Duplicate Apple Watch in the Sources devices list

Over the last two months, I had my phone and my series 4 watch replaced. One would think that with that the issue has been solved. Wrong! at the Apple Genius Bar (Apple Ingenious Bar, rather) they tried to explain to me this way. Explanations are in chronological order:

1. “there is no issue with your watch”. (Proved them wrong. Showed them the inconsistent data between health app and the duplicate device list)
2. “There COULD be an issue with the watch”. (They sent it off and email came back: We will be replacing your device.)
3. Since the issue was still there, they said “there could be an issue with your phone” so off they sent my phone. A week later message comes “We will be replacing your device” (At this point i was laughing my head off. Fine with me, new watch, new phone...they are absolute idiots.)
4. When I paired the new watch with the new phone, I used a different Apple ID, wiped clean, no health data...still two devices in Data Sources. What it also does, connection between the watch and the phone is slow and Siri often takes a minute to respond. At this point I could not be bothered. However, I did notice a difference: under watch OS 5 there was only ONE device listed. The moment I updated the watch OS, immediately 2 watches came up. And the very same thing happened with both Series 4 Apple Watches. So IT IS SOFTWARE RELATED ISSUE. My boss just got his new Apple Watch and new iPhone. He never had an Apple Watch ever. Paired the watch and he also has duplicate devices in the Health app data source/device source. 1 devices actively paired with the phone but does not receive any data. 2nd device, “no longer paired” with iPhone receives all data!

Lesson: Apple both employers and employees do not have the backbone to say: Yes, the operating system has a major bug. We don’t know how to fix it at this stage. We are sorry.” No, instead, they pretend there is no problem, no responsibility, no integrity. Only lies, lies, lies. At least when Steve Jobs was at the steering wheel, he had the guts to admit. Mr Cook is always cooking up something that people eat up and then get sick. But we are fed up. No more Cookies, please!

I also have the exact same issue.

I have tried now with iOS 13.2 beta 1, and Watch OS 6.1 beta 2:

1. Wipe my Apple Watch 5 completely from the Apple Watch app
2. Remove all Watch devices from Health (there were two)
3. Remove my Apple Watch from iCloud devices
4. Reset the iPhone 11 completely
5. Then pair the Watch 5 again with the iPhone 11
6. Result? Two watches in Apple Health - one that is "not paired" but still receives all activity data, and one that is paired but has no data

If I rename my Apple Watch in the Apple Watch app, nothing happens in the Health app, even if it's restarted. However if I restart the iPhone after renaming the Apple Watch, only the paired watch gets renamed, but that has no data at all.

This **** happens during setup of the watch. If I open the Health app during the pairing process, at first only one watch device is visible. Then something happens during the setup that causes the ID of the watch to change which causes the Health app to produce a double post of the watch.

So something is very wrong in the Apple Health app, even in the latest 13.2 beta 1 released yesterday.

The crappy thing is that IF they fix it, the correct fix would probably to allow all NEW data to flow into the paired watch. Which means that if you remove the non-paired device in the list all your data will be gone... What a mess...

I found this thread as I'm experiencing degraded battery life on my new Apple Watch 5.

It was often suggested to unpair/repair the watch to improve the battery life.

Well - ended up with more than two devices in the Health app.

Is it confirmed that this leads to an increased battery consumption?

Cheers,

Nico

There's no way to say with certainty - but all signs point to it. You should contact apple support and complain. The more people raise the issue - the higher likelihood they'll bother to fix it.

I really cant believe this isn't being fixed in 6.1 - not just two entries appearing in the health app but the inability to currently rename a device.

Does anyone know if this is just happening for people who set their watch up as new, or is it happening when restoring from backup too?

And its pathetic that Apple simply class this as a cosmetic bug. The health app is how we, as users, are able to interact with our raw data. This problem means that both my old and new apple watches have to have the same name in the health app. This makes it a nuisance whenever i want to look at data for a particular device as i have to guess which one is which when first opening. Anything that prevents the end user from accessing their data should be regarded as high priority.

I’ve now had three apple watches and tbh i think its time to move on. Its a fantastic device in so many ways but the its always felt like users are just part of a science experiment and treated like data points. I mean for a device that puts health and fitness first, the activity app lacks all granularity compared to other products on the market and the health app is just a giant database - yes, it has got better but its not user focused in anyway. And yes, i know apple has made great strides in terms of bringing alert tools to users for environmental noise, and potential heart problems, but at the end of the day those things are really only helping a tiny fraction of users. In no way do i want them to stop going down that path, but seriously, when will they make simple improvements to things like the activity app that will benefit the majority. Things like having a larger heart rate graph for workouts that actually lets you see things; sleep tracking; and more info in trends that doesn’t require going into the health app.

Terbium wrote:

I really cant believe this isn't being fixed in 6.1 - not just two entries appearing in the health app but the inability to currently rename a device.

Does anyone know if this is just happening for people who set their watch up as new, or is it happening when restoring from backup too?

This happens both if you setup as new watch, as well as if you restore from a backup. It's a complete mess...

Agreed.

I’ve also noticed what i think is another bug. When you browse data in the health app and then go “data sources and access,” if you change the priority order of devices in that list, things seem to revert back either immediately or after a random amount of time. As said, the fact i have two watches with the same name (because renaming doesn't work), combined with this, means i literally have to guess which device is which.

I think its just really poor of Apple. It shows a complete lack of care towards its customers. The data in the health app couldn’t be more personal and customers have the right to access it without these issues. Its not just a cosmetic problem. Its equivalent to logging into your bank account and having cards listed that aren’t there and clicking on cards to find the name is wrong and transactions are associated incorrectly. If apple is going to put itself forward as an ethical company that prides itself on protecting customers privacy and data, they cant do things like this. The information in the health app is as personal as it gets and deserves more respect.

Same here, I deleted the iWatch that wasn’t paired and lost all of my data. After I did that my phone said no devices were enabled for the health app, go to my watch all data is gone, go back to my phone and now have duplicate watch sources again. The one Apple Watch I didn’t delete, that is connected has always been, still says “no data found”.

Same here!!!! I actually took my series 4 watch back to Apple. Told them about the health data inconsistencies and asked them to investigate. Then I got an email that I would get a replacement watch which I did. I was happy until I paired the new replacement watch with my phone and in the source the new watch also came up as two devices! I was mad! So I am taking this new watch back and will demand a new replacement until I found one that functions correctly. I also noticed that calls initiated from the watch sometimes (often) fail. Or, when I press for Siri she doesn’t finish the whole sentence but cuts out after the first word or two. I didn’t pay hundreds of dollars for this crap device! Apple’s new slogan: “It just doesn’t work.”

By the way, I just installed the latest iOS 13.3 beta, and WatchOS 6.1.1 beta (released yesterday), removed my watch, removed all devices from Apple Health, removed the watch from iCloud, restarted and paired it again. It still ended up as two devices in Apple Health. Seems Apple are not able to fix this within the iOS 13.x timeframe.

I had the exact thing happen to my Apple Watch 4, I unpaired and deleted the devices and paired it back. Still the same. I really can’t accept this. Watch not connected by with data. The other connected but no data. What the...

Same exact thing happened to me today when I wanted to check out my most recent run split times after downloading Nike Run Club. Data were going to a "no longer paired" Apple Watch with the currently paired one - same name as the first - displaying "no data". Nike Run Club app also didn't display the most recent data, because it wasn't on the currently paired Apple Watch. I've only ever had one Apple Watch. So, unpairs, repairs, resets of both phone and watch, restores of both, etc. Nothing works to fix this.

Phone was recently updated to 13.2.2, watch has been 6.1. I'm not sure when this fail first appeared but it's absolutely still an unfixable problem.

It's a complete mess and I'm massively annoyed by it. I bought this thing for the runs, without that it's useless.

Same here. Didn't see this post after setting up the Watch 5 yesterday (clean, no backup, no other watches paired in the past).

Two devices as described here in the thread.

Updated to 6.1.1, unpaired, deleted all devices in health, etc. etc. paired (no backup), same behavior.

Then I found this thread.

I can confirm this is not just a comestic bug.

To replicate:

Setup iPhone (with iOS 13 and up, same as for iOS 13.3) as a new phone.

Setup Apple Watch (with WatchOS 6 and up, same as for 6.1.1) as a new Watch and pair it to iPhone.

There are 2 entries of data sources created in Health App.

Setup alarm (e.g. 07:00) using the built-in Clock App.

When alarm trigger, my iPhone and Apple Watch sound the the alert tone at the same time. You can snooze / stop the alarm on Apple Watch.

Then, change the default name of Apple Watch to something else.

After that, Apple Watch do not alert anymore. There is no popup to snooze / stop the alarm on Apple Watch as well.

This also happen when there is more than 1 Apple Watch paired to iPhone (including reset Apple Watch and pair with the same iPhone again).

Obviously, this is not a cosmetic issue. Same problem happen on iOS 13.3 and WatchOS 6.1.1