Apple has been forced to pull a recent watchOS update following numerous reports of major issues for Apple Watches following its release on October 1.
The news comes just over two weeks after Apple had to pull an update for iPads after iPadOS 18 was reported to be 'bricking' (rendering the device inoperable) the company's high-end M4 iPad Pro tablets.
At the time of writing, Apple is yet to resolve the previous issue, which has left many M4 iPad Pro owners needing to replace their devices, and those unaffected unable to upgrade to the company's recently released milestone iPadOS 18 release — cutting them off from enjoying the latest iPad features like Writing Tools, Image Playground, Genmoji, ChatGPT integration, Home Screen customization, the new Control Center, and the new Calculator app with Math Notes.
Apple Watch woes add to Apple's update headaches
Following the release of WatchOS 11.1 Beta 3 on Tuesday, October 1, several reports from users sprung up on Reddit with owners complaining that their recently updated Apple Watches were encountering major issues when syncing the Messages app.
While most users complained that the Messages app wouldn't sync, often timing out before being able to bring new messages to their Watch, others encountered more severe issues that caused the device to lock up completely when receiving Message notifications.
Some users suggest disabling Message notifications to avoid this issue. However, others report that the lockups are more consistent, happening shortly after a reboot with no way to avoid the issue.
In response, Apple has pulled WatchOS 11.1 Beta 3, no longer offering it for download.
A silver lining (for most)
Thankfully, the number of affected users will be much smaller than those impacted by the recent iPadOS 18 fumble that saw some of the company's top-flight iPad Pros rendered completely useless and in need of complete replacement.
watchOS 11.1 Beta 3 is an update targeted solely for hardware linked to Apple developers. Meaning the vast majority of Apple Watch users wouldn't have even been aware of the update, as it was only circulated among this small subsection of devices.
Frustratingly for the most affected Apple Watch owners, it's likely that Apple won't be able to fix this with a second patch, and these devices will need to be repaired by Apple directly.
A warning for early adopters
However, while these updates are usually released to a comparatively small group of users, the buzz surrounding Apple Intelligence has led many regular Apple users to sign up to the Apple developer program to gain early access to several of the inbound features ahead of their full release.
While Apple Watches won't be getting much in the way of Apple Intelligence features, may have introduced these users to a wave of early updates for other devices.
To those people: welcome to the dangerous world of Beta testing. Issues like those arising from Apple's most recent watchOS Beta release are rare, but not unheard of. Typically, most Beta updates will create as many bugs as they try to fix, as Apple's own developers attempt to iron out software kinks between public releases.
While excitement around Apple Intelligence builds, it's tempting for many users to jump into the action early, but let this be a warning sign of the potential downside to that decision.
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