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

[CMann]

Hi, I'm having issues pairing my Apple Watch Ultra with my iphone14 pro max.

It has worked previously but when I try to connect it just takes me to a page which says 'There is a problem' 

I've been into my local three store and spent an hour speaking to 3 different members of the three team but don't seem to be able to make any progress.  Please can you send me a message as you have with others so I can try and resolve?

Thanks

[rodmarso]

Hi, I still haven't gotten a solution for my case yet (since 25th of August). The Three team said it has been escalated to backend team but I haven't received a reply yet.

My Apple Watch is showing the error: 'There's a problem' while clicking on 'Mobile Service' activation through the Apple watch app.

[mattsmith11]

@JonathanB I am having the ‘One of the fields is missing’ error. 

My password contains no special characters at all, I have re-signed up to My3 so there should be no issues on the account. 

I have used my Apple Watch Series 7 before with cellular data but since getting a different phone it does not work and I can’t get the plan that I’m paying every month for to work on my watch. 

how can this be fixed please?

[mattsmith11]

@JohnD  hi John, are you able to assist please?

[nar1959]

I am getting "There is a field missing" when trying to setup an Apple Watch 5 on an iPhone 13. Reset everything, spoken to two people of the 3 helpline, no solution.

[JasSeakho]

Hi did you get this resolved? I am having the same issue

[nar1959]

Hi, I finally fixed it today after calling Three tech support for about the fifth time. I deleted the Apple Watch app from my phone, after unpairing the watch, re-installed the app and Bob is your auntie. Fixed!

Why no one at Three could tell me that before I don't know, my son even went to a Three shop as requested by tech support and they were useless.

[Alex76]

Hi. I left o2 after 22 years with them and as ex staff - i needed a service provider that could support cellular on my apple watch - which ruled out my preferred option Utility warehouse as they don't offer this yet. My partner uses 3 and recommended you for exactly this reason. I bought my sim end of May and got around to porting in July. My apple watch is paired fine but the option to add the mobile data via the watch app is failing. The first attempt it appeared ok but 3 days later it still said activating. I spent hours on online chat and followed all troubleshooting guidelines to no avail. nest i lost an hour of my life on a call to someone in India who asked me to repeat everything I had already tried - such as erasing and resetting the entire watch set up, re pairing, clearing cache, wifi off. At the end of the call he asked me how I would summarise the issue - as if he hadn't even been present on the call (at this point I was like wow - I can see now why I stayed with o2 so long, it was embarrassing i would be mortified if my meber of staff was so spectacularly rubbish at resolving a complaint. I had been transferred to him and it was sold as "technical" help. He then said he would refer me to technical team himself - I queried it and he said more technical than him (are you all having a laugh at our expense?!) I'm self employed so all of this is actually costing me money and its failure to deliver a service that you advertise. Next up he attempts to end the call with no info on follow up or resolution timescale, I ask and he doesn't know ! I ask for a reference for the call and he gave me 79978292 - surprise surprise this doesn't appear anywhere in my support cases nor have I received any feedback - this was at 13.14 on 24/07/23 (you may want to listen to the call as they are stealing a living charging you for time wasting your paying customers time). 
So I went into my local 3 store and asked there (Bury) the team were very friendly and wanted to help - sadly your company doesn't offer the type of retailer support that your competitor o2 does and i was kept waiitng for 49 minutes in store while they tried to resolve it. Once again all the basic steps were revisited and i was even complimented on the extra steps Id taken with checking settings etc. It became apparent that even 18 years after leaving o2 my technical training and complaint resolution skills were far superior to whats been proffered by your seeming 2 bit cowboy operation. We agreed instore that the only fault diagnosis left was to wait for my allowances to refresh and try again the next day. That done i can safely say its still an issue and its still not working. So in summary unless you have a fix to enable the one feature that brought me to your network I will be cancelling my contract, submitting an ombudsman complaint, making your CEO aware of the diabiolical customer service your company has offered and submitting a money claims online form for my full days worth of lost time. And I will happily move back to o2 and pay a premium for a service that actually works.

[JohnD]

Hey @Alex76 

That's really disappointing to hear, and it's definitely not the experience we'd want anyone to have. I'll send you a PM to get you in touch with some colleagues that can help.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
John

[Alex76]

cant reply to you, although im logged in now on here its on edge and when i try to reply the screen is too long for my laptop browser display so the reply button is hidden. My preference is chrome but that wont let me login using my ID Alex76 - tells me theres something wrong with the username? 
I wont be repeating the painful contact i had with online chat anyway thanks very much. Ive had enough time wasted, If a three representative cant be bothered to reach out and call me to resolve this prior to CEO and ombudsman complaint so be it