Pixel Watch stuck on Google logo or preparing during update? How-to fix

August 30, 2023

Google Pixel Watch can quickly become addicting as you manage your notifications, listen to music and stay fit with your Pixel Watch.

Some Pixel Watch owners report that their watch is stuck with the Google logo or on the screen that it’s preparing to update. The update screen seems just frozen.

If you find yourself in this annoying situation, check out these tips to unfreeze your Google Pixel Watch and get it going.

Contents

0.1 Related reading:

1 What to do if your Pixel Watch gets stuck on the Google logo or shows a message that it’s preparing to update
- 1.1 Getting a message that the update failed?
2 How to update your Pixel Watch

What to do if your Pixel Watch gets stuck on the Google logo or shows a message that it’s preparing to update

It’s likely that when you were installing the new update, you encountered a software bug or an issue with Bluetooth, and it paused the entire process.

When faced with this situation, the best course of action is to perform a forced restart (also called soft reset) of your Google Pixel Watch. Then turn your watch’s Bluetooth off (or use Airplane mode on your phone) and use WiFi only to update your watch. WiFi-only mode makes the update run much, much faster.

First, if you can, place your watch on the charger.
To force a restart, press and hold both the crown and the smaller side button next to at the same time for 30 seconds or so until your watch restarts. If you see a red exclamation point, don’t freak out. Just wait for a moment, and it should reboot. If it won’t restart, see this article instead.
Once your Pixel watch starts up, put it on the charger and let it stay on the charger until the update process completes.
Lastly, when updating the Google Pixel or any other smartwatch, switch the Bluetooth OFF on the watch while updating. Settings > Connectivity > Bluetooth and turn Bluetooth off. You could also put your phone in airplane mode to turn off its Bluetooth.
The watch should stay connected to Wi-Fi. Settings > Connectivity > Wi-Fi and turn on Wi-Fi.
Then go back to Settings > System and check for the update again. And if available, update your watch–this should go very fast since your watch uses WiFi instead of Bluetooth.
1. If you don’t see an update listed, follow these steps: above the message that the watch is up-to-date, tap the watch icon and keep tapping that icon to force your watch to download the update.
Once you watch updates, make sure you turn Bluetooth back on or turn off Airplane mode on your phone.

Getting a message that the update failed?

When you perform a soft reset, you may come upon an error message that says, “update failed”. This message is ok because your watch pretty much restarts right after that message. If not, perform the steps listed above to restart your watch.

Most users find that a soft reset takes care of this annoyance, and the update process completes successfully following the reset.

How to update your Pixel Watch

The new update for the Pixel Watch is out, and you can update your watch to the latest version.

In order to apply the latest update to your Google Pixel Watch, start by accessing the Settings app on your watch. At this time, you cannot update your Pixel Watch using the phone app.

Updates should take less than an hour. Using WiFi only takes minutes!

Place your Pixel on its charger or check that the battery has at least 50% charge remaining. Make sure it is connected to a Wi-Fi network and that you turned off Bluetooth.
Tap on Settings > System > System Updates.
This checks if there is a pending update available for your Google Pixel Watch.
If there is an update, tap it to begin the process.

Once the installation starts, the Google Pixel Watch screen shows a variety of information on the update stages, including preparing to update, restarting, and installing.