Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

Same problem with my Apple Watch Series 3 and iPhone 7. All good with GPS data but then, firstly, I upgraded my phone to iOS 14 first and completed a run with my watch still on 6 and the GPS data didn't transfer. Makes me think the problem may be the phone iOS, not the watch. Now that I have updated my watch as well, the problem persists. Scrolling back through my runs on my phone, it looks like all of the GPS data has disappeared. For a company that prides itself on its fitness app, this is not a good look; very frustrating.

Same issue using Apple Watch S5 and iPhone 11 Pro. Importing data to Strava is a real mixed bag. Just come back from a 10km run and only 160m was logged, though distance on Workout Activity spot on. Not sure if it’s linked to privacy settings with Health app which seems to act as a bridge between Apple Apps and 3rd Party apps. Within Heath > Activity > Options > Data Sources & Actions there’s a data ‘Apps allowed to read data’ string where you can specify apps that can use the data. This is currently set to ‘None’ no matter what I or an Apple rep could do we couldn’t get Strava on this list.

Agreed. And just a suggestion -- pickup HealthFit (iOS app). Besides the ability to sync your workout data into all kinds of third party systems, it also has a backup feature to write all your workout data to iCloud. I have been doing this for a long time -- just in case Apple has a bad day.

Related, it also isn't a bad idea to get a Strava (or similar that can auto sync) account and use it for tracking purposes -- again, in case Apple has a bad day with your data. With either (both) of these approaches, your data is stored elsewhere.

My two cents.

Same, iPhone 8 with iOS 14 and I watch series 4 with wiOS 7 - stopped working after watch update - no longer sync hung exercise data from native app - tried reset, reboot, Bluetooth and Wi-fi restarts, disconnect and repair using backup but no luck. Haven’t tried disconnect and repair as a new I watch will try that tomorrow. Annoying

I am having the same issue since updating to iOS 14, however my watch is a Series 2 so it is not compatible with watchOS 7 (still on 6.2.8). For this reason I expect this may be more of an iOS thing than a OS 7 thing?

All previous route data is gone and new workouts record only the starting point. All other data points seem to sync fine (distance, etc.).

Well it looks like unless they've either orphaned files in the DB or corrupted it.

Exporting from iOS 14 results in broken GPX files.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<gpx version="1.1" creator="Apple Health Export" xmlns="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1 http://www.topografix.com/GPX/1/1/gpx.xsd">
  <metadata>
    <time>2020-09-25T04:12:48Z</time>
  </metadata>
  <trk>
    <name>Route 2017-03-11 10:53am</name>
    <trkseg>
    </trkseg>
  </trk>
</gpx>

There should be data in that file indicating GPS coordinates etc for each data point recorded; e.g. a snippet of a valid GPX is below

<trk>
  <name>{Activity name}</name>
  <type>10</type>
  <trkseg>
   <trkpt lat="-31.9940720" ***="115.7664100">
    <ele>-4.3</ele>
    <time>2020-09-25T03:15:44Z</time>
    <extensions>
     <gpxtpx:TrackPointExtension>
      <gpxtpx:hr>86</gpxtpx:hr>
      <gpxtpx:cad>0</gpxtpx:cad>
     </gpxtpx:TrackPointExtension>
    </extensions>
   </trkpt>

Looking through the xml files exported it looks like the geo-coordinates are not included. They clearly reference the gpx files, however the GPX files are empty...

  <WorkoutRoute sourceName="Matt’s Series 4" sourceVersion="13.7" creationDate="2020-09-16 16:47:43 +0800" startDate="2020-09-16 14:33:00 +0800" endDate="2020-09-16 16:27:00 +0800">
   <MetadataEntry key="HKMetadataKeySyncVersion" value="2"/>
   <MetadataEntry key="HKMetadataKeySyncIdentifier" value="30EBE256-0CEB-4F9D-A4FA-5C4F9BB6F70D"/>
   <FileReference path="/workout-routes/route_2020-09-16_4.27pm.gpx"/>
  </WorkoutRoute>

I sure hope they just have orphaned data in there which is why the GPX are exporting blank.... otherwise I'm guessing all my data is gone...

An interesting observation: while I have (painfully) gone through the effort of resetting both my phone and watch to successfully get back to a state where gps works again, after a run this am, my heart rate data failed to post into the iOS 14 fitness app. The app complains that the app used to capture the heart rate data may have been unable to collect data properly. In my case, that would be watch os7 Workout app.

Here is the fun part: my Health Fit app (awesome, btw) can successfully report both gps and heart rate date.

it’s becoming more and more clear to me this issue we are all complaining about is specific to the Apple Fitness app in iOS 14.

Hi - same here - Vitality are aware of this. Suggest you drop them an email with details of your activity on the Fitness app (not the Health app as that is undercounting by between 50-80% in my experience) and they can manually adjust

I have same issue with an iPhone 11 with iOS 14.0.1 and Watch S6 with 7.0.1. I noticed the problem in the same way the thread creator noticed, ie Strava informed there was no route information visible.

I have tried to toggle Location Services Off/On, un/repair watch and also after a chat with Apple Support I made hard reset for both iPhone and Watch. But issue still occur.

One strange thing though. If I open Activity app and look at previous recorded workouts, which where tracked with and Watch S2 with watchOS 6, no GPS data is shown. At all. With new recorded workouts a map with a pin at start position is shown. But with previous workouts, no map is shown. And I know for sure there was data before.

So, the problem seems to be either with WatchOS 7 and/or in the Activity app in iOS 14.

I'm having the same issue as everyone else with the routes not showing in the Fitness app. All my data seems to show there except for the map.

However, because I've always had the Nike+ version of watches, I always track my walks with the Nike Run Club app that comes pre-installed. If I open that app, all the routes show up, from beginning to end.

I'm just telling you this here in case it helps with figuring out what the issue could be.

Good day.

I have same issue as everyone else on this topic. Before doing the complete unpair-reset phone-restore phone-pair, I did export Health data to have some type of separate backup. The export took much longer than normal and it doesn't seem right. In the workout-routes folder, every .gpx file is 438 bytes and can't be opened by an app that should be able to handle .gpx files - Router. I'm beginning to think all of the past data is corrupted/lost. Can't believe Apple effed up this badly.

So after going thru the mess of backing up to iCloud and restoring, I can say that my new issue is fixed or appears to be. BUT, all GPS data for my past 4.5 years of walks, runs, and hikes has been reduced to just a starting pin. Not sure if everyone else is seeing this, but I don’t count that as a fix at all. That is years of lost data and if the answer to this is whoops then how can you ever trust keeping your data in their system?

Confirming that performing this erase restore brought back tracking but then lost all of the previously recorded GPS routes (whether viewed in Fitness or when exported - empty gpx files).

I have an apple Watch Series 2 so it is definitely an IOS 14 issue and not a WatchOS 7 as the S2 can't install 7.

The erase restore process is a total pain and not a real fix. I have a trail of banking apps that need me to call the bank to reset because of all the device security.

The upside is that it seems to have taken 6 min off my 5k run time so maybe it helped me focus!

Having the same issue as others are describing. iPhone X with iOS 14 and a brand new Series 6 watch. All historical route data has vanished and all newly recorded workouts only show the start point. Sounds like people are having a variety of positive and negative results from repairing etc. Think It may be worth hanging fire for an update if it’s a known issue.

The day after the upgrade to iOS 14, I did a run workout and the VO2 was recorded. But not the days after.

Then I did the Apple trick, it resolved the route issue, but the VO2 is still not recorded 🤔. And doesn’t even appear in the data source of the watch !