Q: BUG: Exercise app time not showing in Activity app

I Am having the same issue I hiked 12 miles half of it up hill very strenuous. I was at my max heart rate for at least half the hike. I got three minutes of exercise. My friend had her watch on and she got 220 minutes of exercise credit. I think this is possibly a hardware issue. Although it takes my heart rate fine it won't budge on the exercise minutes. I am going to make an appt with   and get a new watch.

The exercise ring logic needs to be overhauled.  I did a *3 HOUR HIKE* up a very rocky and vertical mountain, all the way to the peak.  The app gave me credit for 22 minutes even though my BOM was above 140 for long periods.  In the exercise app I started an "outdoor walk" since there Is no better option... Maybe it was looking for horizontal distance?  Dunno. My trust is gone on this whole ring-activity thing.  ... And why doesn't the phone track workouts and give calories?  I can only see rings x days.  Not helpful.  How many workouts did I do?  Who knows?  There is no workout app on the phone.  Runkeeper does a better job tracking my workouts -- and it gives me an awesome map of my journey.   I know it's a first attempt, but I'll be watching on 9/9/15 to see wnat they announce.

The watch doesn't have a sensor to measure altitude gained so it would just be measuring distance according to the stride it has been trained for with the phone. I don't think it would give 'exercise' credit except for periods in which you were achieving the speed of a 'brisk walk.'

George

Update:  GRAND TOTAL for over an hour of brisk outside walking? 8 minutes. 

FIRST walk: went for *2* walks today.  The first was a brisk 40 minute walk outside with GPS on, exercise app on watch set to "outdoor walk" and wearing watch.  It was hot out, I was sweating.  I got 5 minutes credit for this walk under "exercise".  

SECOND walk: That evening, I went for a 25 minute brisk walk outside, much of which was uphill.  I got 3 minutes credit for that.

Love Apple, watched their awesome event live today (9/9/15) but was hoping for more watch magic -- and a significant update to Siri to make it actually useful!

I'm excited to update to WatchOS2 on 9/16/15 but not expecting much regarding their native exercise support.

I had this same problem for the first time today. I hiked almost 3 miles, set my workout to outdoor walk and got 6 minutes of exercise credit! I usually walk on treadmill which seems to record exercise correctly. e other thing I've noticed on treadmill is that distance on watch

I have found also that distance is not recoding correctly on my watch when I walk on the treadmill. The treadmill recorded my distance as 2 miles (which is correct) while my watch said my distance was 1.37. It has been off several times. Any thoughts?

I wanted to post my experience with the fitness portion of the Apple Watch, as there have been many questions, complaints, and comments about this, and I am hoping that I can help a little bit by sharing my quest for Apple Watch nirvana.  I am in no way saying that this will work for everyone, or that this is everyone’s experience, this only applies to me. 

So I have had the watch for 24 days.  I have talked to 4 senior advisors, 3 apple geniuses, and have combed through dozens of discussions boards for help, or a definitive answer on my issues with the watch.  The watch, in the beginning, was not giving me full credit for exercise, in either the workout app, or the activity app.  I originally thought it was only giving me credit when I hit 75% of my max heart rate, which is 134, but this was not consistent.  I calibrated, unpaired and paired, unpaired and paired and setup as a new watch, and then recalibrated, I have no tattoos, my heart rate recorded properly to the health app, I have normal blood flow to my arm, my watch was on correctly with skin contact.  The last straw was on this past Thursday, where I walked as hard as I could for 36 minutes.  I didn’t stop, and my heart rate was in the 140s to 150s for 33 minutes of my 36 minute walk, with an average pace of 3.2 MPH, which according to the ACSM is a brisk walk.  GPS tracked me accurately as well.  It gave me 0 minutes, and I mean 0 minutes of that walk.  I actually ended up with heat exhaustion because it was almost 90 degrees and I walked to fast and hard. 0 minutes given my friends.

Fast forward to two weekends ago, and the 3^rd Apple Genius ran a diagnostic on my phone.  My phone was completely screwed up in terms of memory placement, including all the fitness apps.  So we restored my phone, and then restored the backup.  It has fixed half of the problem.  If I just use the activity app, without the workout app on the phone, the Activity app counts all of my minutes.  The Workout App still gives me 1 or 2 minutes when it is use.  And yes, I have used other, and it gives me all the minutes, but it feels like I am cheating.    So, my conclusion is that there is something glitch with the Workout app itself that I am hoping will be resolved with the WatchOS 2 release.

It took two more weeks after that (last Friday) where yet another senior OS chat person came back with that "I am not moving fast enough to meet Apple's exercise threshold".  Really?  3.2MPH and 145 bmp isn't enough for you people?  I am not satisfied with that answer in the least, plus I don't think it's true.  3.2MPH is clearly a brisk walk.  And if I don't have the workout app recording the walk, all of my minutes count.  I am still trying to decide if I should put up a fight and exchange it for a new watch, and attribute it to hardware rather than software.  I still might if the iOS9 and WatchOS 2 doesn't fix anything.

The other thing is that the resting calories are sooooo high. I am a short fat 42 year old lady, Calculations have my BMR  at 1844 and my RMR at 1641.  Apple has my resting calories at 3363!  If I could burn that many calories just resting, I would look like Kristen Chenoweth.  I have read that they will be fixing that too.  And yes, I have submitted feedback to  Apple, and yes, I know they don’t read the boards.

I don’t know if anyone cares, but thought I would share. Thank you!

TThis app is ridiculous.  I just finished a 65 minute jog and got ZERO credit for exercise and calories.  considering this thread is 9 pages long and goes back to May, and it still is not fixed, I am seriously considering going back to apple and getting my money back.  Seems other apps are far better at these things than Apple is.

mike3775 wrote:

 

TThis app is ridiculous.  I just finished a 65 minute jog and got ZERO credit for exercise and calories.

Do you have Wrist Detection enabled?

Did you unlock your watch after placing it on your wrist for the first time today?

Very interesting and also makes sense...... APPLE please reduce to 70%!

My Husband and I both have AppleWatch..... we do the same exercise (today 12 mile bike ride); my watch recorded 14 minutes of a 77 minute bike ride, whilst the husbands recorded all.  His average heart rate being higher than the 75% you say (he's a few years older); my average being less.  A few weeks ago a walk around a Lake; numbers are different but outcome the same.

Very frustrating..... I tend to use the "Other" activity app most of the time (except when running) - which then doesn't record mileage or average speed etc....... but it does fill the rings eventually!

Hi

watchOS 2 - which may address some of the issues discussed here - is available now:

- Ensure that your Apple Watch has at least a 50 percent charge.

- Connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi.

- Keep your iPhone next to your Apple Watch to make sure they're in range.

- Connect your Apple Watch to power, and keep it on the charger until the update is complete.

To download and install the update: on your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app and tap My Watch > General > Software Update - follow the instructions.

More information: Update the software on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

I hope it does.  Got busy, but yes I had it unlocked and wrist detection.  Its odd, today, I didn't use the app, and got credit for everything, even the short walk I did with my neighbor(3 miles).  Downloading wOS2 now.  Hope it fixes the issues

Thanks for the help

You're welcome!

To clarify for others: iOS 9 is required on your iPhone before installing watchOS 2.

Update the iOS software on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

I've been meaning to respond to you for a bit.  I think it's so cool that you took the time to post such a thorough and detailed log.  Much appreciated! 

So WatchOS2 is now available...   loading it now, let's see how it goes. 

Good luck!

Heads up on the WatchOS2 upgrade:  I'm doing it now, it takes *hours*.   Probably related to the Bluetooth comms?   Somehow I pictured it being as quick as an iOS patch or a watch app update. 

I'm excited & looking forward to trying out the new Apple Watch features -- as well as testing out the exercise app updates.   I'm a product manager for enterprise software products - so I know how many moving parts there are when trying to get a solid new product launched and working smoothly.