[Apple Watch] Unable to Check for Update - Not connected to the internet error

Tried and tried. I finally got the update to download. Then out of nowhere the watch started to unpair. Now I can't get it to pair at all. (Changing region on phone and watch got me the farthest.)

I wasted many hours trying most of the remedies in this thread.

I was trying to get a new Series 6 apple watch to pair with my iPhone X Max.

I have an AT&T Router that has both a 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WIFI networks. It is configured by default to put these both on the same SSID and then dynamically route each connecting device to the appropriate network ("band steering").

What finally worked for me was this turning OFF the 5ghz WIFI network in order to force the Apple Watch software update to be downloaded off the 2.4 GHz network.

Here's my theory on the problem:

• The iPhone and the Apple Watch find each other via Bluetooth
• You start the pairing process
• The iPhone says, "Hey Watch - you gotta download this 2 GB software update, use this WIFI connection to download it"
• The Watch gets cross ways when routed to the 5 GHz network.

The Series 6 Apple Watch is supposed to support 5 GHz WIFI networks, but this was definitely the culprit for me.

It's possible that the band steering feature from the AT&T Router jacks up the initial connection, or it's possible that the Patch download code has to work on both older and newer Apple Watches and has something that doesn't play nice with a 5 GHz WIFI network.

Hi all - I wasn't able to resolve this issue "unable to check for update error" with all the factory / network / hard resets what resolved for me was ensuring that the "setting time zone" was ON under system services on my iPhone (General -> Privacy & Security -> Location Services -> System services -> Setting Time Zone" as soon as this was resolved I no longer had the error message

Its a very old thread but it seems to be still active so i thought i would contribute since i spent multiple days trying to get my girlfriends series 3 apple watch to work. Nothing seemed to work until i switched to my Guest wifi network (2.4Ghz). It doesn't hurt to reset both the phone and the watch too but what finally made it work was changing wifi networks

I had the same problem with iPhone 15 and Watch Ultra 2. I cannot update from watchOS 10.0.2 to 10.2.. I solved unpair and reinstall the Watch app in iPhone. This advice helped me. Thanks @wilderwayoutdoors so much. :-)

I was facing same issue. Trying to connect Watch after 1 year and getting the error. Tried everything nothing worked. Finally figured out a way to update.

It seems like my watch was running on WatchOS 6 and Iphone 12 is not supporting next update of Watch OS 6, i.e. watchOS 8.8. I had to borrow a iphone 7 and pair my watch and updated it to version 8.8 then unpaired from the borrowed mobile and paired with my iPhone 12 Pro. This time it got updated to WatchOS 10 without any issue.

Posting as this may be useful for others.

What worked for me:

1. Hard restarting my iPhone 11 Pro Max (Volume up button/Volume down button/press and hold Side Button until I see the Apple logo)
2. Hard restarting my replacement Series 5 Watch (hold Digital Crown and Side Button until I see Apple logo)
3. Turning on low power mode on my iPhone (I am not sure this matters, but another user in this forum wrote that it worked, so I thought, "why not?")
4. Trying to pair again by holding iPhone in proximity of Watch and crossing my fingers.

The new watchOS started to download to the Watch via my iPhone.

Thanks!

I had the same issue with a watch I hadn't used for a while and needed to pair to my new phone. I followed the steps dogr suggested (restart phone and watch, low power mode on phone) and that worked for me.

Unreal that I tried everything and then I come across this post and it actually did work for me. Thank you!