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

[Enlery]

Dear moderator, 

It is safe to say that your troubleshooting does not work. Due to this, I have cancelled my cellular plan, after spending 1.5 hours on the phone trying to explain the situation. The fact that you keep on calling this an 'Apple watch pairing error boggles the mind because that is NOT the issue. The issue is the 'Cellular Pairing'. The IMEI number is linked to the device, but ALSO the watch. Therefor you can unpair a watch, but the IMEI number/Cellular plan still think it's linked to the watch. That is way people see the 'E53305- You already have a paired device' error. 
Your technical team -or the implementation you should devise for this situation-, has to UNLINK the IMEI number from the cellular plan with the 'old watch'. Then it will be possible to pair the cellular plan again with a new watch. 
Please get this straight, it's a real shame this has been going on since October last year and a big company like yourself is not able to remedy the situation. It's really bad. I am even considering moving my number to a different provider because of this. You have seriously lost my trust and I'm sure other people are feeling the same way. 

[Benedict]

I have been having this problem for months and Three support have just completely stopped contacting me. Can you help please? Benedict

[Enlery]

This problem from Three is literally a punch in the face for its loyal customers.
Three has had this problem since October ’23, and they are fooling us by saying to wait for the billing. 

Cycle to end/pass… Well, that’s BS because it doesn’t work.
The issue is that they need to ‘unpair’ the IMEI number. Besides pairing your watch to your smartphone,
your cellular plan is also linked to the watch. So when you unpair a watch, the cellular plan is still linked
to the watch!! It’s a simple solution. However, their ‘Technical’ team is unable to understand this.
The fact that there are people here waiting so long is a joke. However, I have a solution for you all. CANCEL your cellular plan (DON’T pay the cancellation fee)as you did not use the service. DON’T let them tell you otherwise, because I just managed to do it. Then, IF you still trust the company, you just ask for a new plan and problem solved. OR just go to another company as they have more experience with the cellular plan than THREE. Good luck everyone! 

[Nadeem81]

I have activated my cellular plan on 17 dec 2022 but unfortunately it was continuously saying activating.after 2 days of wait i called help line and even escalated my case on their twitter and FB page. they asked me unpair n pair again n even uninstall watch app from iphone but all these tricks were useless.and indoing so now i was unable to reach three login page when i click mob data page.the message Error there was problem. I agained call helpline they said wait for ur bill cycle that was 21st of december.But after 21st dec the issue persist and now error was.E53305.u already have paired device.after that i again raises this issue on help line and they escalated my case yo their technical team.0n 7 jan 2023 i got a call from three technical team and they said ur issue was solved and u will be able to activate cellular plan from next billing cycle.so today 22 nd of jan i tried yo active cellular plan and it finally activated in 10 minute

so my advice to u is to talk yo technical team and dont unpair or uninstall watch app without asking them

[Nadeem81]

Finally after almost 5 weeks of wait today i successfully activated apple watch cellular plan 

[Benedict]

How did you manage it?

[Nadeem81]

When ur bill cycle started just on ur iphone reset network settings n clear history from safari browser.try to activate cellular plan on sim net not on wifi.must involve three technical team so that they will also remove glitches from ur account so that u will be able to activate cellular plan when ur next bill cycle started

[Bronx]

Good to know that I am not alone in this. In fact, this is a massive problem for three customers. I have spent a good hour with the technical team yesterday after 3 weeks of frustration for not being able to activate the cellular function since I bought the add-on when I upgraded my contract in early January ( am now on the next billing cycle).  I was shocked to hear the andvisor admitting that around 40% of their customers  cannot even pair their watch, let alone activating the cellular data. Whilst I was previously getting the screen with the message “activating…”, following deleting all Bluetooth devices and restarting both phone and watch as per their advice, I now get the following error message.

 

I was told to remain patient, keep checking and this will be eventually solved. I will but at the same time I can only feel misled and regret extending my contract  

[MZone]

Just to let you know I successfully paired my Apple Watch Ultra on my first attempt on the 31/12/22 with no issues by following the instruction on this thread that @JonathanB posted above.

[Nicem]

Hi, I’ve had the same problem (no data with apple cellular watch) since upgrading back in October. I’ve spoken to customer support numerous times, gone through all the recommendations from them numerous times and have been contacted by them since then to ask if I’m still having the problem (which I am). My mobile plan in the Apple Watch app still says ‘activating’ with the cog going round and round it’s been like that for nearly three months now. Are we any closer to a solution?