Hopefully it's not too late to avoid installing watchOS 7 on your Series 3 Apple Watch

If you own an Apple Watch Series 3, we have a warning that you might want to heed. Many owners of the timepiece discovered that installing the watchOS 7 update has led to several issues with their device including reboots; some users are complaining about these random reboots taking place multiple times each day along with quick draining batteries and lagging performance.

Consider the words posted on an Apple Support forum from an Apple Watch Series 3 owner with the handle of TJay64 who says, "My series 3 completed an auto update overnight to WatchOS7. Today it has shut itself down at least 3 times, locked itself while on my wrist about 4 times, failed to load complications on multiple faces (weather, activity rings, date, etc), disconnected from my phone at least twice. It has also dropped to less than 50% battery in about 8 hours, normally it is still in the 80s. Is anyone else having these issues? This has been the buggiest upgrade I have seen." `Another Series 3 user responded to the above post by writing a similar message which read, "I have a Series 3 that I updated to WatchOS 7. Ever since the update, the battery drains way faster, and I cannot install any apps to the watch. I have tried repairing the watch, rebooting, and hard rebooting it to no avail. If I could I would go back to WatchOS 6. This is the worst Watch OS release I have ever seen."

Apple did release watchOS 7.0.1 last week, and while it was made to fix some bugs, it was not a cure for those affected Series 3 units. And since Apple Watch users cannot downgrade back to watchOS 6, Apple will need to find a cure to disseminate and do it quickly. The Series 3 model was launched in September 2017 and is the oldest Series compatible with watchOS 7. Could that be part of the problem? It is quite possible that the older hardware just doesn't have what it takes to run some of the more taxing watchOS 7 features. In case you're wondering, watchOS 7 added the native sleep monitoring feature, Family Setup (which allows a family member without an iPhone to set up and use an Apple Watch), new watch faces, and more.

According to one user, disabling the Heart Rate Monitor on the watch ended the rebooting issue. To do this, on your iPhone open the Watch app and tap the tab on the lower left of the screen that says My Watch. Tap on Privacy > turn off Heart Rate. Just remember that the Heart Rate Monitor is the product's most well-known life-saving feature.

The Apple Watch Series 3 remains in the tech giant's current lineup priced at $199 (24 monthly payments of $8.29) and up. Along with the AirPods, the Apple Watch belongs to Apple's fastest-growing business unit, Wearables, Home, and Accessories. The Apple Watch is the most popular watch on the globe. Note that this covers all watches, not just smartwatches. And the AirPods dominate the competition in its category. But that won't soothe Apple Watch Series 3 owners whose device is biting off more than it can chew with watchOS 7. The update doesn't seem to have users of Series 4, Series 5, Series 6, and the Apple Watch SE up in arms.

If you own a Series 3 Apple Watch and haven't installed watchOS 7 yet, you might want to hold off until a fix is pushed out by Apple. We will pass along the information when such an update is released. And looking ahead to next year, Apple will probably decide to cut the Series 3 from the list of devices eligible to receive watchOS 8. So if the latter features a big-time new feature, Series 3 owners might consider upgrading to fresher hardware.