When you bought both a new Apple Watch and a new iPhone, instructions may not be clear on the correct pairing procedure. There are a specific number of steps to take in a certain order to ensure you don’t lose any information when you pair a new Apple Watch.
[How to Pick Just the Right Apple Watch Series 4]
Backing Up and Un/Pairing
- Unpair your old Apple Watch.
- Back up your old iPhone.
- Set up your new iPhone.
- Restore your new iPhone from backup.
- Pair your new Apple Watch.
- Restore your new Apple Watch from backup.
And voilà you’re done. There isn’t really a manual way to back up an Apple Watch because the majority of the Watch’s data is stored on the iPhone and included in the iCloud Backup. Your Watch is constantly syncing its data to the iPhone, like app and health data.
And the last time around it was an Apple T-Shirt in the Apple Store who screwed it up for my wife and I. When we get new iPhones and Apple Watches for Christmas I will set them up at home.
Sorry to hear that. Your experience mirrors so many others as well. In fact, I put Apple store employees as the least knowledgeable about what they sell second only to Best Buy. The difference is, BB salespeople have to know about thousands of products, Apple store employees basically only need to know about less than 10 (really only 4 in any sort of volume).
Apple store workers are nothing more than traffic cops, each highly trained to guide you to someone else that can make up an answer to your question.
There was a time when the Apple stores were the absolute best place to go for all things Apple. The last 10 years, I can’t think of a worse possible place to go for anything Apple.
Usually they are pretty knowledgeable and I am pleased with their help. This time I was disappointed. Maybe the best thing is to not buy an iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time unless one is a new user.