Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

Hello.

Yesterday I unpaired and paired again my watch to test a workaround (still have to test it) and then I realized I couldn't unlock both my iMac and MacBook PRO. It worked fine before.

So on my iMac I solved with this workaround (credit to the original poster): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251803595

Then I was about to do the same stuff on my MacBook, but I realized that if you can "unlock" continuity in some way between the Mac and the watch then the unlock option will turn on without errors. So on my MacBook I didn't follow the instructions posted in that other thread but:

• I made sure that my watch was connected to the home WiFi (go to preferences -> WiFi; this should be optional)
• I opened the calendar and my watch
• to the far left of the bottom bar on your Mac, the calendar icon, with the small watch icon on top, should appear. This proves that your Mac and your watch see each other
• after that I went to preferences -> privacy and turned on the "unlock with watch" option and this time it worked

So you can try both. I cannot say for sure that on my iMac the "tech" solution of the other thread worked or it was thank the continuity workaround, because I tried both in this same sequence.

Hope it works for you too!

About the map bug on workouts, I really don't like the idea of restoring my whole iPhone and watch (already done on my watch as a first attempt) to make a map appear. I'll gladly wait for Apple to solve it, it's a major bug. Thousands of people in this thread only. You can't make my mother, who is 70, to backup her iPhone, erase and restore it every time there is a weird bug :-)

Originally, based on this thread, I had gone through the unpair, erase/reset, restore FROM PC (i.e. mac in my case), repair. This did not work for me. The symptom for me was that I had no gps data for any work outs dating back to December 2017.

I decided to apply the Apple suggested fix: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

The only difference in Apple's proposed fix (compared to what I had previously done) is to specifically call out backing up to, and restoring from iCloud. I did this including the very important step of waiting for the health app to report that the data was backed up (after unpair of watch, but before erase/reset of the phone).

The outcome:

• I have workouts, rings, calorie info, awards, heart rate info etc.
• All GPS data prior to performing the Apple fix is gone. The only thing that shows for those workouts is the starting point.
• New work outs after the Apple procedure outlined in the link above now record track info and I am able to view it from the fitness app.

So for me, the following is what happened:

• Before iOS 14 everything worked and all work outs had GPS data that could be viewed in the "Activity" app
• After upgrading to iOS 14, all GPS data for existing workouts was gone and the new "Fitness" app showed nothing available and all new work outs only showed the starting point.
• After applying the Apple procedure, all existing workouts prior to Apples proposed procedure now show the starting point only (so even pre iOS 14 work outs now show the starting point where as they showed nothing before this). And all new workouts now show the GPS track as expected.

So in the end, I have all the data restored except for GPS data. The GPS tracks are lost from 2017 to October 1, 2020 (except for the starting point).

My learning from this... I have installed Strava and am now syncing all workouts to Strava as well. This way I will have a backup of all GPS track info. And the Strava app (there are others if you prefer) also provided additional functionality to understand my performance for runs/rides etc. In addition, I could import all my previous workouts into Strava (what information was left of it).

It is truly hard to believe that Apple would have made a mistake leading to the loss of 3+ years of data. But I have resigned myself to this and have modified my behavior moving forward. This certainly makes me a less loyal customer for the iPhone and Apple watch. I now have all of my data in Strava and could switch to any solution for gathering the data if I find any better alternative.

Lesson learned for sure.

I hope that some of you have had a different outcome than me and are able to still recover GPS information prior to iOS 14 upgrade.

Sad. In general, I should have known not to trust a proprietary data base for health information that could only be easily backed up/recovered using a set of obscure tools built into iOS. Not a good idea for any important information.

Did it and it and the series 5 watch started recording Heart Rate and mapping the workout correctly.

Unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the My Watch tab, then tap All Watches.
3. Tap the info button next to the watch you want to unpair.
4. Tap Unpair Apple Watch.​

Before erasing all content and settings on your Apple Watch, your iPhone creates a new backup of your Apple Watch. You can use the backup to restore your Apple Watch.

Verify iCloud settings and create a backup

Before creating a backup, make sure that you have enough iCloud storage.

1. On your iPhone, open the Settings app.
2. Tap your name, then tap iCloud.
3. Verify that Health is turned on, or tap to turn it on.
4. Tap iCloud Backup.
5. Verify that iCloud Backup is turned on, or tap to turn it on.
6. Tap Back Up Now to create a backup and wait for it to complete.

To confirm that your Health information is backed up, in the Health app, tap your profile picture in the upper-right. At the bottom of the screen, you can verify when your data was last backed up. If the time shown isn't recent, wait for the backup to finish and check again.

Erase all content and settings from your iPhone

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap General, then tap Reset.
3. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.

Restore your iPhone and Apple Watch from backup

1. Turn on your iPhone and restore it from your iCloud backup.
2. Once restored, open the Watch app on your iPhone.
3. Tap Start Pairing and wait for the pairing to complete.
4. Tap Restore from Backup and choose the most recent backup to restore.

There is a potential bug with watchOS 7.0.3 and the iOS 14.1 update (along with iOS 14.0.1).

Pairing can be eliminated between the Watch and iPhone. If you have GPS + Cellular, this bug will turn off Shared Lines, and the watch will function as if it's another cell phone.

A couple of things you can do to resolve the issue:

1. Reset Pairing
2. Call AppleCare and report this issue. Apple can then check device information and repair the devices. Apple (not your cellular carrier) connects your Apple Watch to your iPhone. Your cellular provider, simply provides the telephone number used by your watch.

Click Here to view Apple Support for Unpairing your Apple Watch

Click Here to view Apple Support for Set Up and Pairing you Apple Watch

showprolights

I have the same issue since upgrading to watchOS7 with my Apple Watch Series 4 and iPhone 8 Plus ios14. Recorded an outdoor run with Watch only and no GPS map data is available, only the starting point. Nevertheless all other metrics like distance, elevation gain etc. seem to be correct. I also recorded an outdoor cycle with my Apple Watch + having my iPhone with me and experienced the same behaviour. No GPS data available in the activity.

Check already all privacy settings on Phone and Watch, turned off and on location services - unfortunately no change.

Exact same issue. The unpair/reset/re-pair did not resolve it. Called Apple support. They confirmed it's an issue and said engineering was working on a fix. For me, the issue didn't impact workouts that were recorded prior to the upgrade though.

Okay - I have just got off the phone with a (very helpful) Apple Health technician.

It IS a known bug, and they are currently working on a fix. They are confident that no pre-upgrade data has been lost (even where it's not currently showing), but aren't sure if the stuff recorded since upgrade will contain the GPS track once the bug is squished.

No timeline for a fix currently, as the fix is in active development, but hopefully very soon.

He added that his phone/watch is having exactly the same issue...

Viajante_1977 wrote:

I don´t want to reset everything! Don´t have time or patience for that!

I´ve tried a little walk on Strava app on AW series 3 (GPS only) and worked fine. Until Apple solves this issue i think that´s what´ll do for now!

( I am one of the lucky ones that still have all information).

Everyone who has this problem should report it to Apple. They are looking into it (based on the report of another poster) but, the more people they know have the problem, the better.

Product Feedback - Apple

Just in case anyone hasn't already, it would be super useful to Apple if developers experiencing these issues can capture some debugging logs by following the instructions here:

- https://download.developer.apple.com/iOS/iOS_Logs/HealthKit_Logging_Instructions.pdf

- https://download.developer.apple.com/iOS/watchOS_Logs/HealthKit_Logging_Instructions__Watch.pdf

and attaching the resulting logs to a bug report here : https://feedbackassistant.apple.com

-M

For those who have not seen this, Apple is now acknowledging the issue and recommending pretty much what everybody in this thread has been doing:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

So, here I go now, backing up, unpairing, erasing, restoring etc.

This is what I call "The Vietnam Solution" - destroying the village in order to save it.

Wish me luck,

--PS

There is now an official support document:

https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT211865

Seems as if there is no fix to be expected soon.

(I did the workaround last weekend, and everything is back to normal.)

I use Apple Watch Series 0 from 2015, watchOS 4.3.2. During Outdoor workouts, it uses the iPhone to record the GPS routes, because the Watch itself does not have built-in GPS.

After upgrading to iOS 14, old GPS routes disappeared from the Fitness app, as described by everybody.

So, iOS 14 is perfectly capable of reproducing this bug without any help from the latest watchOS.

The Heart rate data at Health App->Summary->Heart Rate->Show All Data is also missing for some years, or at least not displayed.

Whenever an Outdoor Walk workout is started though, iPhone shows an icon that GPS/Location is being used by Apple Watch workout, but the GPS route never appears.

Apple suggests to backup->reset->restore the iPhone from the device backup: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865. At least up to iOS 13 full device backup included all Health, Activity (Fitness) data, including GPS routes.

Has anybody tried to follow to guidelines at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865, including a full device backup of iOS 14.0, Erase All Content and Settings, restore the iPhone from the full device backup, and see if the old GPS routes are indeed restored for the Outdoor Workouts for the last couple of years?

I have a full device backup made on iTunes just before upgrade from iOS 13 to iOS 14, and wonder if iOS 14.0 actually DAMAGED the Health and Activity/Fitness GPS data, so that one should wait for newer, fixed iOS 14.x, then restore from an old iOS 13 backup to keep all the Activity/Fitness/Health data, including the GPS routes. Or if iOS 14 just cannot properly DISPLAY Health and Activity/Fitness data yet, but did not damage anything, so one could just calmly wait a few weeks for a fix. Unfortunately, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865 does not answer this question as of Oct 1, 2020 11:00AM EST…

I followed the instructions in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865 exactly after not receiving GPS data from the watch and missing data from previous workouts. Also having significant battery drain. I did this from information in this forum, before the support article was posted. It fixed the issue where GPS wasn't being transferred for current activities but old data is only partially fixed - I still am only seeing a starting point for all old outdoor activities. Heart rate data appears to be fixed however. The jury is still out on battery life, but it also appears better. I have had 2 Genius Bar appointments for this and other issues and neither tech was aware of this problem. For those with old pre iOS 14 backups, I would save your old backup before backing up again. In my case, I have all this data on Strava and elsewhere as I also use a Garmin watch.

Apple: Our watch is all about sport, activity and being healthy.

Us: you broke sports GPS and health tracking with your buggy IOS14 upgrade.

Apple: Yeah - you need to pay for iCloud only backup, wipe ALL YOUR DEVICES, and then restore. Soz not soz.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

For all of this with this continues silliness of a situation just use Strava and wait for 14.1 or 14.2. Do NOT do the above - your time is worth more than being a free petri dish for their software bugs. If the Starva app was any use I would stick with it. Unfortunately it's not.

It's almost like releasing a watch where the watch faces do not work due a large OS bug. Almost

re: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865 just try doing the "Unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone"

step and then re-pair watch to your iPhone. Skip the "Erase all content and settings from your iPhone" steps. It worked for me and I still have all my historical workout data including route info. Only the workouts from when I upgraded to iOS14 until I did this un-pair/re-pair are missing route data. New workouts are recording route data. It's a pain (have to re-sync music, etc to watch) and Apple should really take this more seriously.