Deleted Health Data from iPhone

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Deleted Health Data from iPhone

While playing around with the Health App on my iPhone X, I noticed there were several sources I wasn't using any more, including my Apple Watch 2 (I now have the Apple Watch 4). I thought it wouldn't hurt to delete that as a source, but as I now know, it was a bad idea. It also deleted all that that watch data from my phone. I tried to restore the phone from a previous backup, but I'm guessing that since I've enabled iCloud to handle my health data, it syncs the data, but doesn't back it up. So after the restore, it synced the data in iCloud which didn't have the deleted data because it had synced it away when I deleted the Watch 2 as a source.

So I'm left with the data from the point at which I set up my Watch 4 in October, but the prior 2 years of data from the Watch 2 are gone. I do have a backup from my Apple Watch 2 from when I unpaired it to set up the new watch. I'm wondering if I can do an erase and restore of my Apple Watch 4, but using the final backup from the Apple Watch 2, which would then sync the data to my phone. Or does the watch not actually store that data, and merely offloads it immediately to the phone such that it wouldn't be in a backup for the watch.

Thanks for any help, but I fear the deleted data will stay just that - deleted.

Posted on Mar 20, 2019 5:13 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 21, 2019 7:24 AM in response to djborden

If you remove any of your sources it will remove data from your health app Associated with that source, and unless you have any older back you have made to restore form it will be as juileda says gone.

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Answer 2

djborden Author

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Mar 21, 2019 10:51 AM in response to Community User

That sounds like a good idea. I think Apple needs to make the consequences of deleting a data source more clear if you're syncing to iCloud. I think the warning said the data from that source would be erased from the phone, but it didn't say it would be erased from iCloud and all devices that sync to it. Regardless, it's not a mistake I'll make again!

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Answer 3

julieda

Level 7

32,036 points

Mar 20, 2019 5:15 PM in response to djborden

Your last statement is correct. Once deleted it stays deleted .

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Answer 4

djborden Author

Level 1

57 points

Mar 21, 2019 7:21 AM in response to julieda

Thanks. Just to clarify, does that mean my old Apple Watch backup wouldn't have the health and workout data originally collected by the old watch? And I guess that would imply that the Watches don't actually store a significant amount of the health and workout data it collects, and that it merely transfers it to the watch.

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Answer 5

djborden Author

Level 1

57 points

Mar 21, 2019 10:48 AM in response to seanfromllanelli

I did have an older backup for my phone, but since the data was being synced to iCloud, it couldn't recover any of the old data. My main question now is whether the old backup for the Apple Watch 2 that I replaced with a 4 would have any data on it, or is the data not stored on the watch once it's transferred to the phone.

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Answer 6

Mar 21, 2019 8:17 AM in response to djborden

This happened to my wife and she lost 2 years of health app data,what I do now is every time we get a new badge I make an encrypted backup of the phone in itunes (dont trust that icloud lost too much in the past) then whatever happens on the phone we always have the latest health data as a backup on my PC.

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Deleted Health Data from iPhone

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