If you’ve installed watchOS 11 beta on your Apple Watch and want to downgrade back to watchOS 10, here’s what you should know.
You Can’t Connect Your Apple Watch to a Mac to Install Software, Downgrade from watchOS 11 Beta to 10 Not Possible
I’ll give you the answer right away – no, you can’t downgrade from watchOS 11 beta to watchOS 10 on your Apple Watch. Once you’ve installed it, you’re living the beta life for good. You’ll keep on receiving subsequent beta updates until the final version arrives some time later this year. Once that is done, just unenroll yourself from receiving beta updates by going to Watch > General > Software Update > Beta Updates and then tap on ‘Off.’
Why is that so, you ask? Because Apple has no mechanism for downgrading Apple Watch firmware at all. On an iPhone, iPad or Mac, you can simply download the older firmware and install it on the device. On Apple Watch, things are different, a little too different. Because there is no cable that lets you interface the Apple Watch to your Mac, nor does Apple allow you to download an entire firmware file straight onto your watch for restore – though that would be a great idea, if it were possible. Once you’ve installed the beta update, whether it’s developer or public, you’re going all the way to the end of the year.
I’ve heard, and I cannot confirm this, that if you put up a good case with Apple, they will downgrade your Apple Watch to the latest publicly available software. If you live in a place where there’s an Apple Store nearby, you can give that option a shot, but it’s not guaranteed to work for you at all, so keep that in mind.
I never ever recommend installing watchOS updates. If something goes wrong and you want to turn back to the stable release, you can’t do that. You have that luxury with iPhone, iPad and Mac, but not with Apple Watch. That’s the reason I ask everyone to think it through a million times before making the leap.
Beta software is notoriously bad when it comes to battery life and if you rely on your Apple Watch to last till the end of the day, do consider carrying a charger with you. That’s what beta life is – you get the bragging rights for running the latest software, but it does come with a massive cost.
