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

[ChloeBond93]

How can this even be an issue! Such a big company!

[rodmarso]

Hi Jonathan and All,

I purchased the Apple Watch SE from Three and I am having the same issue ‘There’s a problem’ while trying the pairing.

Some notes from my attempts:

1- In the first attempt, the pairing worked straight away, it showed me the option to create a new plan with three which I clicked in.

However, that was the wrong plan and I called Three to delete it. I did a reset on the Apple Watch for the next attempt.

2- in the second attempt with the mobile service, I got the correct and existing plan showing correctly which I clicked in.

However, it got stuck on “activating service’ message for hours.

I called Three support which advised me to reset the mobile service pairing again.

3- since the step 2, for the third and subsequent attempts I am getting the same error: ‘There is a problem’ from Three mobile service.

I believe the issue could be resolved if Three re-enroll my plan again, like delete and recreate it.

I am entering my first week withou solution.

I am trying to get somebody from that can re-enroll my plan in the system.

Regards,

Rodrigo Soares

[JonathanB]

Hi Rodrigo,

I've sent a PM that will link you with some colleagues that can help with this.

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

Thanks,
Jonathan

[ChloeBond93]

I am also having this issue. I upgraded my sim only plan on Sunday & will be cancelling my contract if this cannot be sorted within the next 24 hours. I have been a 3 customer for over 10 years, this is disgusting!

[euzebius]

I just switch to another new apple watch and transfer the watch mobile plan to the new one. It is stuck in “activating” in few hours already. Is that normal?

I have login to My Three account to check and it state that my mobile watch was unpaired. So I think my previous old apple watch was unpaired successfully and just waiting to activate my new apple watch? 

Or I just need a day (your so called “bill cycle”) to activate my new apple watch? Please kindly to advise. Thanks.

[JohnD]

Hey @euzebius 

That's not ideal at all. Are you still having an issue activating your pairing plan?

thanks

John D

[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

[JohnD]

Hey @Alex76 

I appreciate that you're frustrated with the situation. When I've sent you a PM it's to direct you to the Social Media team who will take matters onboard and deal with any required follow-up with you. 

I've already reached out to the team to advise that I've asked you to come through to chat. This is so that much of the information and your original message is already visible and to mitigate your having to go over everything again. 

That being said, with the issue you're having the team will likely confirm a few details and steps with you in order to appropriately escalate matters. 

Thanks

John D