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Apple delays watchOS 2 release due to critical bug

Apple Watch watchOS 2

Apple has reportedly discovered a critical flaw in watchOS 2 and decided to withhold the update to fix it, pushing back today’s scheduled release. The issue may remind users of a similar predicament with HealthKit applications at the launch of iOS 8 last year.

Apple has not yet officially announced the new release date, but confirmed in a statement to 9to5Mac that the software will not come out today.

We have discovered a bug in development of watchOS 2 that is taking a bit longer to fix than we expected. We will not release watchOS 2 today but will shortly.

Users running the GM build of the software haven’t yet reported anything big enough to potentially stop the entire release, although there were some reports of sluggish performance throughout the beta. Many users have noted that iOS 9 suffers from the same performance issues on some devices, even newer iPhone hardware, so it’s unlikely that was the cause for this change of plans.

A source with knowledge of the issue told us this problem won’t impact the release of iOS 9 later today.

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Comments

  1. surfingarbo - 9 years ago

    Dammit. I even took my charger to work today in anticipation. At least they’ll update it when it’s ready.

  2. rnc - 9 years ago

    I’m using watchOS 2, and it’s not sluggish, it’s clearly faster than 1.1, but of course, there’s always THAT guy that says that it’s slower, and it’s the true.

  3. Could it be a Watch-killing bug? My Apple Watch died this weekend, having been using the OS 2 GM since its release and several previous betas (I’m a registered developer). On Sunday morning a dark spot appeared on the upper right corner of the screen (http://cl.ly/image/0M1D0i3e0f2l) which, within a few hours, started turning larger and darker (http://cl.ly/image/0811253L2t3y, http://cl.ly/image/0m373n2k2z0e). Then, on Monday morning, the screen went dark completely except for a fine horizontal line at the top (http://cl.ly/image/1z0N2o3m3w1u). Would this be the first case of a #watchgate?

    • Mike Beasley - 9 years ago

      that looks like a hardware problem

      • It surely is. But it came out of nowhere – my Watch hasn’t received any damage, it has no scuffs or marks whatsoever, hasn’t been sunk in water, etc. Sudden death?

    • Zach (@zbat72) - 9 years ago

      same thing happened to my watch. take it in and get it replaced. all you can do. On my watch I noticed the touch screen was not working before the spots appeared. There was no reason for it to happen. I hadn’t worn it in water or banged the watch against anything. It just happened on it’s own. It’s unfortunate but you will have to get it replaced.

    • mockery17 - 9 years ago

      You’re a watch developer and you can’t differentiate between a hardware and a software problem? Oh well…

      • Jim Simon (@jims1973) - 9 years ago

        “a registered developer” doesn’t mean you develop. All it means is you paid the $99 a year.

      • it’s obviously a hardware problem, but one which could pretty well be caused by faulty software (overheating? power management issues?)

      • mikezmac - 9 years ago

        Useless snarky comment. Anyone can sign up to be a developer so that they can help beta test. Most people I know that have signed up signed up just to beta test.

    • emulatronic - 9 years ago

      The exact same thing happened to a friend with WatchOS1.1

    • srgmac - 9 years ago

      Woah, that looks horrible. I don’t think it’s a #watchgate since you’re the only one so far to experience this, but it is interesting nonetheless.

    • Sean Logue - 9 years ago

      I think it is the micro black hole Apple has been using to get a full day’s worth of life out of the watches. It must have escaped and ate your screen.

  4. ohjoey (@ohjoey) - 9 years ago

    Ive been having battery issues with the GM of watchOS2. Was better on the last beta.

    • northmccormick2014 - 9 years ago

      Mine was draining within 4 hours, however, un-pairing and re paring fixed it for me. I get a little bit longer battery out of my watch it seems. I suspect that the phone/watch get stuck trying to do a background network update or something. I honestly think that’s the bug stopping it from being released it would look so bad if they released it and more than half of the users watches’ died in a few hours haha.

      So try that out, helped me.

  5. srgmac - 9 years ago

    How does iOS 9 perform on the 5S?

    • bellevueboy - 9 years ago

      I use ios9 beta and it has been horrible with iPhone 5s. I have gone from not needing to charge during. Typical day to keeping the phone docked and buying accessories. I m pretty savvy about what’s running and tweaked it but without much help. The phone gets hot in some scenarios. Again nine of this would happen before. But it also started around the time I started using the watch so I m not able to entirely pin it on iOS . After reading some articles from last evening apparantly battery life is better with Release version so let’s see.

      • chaityacshah - 9 years ago

        I am running PB 9.1 currently. haven’t faced any issues since since PB 1 of 9.0
        Try restoring once

      • chaityacshah - 9 years ago

        Using 5s only.
        Restore with iOS 9 public release

    • checker92 - 9 years ago

      No problems here. Runs just as good as iOS 8

      • srgmac - 9 years ago

        Thanks for the replies everyone, unfortunately it’s giving me a server error while trying to update, lol..guess I’ll try again later.

  6. o~m~g i was looking forward to watch more than phone OS.

  7. btyler227 - 9 years ago

    Battery related problem in the GM. Typical remedy has been to un-pair and re-pair the watch. Total convenience issue.

  8. bellevueboy - 9 years ago

    There u go and now the stock turns green.

  9. ippylad - 9 years ago

    Messages that come through on my watch say from Apple.com.messages not the recipients name or number

  10. Jason Bolton (@jbolt) - 9 years ago

    I had an issue today where my Apple Watch was on, but wouldn’t wake from sleep even after tapping on screen, pushing the digital crown, or pushing the contact button. Then all of a sudden it did wake and was freaking out on delay due to all of the buttons I pushed. This has happened a few times. Maybe this is the bug?

    • nemesisprime - 9 years ago

      This has happened with me multiple times, too. I’m willing to bet it’s a memory management issue and that is the core reason for delaying it.

      The most recent was yesterday while trying to navigate with Maps. I got a short tap and then the watch went out, wouldn’t respond, and came back about five minutes later doing all of the taps, noises, and other UI stuff that was queued during that timespan in a freaky fashion.

  11. luke0626 - 9 years ago

    os2 is fast!
    But I experienced respring several times. Each time is after I didn’t pick up a phone call.

  12. Sergei Orlov - 9 years ago

    me too) even bought an extra charger for that

  13. adam (@alieb77) - 9 years ago

    Well, using an apple watch since the week it came out, I hope the “critical bug” they found was the fact that the watch does not give the right distance when set for indoor runs. Something to do with converting miles to KM they say.

    This is a known issue and I’ve been dealing with it for a long time, I have an apple case number and was only told (2 months ago) that all they could do is wait for watchOS2….

    Very disappointing.

  14. Pan Ziyue (@sammy0025) - 9 years ago

    I’m a Watch developer and one of the biggest problems that I found (that feature was perfectly working with WatchOS 1) is the Handoff not working effectively on WatchOS 2. Handoff will often fail with a cryptic popup message “Handoff Failed” that doesn’t appear anywhere else, so it can only mean that it’s a fundamental problem with WatchOS 2 than anything else.

    • Pan Ziyue (@sammy0025) - 9 years ago

      There are also some problems related to general connectivity features with the iPhone. SMS/iMessage simply fails to send even when I try to unpair and pair the Watch to my iPhone. So yeah, WatchOS 2 is really not a go for prime time.

  15. Landy (@Soydepr) - 9 years ago

    is there a public beta for watches?