WatchOS 4 Dev Beta 3 is Now Available.

[Garz]

So far beta 3 is performing way better than the 2 previous betas.

If you were to update to it, you wouldn’t regret it.

Seems like many say this beta takes so long to update to. At least 2 hours. And then it gets stuck. I don’t have the patience for all that. I’ll wait until there are no flaws trying to get it installed. I only use my watch for notifications and health tracking so nothing I see on this update is a must for me to jump into.

 

[Tartarus]

Seems like many say this beta takes so long to update to. At least 2 hours. And then it gets stuck. I don’t have the patience for all that. I’ll wait until there are no flaws trying to get it installed. I only use my watch for notifications and health tracking so nothing I see on this update is a must for me to jump into.

True, but those people, me included, were updating from beta 2 to 3. For all I know the reason for the issues was beta 2. Only one way to find out for you is to update to 3. Or not, I respect that.

 

[Just_Me_D]

The latest iOS 11 Dev betas are working great on my iPhone and iPad, but the latest dev beta of WatchOS 4 drains my watch battery BIG TIME! I’m going to erase all contents and settings prior to going to bed tonight and then see how the battery performs tomorrow....

 

[Tartarus]

The latest iOS 11 Dev betas are working great on my iPhone and iPad, but the latest dev beta of WatchOS 4 drains my watch battery BIG TIME! I’m going to erase all contents and settings prior to going to bed tonight and then see how the battery performs tomorrow....

That’s odd. Beta 2 drained my battery in under 3 hours every time and the charging took forever.
With beta 3 it’s up to par with the latest official release of watchOS 2.
A restore should fix your issue, yes.

 

[Garz]

True, but those people, me included, were updating from beta 2 to 3. For all I know the reason for the issues was beta 2. Only one way to find out for you is to update to 3. Or not, I respect that.

I’ve been on the beta train every year since iOS 3 beta for iPhone. I’ve had every flagship iPhone since iPhone 3G. But reason why I get hesitant on watch was last year, I had battery issue. It wouldn’t charge at all. And because it was on beta, Apple blamed the beta and said they couldn’t help. I got stuck since I could not downgrade and had a useless watch for a bit. Luckily official release was only a few weeks away and then I was able to get off beta and then get my watch replaced. I don’t want to be stuck in that predicament again.

 

[ItnStln]

I’ve been on the beta train every year since iOS 3 beta for iPhone. I’ve had every flagship iPhone since iPhone 3G. But reason why I get hesitant on watch was last year, I had battery issue. It wouldn’t charge at all. And because it was on beta, Apple blamed the beta and said they couldn’t help. I got stuck since I could not downgrade and had a useless watch for a bit. Luckily official release was only a few weeks away and then I was able to get off beta and then get my watch replaced. I don’t want to be stuck in that predicament again.

Great point

 

[KenV54]

True, but those people, me included, were updating from beta 2 to 3. For all I know the reason for the issues was beta 2. Only one way to find out for you is to update to 3. Or not, I respect that.

I upgraded directly from Watch OS 3.2 to 4 Beta 3. It took about 2 hours from start of download through install. At a couple points it seemed to stop completely and I thought it wasn’t going to work, but it did, and seamlessly. No problems so far except for battery life, which seems less than on 3.2, but I’ll see how it goes on Day 2. (If I wipe it with the beta 3 installed, can I be sure there will be a backup on the iPhone to use to restore it? Or does a restore defeat the purpose?)

Not a whole lot of difference for me, the way I use my watch, but I like the new Siri watch face and features. The watch itself responds to Hey Siri with the phone out of voice reach. Is that new, or was it also there in 3.2?

 

[Tartarus]

I upgraded directly from Watch OS 3.2 to 4 Beta 3. It took about 2 hours from start of download through install. At a couple points it seemed to stop completely and I thought it wasn’t going to work, but it did, and seamlessly. No problems so far except for battery life, which seems less than on 3.2, but I’ll see how it goes on Day 2. (If I wipe it with the beta 3 installed, can I be sure there will be a backup on the iPhone to use to restore it? Or does a restore defeat the purpose?)

Not a whole lot of difference for me, the way I use my watch, but I like the new Siri watch face and features. The watch itself responds to Hey Siri with the phone out of voice reach. Is that new, or was it also there in 3.2?

The backup is there, on the iPhone but deliberately chose not to restore from a backup.

I’m not sure about Siri. I don’t use it that much on the Watch.

 

[metllicamilitia]

I sent in a bug report to Apple, but I was scammed out of my goals. It literally didn’t count my stand goal during the hour I was completely the Challenge badge nor another hour later on so my stand goal was incomplete. It’s a little annoying.

 

[robertk328]

Mine wouldn't find it by checking in the app. Had to wait a bit before the red (1) showed up on the badge. Updated no problem, but it hung up with the reboot and I had to reboot manually.

Battery seems better so far, but time will tell!

 

[Just_Me_D]

I’ll take my Watch off of the charger after I get cleaned up and see how it goes. I erased all contents and settings last night so hopefully my battery issue will improve today. I’ve never had to charge my Watch or be alerted that it’s needs to go into power saving mode until this recent watchOS beta, but I’m also confident that the reset will fix the problem. We know soon enough, huh?

 

[syx6sic]

I don’t see where the 2 hours for the beta 3 update download and install comes from took 20 minutes for me to download and once I put my watch on the charger it took 30 minutes to do the update only had one issue when first started saying it couldn’t verify the update then just went thru

 

[Tartarus]

I don’t see where the 2 hours for the beta 3 update download and install comes from took 20 minutes for me to download and once I put my watch on the charger it took 30 minutes to do the update only had one issue when first started saying it couldn’t verify the update then just went thru

Every beta and every watch is different. This is the first time for me I had issues updating. For one it goes smoothly, for another with issues and the next time the roles are the other way around.

 

[robertk328]

I don’t see where the 2 hours for the beta 3 update download and install comes from took 20 minutes for me to download and once I put my watch on the charger it took 30 minutes to do the update only had one issue when first started saying it couldn’t verify the update then just went thru

Newer version watches seem to handle these tasks better than the first gen many of us have.

 

[syx6sic]

Newer version watches seem to handle these tasks better than the first gen many of us have.

I have both gens and both loaded pretty quickly so not sure only had the issue saying it couldn’t verify the update first then went thru the second time so maybe I just got lucky lol but so far running smoothly

 

[Just_Me_D]

Update: As expected, erasing all contents and settings, and then starting over cures the battery drain for me. My Watch appears to be back to having long battery life.....

 

[Tartarus]

Update: As expected, erasing all contents and settings, and then starting over cures the battery drain for me. My Watch appears to be back to having long battery life.....

Too bad restoring causes this in the Health app:

It certainly is not good for my OCD

 

[ItnStln]

Too bad restoring causes this in the Health app://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170716/3b6cf16a6c6f7794672968c733ceafb7.png

It certainly is not good for my OCD

Yeah, I hate that! Is there any damage done from deleting them?

 

[mac_addict]

Yeah, I hate that! Is there any damage done from deleting them?

You lose all your health data. I would try unpairing first, I lost everything.

 

[ItnStln]

You lose all your health data. I would try unpairing first, I lost everything.

I've had several apple watches so I wasn't sure if it'd delete the data for that watch or not. Thanks for letting me know before I decided to test it out myself.