Apple Watch Series 3 Launches With Horrible Cellular Connection Issues

If you received your Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE capabilities, you have likely run into some problems. Yesterday, there were complaints about people not being able to set up their cellular-capable Watch devices to work without a Bluetooth connection to an iPhone. Mac Rumors was the first mainstream site to report on the problems.

“Apple Watch Series 3 models are being delivered across the United States and the rest of the world today, and as customers start attempting to activate their new LTE devices, some of them are running into serious setup issues.”

It appears that most of the customers who have run into the problem are with AT&T and T-Mobile. Technical support at both carriers has been giving people the runaround, but at least have admitted that there is an issue and are trying to get it worked out. There are many complaints on Reddit.

“Just got off the phone with AT&T. After 3 calls and two hours here’s what I learned: AT&T has no clue what the f*** is going on,” wrote iDustBall.

“I am having a different issue and I’m wondering if anyone else is seeing this. Numbersync worked for me for AT&T….but my phone always shows the LTE icon as white with no status bars, even While disconnected from my phone and away from my home WiFi,” claims climb19.

And there are several T-Mobile customers who claimed to have spent more than an hour on the phone with customer support, who were nice and tried to help. Several people have taken to Twitter to express their disappointment.

@tim_cook Can’t activate my Apple Watch 3 & T-Mobile business acct. They have given me numerous reasons & no solution.

— tomgaynor (@tomgaynor) September 23, 2017

Some have been able to make cellular calls on their new Apple Watch by first unpairing the Watch, then setting it up as a new Watch (not as a backup of previous one), and setting up the LTE connection after everything is done. However, this hasn’t helped everyone who spent more than $450 on their shiny new Apple Watch over the past couple of days.

If you are a T-Mobile user, you may have trouble getting your instant messages sent in cellular mode. It appears that there is a green bar over the message while the label “Sending” appears, but the label and green line never disappear.

You will be able to send and receive messages if your Watch is connected to your iPhone though Bluetooth. However, one of the reasons people bought the new Watch is because they sometimes go to places where smartphones aren’t allowed (television studios, for example) and need a device that they can check important messages on. So far, the Apple Watch Series 3 can’t do that.

It’s been quite a disappointing launch for the new Apple Watch, which has received more mixed reviews than any Apple product launched in the past few years. Lauren Goode at The Verge claims that LTE absolutely failed on her Watch, and Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal simply says that the untethered Apple Watch is unreliable.

Do you have the Apple Watch Series 3 with cellular? Have you found any solutions to the Watch problems not mentioned in this article? Let us know in the comments section.

[Featured Image by Daryl Deino]