Updated my Apple Watch to watchOS 26 beta to test it — can't pair it now after downgrading iPhone

Question

kroznek OP

Created 4d

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 3

Hi everyone,

I updated my iPhone 16 Pro to iOS 26 beta and my Apple Watch to watchOS 26 beta because I wanted to test out the new features. After a few days of testing, I found the iOS 26 beta too unstable and laggy for daily use, so I downgraded my iPhone back to iOS 18.5 stable.

Now my Apple Watch is still running watchOS 26 beta. I tried resetting it to factory settings, hoping that would help, but now I can’t pair it back to my iPhone because it requires iOS 26 again — which I don’t want to reinstall and don't want to use it till it's stable.

Is there any way to downgrade my Apple Watch back to a stable version or somehow pair it again with my iPhone running iOS 18.5?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Boost

Answer 1

darkpaw OP

3d

No, you cannot downgrade from 26 beta to 11.5. It's not possible.

It's exceptionally important to read the details of the upgrade and downgrade paths before you do anything, as you have now discovered. Sorry.

0

Answer 2

haptic OP

3d

Hello, Kroznek,

You could try to deactivate Developer Mode on Watch in the Privacy and Security Settings.

It might be necessary to re-install iOS 26 first (again, I know) to achieve this properly.

Once you took the Developer Mode off on Watch, re-install iOS 18.x, Watch might (!) work with the release version of iOS 18.x again.

If not, wait a week or two, the betas usually get better very quickly…

Good luck ;-)

0