The IT Nerd

So besides iOS 13 hitting the streets today, Apple is releasing watchOS 6 to the public today. It is a major release that includes new watch faces, more health apps, and a calculator which is something that has been missing in watchOS. You can get a full list of features here.

watchOS 6 will run on the following devices…. But there’s a catch which I will get to in a moment:

• Apple Watch Series 1
• Apple Watch Series 2
• Apple Watch Series 3
• Apple Watch Series 4
• Apple Watch Series 5

Here’s the catch: watchOS 6 is being released today for the Series 3 and 4 Apple Watches. For Series 2 or 1 Apple Watch owners, they’ll have to wait until “later this fall” to get watchOS 6 as per the tiny text at the bottom of this Apple press release. Original Apple Watch owners need not apply and the Apple Watch Series 5 will come with watchOS 6 out of the box. 

So what do you need to do to prepare for watchOS 6? Well, there’s not a whole lot that you need to do. For example when it comes to backing up which is what I normally suggest that you do before doing an operating system upgrade, this is largely taken care of for you according to this Apple Support article which states that every time your iPhone is backed up to iCloud or iTunes, the Apple Watch data gets backed up too. So since I recommended in my previous article that you back up your iPhone before iOS 13, and you absolutely need iOS 13 to be installed before watchOS 6 shows up in the Apple Watch app, then you are covered for the most part. The only other thing I would suggest is that you should ensure that the apps on the iOS 13 iDevice are up to date as that will update the associated Apple Watch app. That way you can ensure that everything works fine post upgrade. Finally, as for the upgrade itself, it is important that you closely follow these directions from Apple as updating an Apple Watch is currently not a trivial process which if done wrong has the potential of bricking your Apple Watch. The good news is that as part of watchOS 6, the ability to update independently of your iPhone is going to be available which should reduce the risk level significantly going forward.

This entry was posted on September 19, 2019 at 9:31 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.