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User profile for user: Phillipwj
Phillipwj Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Maintaining a complete health history through a temporary change of iphone on lower IOS version.

Hi all. I have a Apple Watch situation which is proving a bit of a brain teaser for me and wondered whether anyone could shed any light...


So I sold my old iPhone 8 a couple of weeks ago. The iphone 8 was paired for a long time with my Apple Watch Series 2 and I have years of health data stored. Before I sold the iphone I of course did an iCloud and an iTunes encrypted backup.


While waiting for me new phone, I'm temporarily using an old 5c running iOS 10.3.3 as I cannot get my new iphone for a few weeks.


I could not restore the 5c from my iPhone 8 backup as the iOS is different. I therefore decided to set up the 5c as a new phone and leave the iPhone 8 backup alone until I get my new iphone.


In the meantime, I have simply left my Apple Watch as is, ie NOT paired to the 5c. I'm effectively waiting until I get a new phone, with the aim to restore that from my iPhone 8 backup (not 100% sure whether this should ideally be the iCloud or the encrypted iTunes backup) and then re-pair it with my Apple Watch.


But I'm also wondering whether this is the right thing to do and whether the Apple Watch is actually storing up my health data in the interim period and whether that can be saved to the new iphone whenever I get it, or whether I should in fact be pairing it to the 5c asap/now and whether that will somehow merge the data to my new phone along with all the data in the iPhone 8 backup once I get it. I say this as it appears to pair to a new phone I have to wipe the watch.


If anyone could shed any light I'd be really grateful.


Many thanks. Phil


Apple Watch

Posted on Apr 29, 2020 3:53 AM

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Community User

Posted on Apr 29, 2020 4:07 AM

If your watch isn't paired to any phone then it won't be storing any data,when you workout etc as soon as the phone is within bluetooth range of the paired watch then your workout and health data is uploaded to the phone and into the health and activity apps.If there is no paired phone then the watch has nothing to upload.

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Apr 29, 2020 4:07 AM in response to Phillipwj

If your watch isn't paired to any phone then it won't be storing any data,when you workout etc as soon as the phone is within bluetooth range of the paired watch then your workout and health data is uploaded to the phone and into the health and activity apps.If there is no paired phone then the watch has nothing to upload.

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User profile for user: Phillipwj
Phillipwj Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

May 10, 2020 1:51 AM in response to Community User

Hi again, just thought I'd follow up on this for the benefit of others.


It appears that despite my Apple Watch not being paired to any phone for the past month, the watch HAS been storing up data.


I received my new iPhone SE today and restored it from my old iPhone 8 backup from a month ago.


During that restore process it asked if I wanted to link my Apple Watch (series2 watchos6) to the new iPhone SE.


I obviously said yes and hey presto all the health data from the past month (running, heath rate etc etc) has apparently been uploaded into the new phone along with all the previously held health data stored in the month old iphone 8 backup.

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User profile for user: Phillipwj
Phillipwj Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Apr 29, 2020 4:30 AM in response to Community User

Thanks Fieryjack


It sounds like I should pair my watch with the iPhone 5c asap.


So would the health data from my watch from today onwards then be passed to my iCloud account so that when I get my new iphone I can restore it (from iCloud or from the encrypted iTunes backup) and continue with a full health history, minus the past couple of weeks that I've evidently lost?

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User profile for user: Phillipwj
Phillipwj Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

May 8, 2020 3:57 AM in response to Community User

Hi again, just thought I'd follow up on this for the benefit of others.

I received my new iPhone SE today and restored it from my old iPhone 8 backup.

During that restore process it asked if I wanted to relink my Apple Watch (series2 watchos6) and new iPhone SE, which I said yes to and hey presto it seems the Apple watch HAS in fact been storing all the data from the past month of health/activity and uploaded it into the new phone along with all the previously held health data stored in the iphone 8 backup.

I'm pretty darn pleased I must say! :-)

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User profile for user: Community User
Community User

Apr 29, 2020 4:34 AM in response to Phillipwj

If your watch has watchos6 on it then you can't pair it with an iphone 5c,watchos6 requires a phone with ios13 or higher a 5c will only update to ios10.

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Maintaining a complete health history through a temporary change of iphone on lower IOS version.

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