The Verge reports Apple is looking into a fix for a network connectivity issue with the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE. The device reportedly may stay connected to an unknown Wi-Fi network with no internet connectivity, preventing the device from using its LTE cellular connection.
Lauren Goode reports her Apple Watch Series 3 review unit, supplied by Apple, would “try to connect to unknown WiFi networks instead of connecting to cellular, when I was out and about without my phone. ”
When she contacted Apple about the issue, they sent her another Watch, but she also experienced the issue with the new unit. The company told her they are looking into a fix for the issue.
Eventually, the company issued an official statement, acknowledging the issue. “We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular,” an Apple spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are investigating a fix for a future software release.”
In her Apple Watch Series 3 review, Goode said that the watch would sometime connect to an unknown Wi-Fi network showing a mere one bar of signal strength, remaining on that network instead of switching over to LTE.
On more than one occasion, I detached myself from the phone, traveled blocks away from my home or office, and watched the Watch struggle to connect to LTE. It would appear to pick up a single bar of some random Wi-Fi signal, and hang on that, rather than switching to LTE.
While Apple said it will attempt to fix the issue in a future update of the watchOS 4 operating system, but did not offer up a possible date for the fix.
