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

[Uselesswatch17]

I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to repair my watch to the cellular. I had to unpair abroad as the cellular wasn’t working. Once I did that it wouldn’t let me repair, as it said it was already paired. Couldn’t speak to anyone on the phone, just via the web chat. But just went round in circles, as they just kept telling me to pair it. If @JonathanB send me a message to resolve the issue that would be great. It’s obviously a clear problem with 3s system being unable to pair and unpair the sims from cellular. 

[Lukeapricey]

I think @JonathanB @has gone into hiding! 😶‍🌫️ 

[Lukeapricey]

I had a hilarious conversation with a guy called “Faisal” today on web chat..  I’m convinced they are just bots on there - not real people haha..  It kept just telling me to cancel the smartwatch addon on the three app and then kept asking me if I needed help “deleting the My3 app”.. when I asked a question about the pairing it just ignored it and told me it’s “impossible” to delete an addon.  Soo frustrating.  
it’s not Apple.. it’s three, unfortunately they are simply incompetent and haven’t designed a robust back end system.  I can’t use my cellular features on my Apple Watch even though I pay for it.  

[Cpbasso]

Got an Apple Watch yesterday, initially set it up fine but had some issues with an app that required an unpairing. Did this, everything else is working fine but now it won’t share my data plan. Every time I try I just get “There’s a problem. System error”. Three call centre of no use at all!

[Mrjayface]

Same problem here. No joy? 

[Cpbasso]

Still no joy. I’ve easily spent 7 hours on webchat trying to sort this now. 

[Lukeapricey]

I’m having the same issue.  I had an Apple Watch Series 6 cellular which was paired with no issues for a year but I recently purchased an Apple Watch Ultra and the cellular plan hasn’t transferred.  When I try to activate the cellular plan on the new watch it says “there’s a problem”. Prior to this the plan was stuck on “activating”.  
When I unpaired the old watch it automatically restored the watch and removed the data plan as instructed.  I have no idea what to do next.. Do I just cancel the watch pairing addon?  Judging by the issues on here it seems futile because nobody seems to be getting this issue sorted !! 

[Smashah]

I unfortunately wasted about 5 hours on the phones today.

I had a smartwatch plan working fine on my series 8 watch, watch was returned and new watch purchased Apple Watch ultra yesterday.

Then I set up the mobile service, went through fine, when checking the status it was on activating and didn’t change, after 5 hours I decided to remove the plan from the watch and start again.

Then when trying to add the plan it would fail with the same ‘there’s a problem’ message.

 Called three, wasted hours, someone from complaints suggesting removing the plan from my account and readding it, this has not made a difference.

When trying to add the services now I get either two errors, one is that it says ‘there’s a problem, at least one of the fields is wrong, or, ‘there’s a problem, system error’

PLEASE HELP

[Snook]

On the September 22nd there will be many Three Customers with either a new Series 9 / Ultra - maybe it would be prudent @JonathanB to get ahead of this and provide recommendations on the best way to move over the Apple Watch plan to the new watch and to avoid getting caught with all these errors? 

As we can all see from this thread, in over a year of non-stop issues with Three Customers, no one within Three has felt it worth spending a few hours to write a proper "debug" script with the methods to fix it for your Off-Shore Support Team to go through and instead requires posting on this forum and hoping it gets picked up and passed onto the right team within Three to sort. So to avoid your Support Team being overwhelmed on iPhone and Apple Watch launch day and making it difficult for your customers with pointless steps and broken promises, it feels prudent to get ahead of it or provide a document on your help pages with the proper process customers should follow?

Do we just setup the new watch (without removing or resetting the old watch) and just click Add Cellular Services during the Setup? Or should we be removing the plan manually from the old watch first then setting up the new one etc.

[MaxPendergast]

Hello I am also having this issue contacted live chat and also 333 and there seems to be no option to either repair the apple watch to my plan or remove the plan then re activate it. this is frustrating as it seems three do not have the right systems in place for good customer service i had one agent try to send me to apple to sort my data plan out... this is not a hardware problem this is a systems issue and I am debating leaving my contract due to the fact I am paying for a service and not receiving it.