app and tried repairing. To which I was met with the generic "There's a problem" message, and cue my battle with trying to get the chat support to understand.

My first chat I was told to "re-try pairing, wait 30 minutes and it will work. Trust me", after I reaffirmed that this wouldn't be the case I gave in and waited an hour.

The next chat I was told to go into my account portal and cancel my pairing add-on, which I could not find anywhere - it's not in the account portal is it.. Then the agent told me that something had been changed and to again wait and try again later. In this chat I asked if my issue could be raised to someone more technical, but this was practically denied.

I then left it 36 hours to - one, see whether it did in-fact work, and two, calm down. I then started a chat with the intent on canceling my mobile pairing because I was told to cancel in the previous chat, and after initially being told again that it can be done in the account portal, I was able to get the agent to cancel it in the chat.

Was this a success? Not really.

Now after searching these three forums, I find that canceling my pairing plan was the wrong thing to do and that now I'm going to have a month wait before I can get it enabled, not mentioning that I'm paying for this month that I can't use the add-on. Brilliant.

This is probably the first issue that I've had in my 10? (more?) years of being a three customer, but c'mon guys what the F.

[ProTroller]

i found solution..

[DocRKS]

Is there any solution to this - i've spent hours with support who basically reset everything and then gave up, escalating the issue.

[ProTroller]

i found solution...

[devil666child]

Try my solution above if you can that’s what cleared it for me, although was too late as I’m now with EE and worked with no issues with them. 

[devil666child]

**POTENTIAL SOLUTION** I’ve just moved away from Three and went to EE but interestingly I had my Three ESIM still active so the number can change over and my EE sim also in. When I went to link my new EE account with the watch it also gave me the option to click with Three so just out of curiosity I clicked on the three number and boom it suddenly let me log in and cleared the error! Obviously that’s no good to me now as I cancelled and it’s now all setup with EE but it might be worth a try. If you have a partner/friend/family member just ask if you can put their non-three sim into your phone and see if that clears it. Worked for me (although shame it took me having to move to a new provider to get it that way but it’s worth a try for those stuck with Three) worth a try. As said I had my Three ESIM still active and then popped on my EE sim so it gave the app the options of 2 providers and I clicked the Three sim and suddenly the “there’s an error” vanished and gave me the option to log in. I never logged in as I don’t want to mess up the EE sim but if it’s going to clear it and get you connected then give it a shout. Hope it works for you all 🙂 bye bye terrible Three! 

[getaway]

I’m having the same issues as many others and wondered if anyone could help… bought new watch 3 weeks ago (from Apple). Have contract with Three for watch pairing on cellular. Cannot activate. “There’s a problem” message on activation screen. 

have had case escalated at Three but no word for over a week, and phone support say they cannot give me a timeframe for resolution or even for a call back from the technical team. I’m going to leave Three unless this is resolved this week. 

please can anyone help?? Yours frustratedly… 

[Helpless]

No one can help unfortunately.

Have you tried all the fixes?

pair /unpair

change password to letters only

wifi on/off

clear cache + history 

My particular favourite- wait for the next billing cycle!

I have spent too much time trying to get this to work- just under two weeks. Others have been waiting in vain several months!

I’ve defeated level 1 boss and level two boss over the course of a few hours on the telephone, a monstrous slog that will not be repeated. I’m done. Leaving ASAP.

I’ve heard EE is faultless with their pairing plan.

Vodafone is merging with three, so I will not bother trying them.

Good luck!