Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

Update #1:

You can export all your health data from Health.app. Under your profile, tap "Export All Health Data". When it finishes (you'll need to save the file somewhere), unzip the file. You'll have a folder called "apple_health_export", which contains another folder called "workout-routes", and 2 XML files, "export_cda.xml" and "export.xml".

When browsing the export.xml file it appears that all the data is still there -- heart rates, step counts, etc. Don't know what is in the export_cda.xml file as it wouldn't open for me. The workout-routes folder contains .gpx files that correspond with each Apple watch recorded GPS-enabled workout. Unfortunately the files are all the same size, and empty. This has me very concerned that this bug has wiped historical GPS data...and may explain why people who have done the Apple-prescribed backup/wipe/reset procedure still don't get their previous GPS tracks back.

Reset and restored my AW4 and iPhone 11 Pro once again and this time fresh workouts are monitored and mapped correctly. But recent run data from the last few days is missing entirely, and all earlier runs in my history now lack their routes.

Obviously holding off upgrading to the new AW until this issue is solved. Not a good look for a device aimed first and foremost at the fitness market.

I’m having the same problem all of you are having with my iPhone XS and AW S5. Have reset the watch only, which didn’t help and don’t want to hassle with wiping the phone so I have simply replaced the Workout complication with Strava. Works well enough, but obviously prefer the Apple Watch Workout app worked as it should. Patiently waiting on a proper fix by Apple 😕

I did the full shut down and restart from iCloud back-up. That worked. But lost all previous data. Sad. I'm confused as some posters have said Apple is treating this issue as "resolved" thanks to the complicated reset procedure. But then I see that new Beta versions also fix the problem without losing data. Too late for me but maybe Apple should make some sort of an announcement so everyone else doesn't lose data? Good luck, everyone!

This and other folks’ reports that iOS 14.2 fixes the issue is very good to hear. I hope that it is really true for everyone and not just some happy accodent that 14.2 fixes the problem for some people. In other words, I hope Apple has this issue as a documented bug fix in 14.2.

Alright it was already late yesterday. I’ve done the following things. And no not all data is back. I’m sorry.

When I noticed my workouts were missing GPS after installing watch OS7 I started searching and found the ’reset everything’ article. I decided to only reset/repair my watch. That did nothing.

Yesterday I read that installing the latest Beta for iOS might work. I made a Macbook backup and iCloud as well. Updated to the latest beta and checked my workouts.

All workouts before june 19th have no maps and no heart rate (missing chart notice).

Workouts after june 19th have heart rate but no map. Also no starting point. Just gone.

My workouts, starting october 7th have a gps map again with route and heart rate.

So we've all had different levels of success with repairing the watch, restoring the phone from the cloud, upgrading to Beta versions.

Has anyone managed to get back the data for their old activities? Heart data for Apple Workouts before July and GPS data for any old activities?

I went the beta route and have new activities from the Workout App all recording gps data. Strava still had no GPS data in the Activity(fitness) App and reinstalling it means it now fails to launch on watchOS 7.1 beta.

But iSmoothRun is recording activities correctly and the maps are visible in the Apple Fitness app, so it is possible.

Maybe there‘s hope with the next ios update 14.2. In the new beta version they promise a fix for this issue: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/10/30/apple-ios-14-2-golden-master/

Workout GPS routes or Health data are prevented from syncing between Apple Watch and ‌iPhone‌ for some users

14.2 solved the mapping problem. The walks and bike rides show the map now with new workouts. Old maps are gone in the Fitness app. But, all my workout data is in Rubitrack so that is OK for me.

if you really care about workout data you need to sync/export the workouts to Rubitrack, Strava, Garmin Connect etc to really be aure. These other apps allow for tagging, location filter, analysis etc plus you can export the routes as gpx files to share with people. Anyway, apple’s Activity/Fitness apps have always been lame in this regard...you can’t do anything with the data.

it sucks Apple has been so careless with the fitness data, though. Data loss is never acceptable.

Thanks!

I’ve tried today in airplane mode and it worked.

I’ll see if it works also for next runs.

Sure Apple is not doing the best job for Iwatch. None of the Apple’s engineers showed up with a solution 🙄

Here’s my take on this issue:

I have installed a program called HealthFit on my iPhone 11 which can import apple fitness workouts and then back them up anywhere you wish.

Anyway, I recently had the same issue after a workout with the fitness app not showing anything besides my starting point after an open water swim. However, after the HealthFit app imported my workout, the HealthFit app shows everything as it should be, with the full route and all other relevant info.

So, it seems to me that the fitness app does indeed collect all relevant data but for some reason it doesn’t show it, or it shows it sporadically.

I have repaired my phone and even though the problem is not always rectified in the fitness app, it always shows up correctly if exported to the other app.

Try a force restart. Press and Hold both the crown and the side buttons together and hold them until the Apple logo appears.

Had the same problem. I made a backup of my series 3 watch.m with WatchOS 7.01. After resetting the watch, pairing it and restoring the backup it worked again. My iPhone had iOS 14.01.

I just installed iOS14.2 Beta 4 and all my historical workouts have GPS maps again! Running 7.0.2 on my watch!

The reset procedure didn‘t fix it for me before. So in that regard I‘m happy with 14.2 fixing this for real. Loss of previous GPS data is a bummer indeed.