Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

So this rather drastic solution from Apple fixed it for me

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

Tried resetting and unpairing my watch which seemed to work. I went for a 5k run and gps is now tracking but I’ve noticed vo2 max is nolonger being recorded.

I have no idea what else is missing/broken, I’m amazed watchOS 7 was released, it seems unstable.

Was having similar issue with iOS14, WatchOS7, S3.

1. Did an un-pair and paired watch back as new, (not from backup).
2. I changed the name of the watch to make sure there weren't any conflicts from old data/Data-Sources hanging around.
   1. A. Watch app -> general -> about -> name
3. I Reset Fitness Calibration Data.
4. Then noticed on iphone settings --> Privacy --> Health --> Strava did not have full access to all categories. This may bring back GPS data to Strava.

Now workout GPS data seems to be recording normally again. It's only been two days but both workouts seem to have recorded fine.

Hope Apple straightens all this out sooner than later...

Finally I had to do the following steps as suggested by others.

1. Unpair Watch
2. Backup iPhone
3. Reset iPhone
4. Pair Watch

Went for a short outdoor walk. It captures gps now. Just lost couple of days data. It took me three hours but it worked!

I had an update today from engineering

Steps to resolve below:

1. unpair watch - which will create a backup
2. backup iphone
3. Go into health app and check last time data was backed up (at the very bottom)
4. reset and erase iphone
5. restore iPhone from backup in step 2
6. repair Apple Watch to backup taken in step 1

so far so good for me 🙂

watch os 13 workout route was showing. After updating to ios14 and watchos7 route was not showing. Just marked as started location .I unpaired and re paired again it worked. Now route is displaying...

It was my issue. on my watch 4 Maps only display the starting points after updating to watchos7 and ios14

these are steps i did(worked)

1. reset network settings on iphone
2. enable and disabled location services
3. enabled motion calibration settings
4. before i disabled apple maps. I re installed again
5. unpair and re pair the apple watch

after that i tried outdoor walk activity and now maps route is showing perfect like before

i didn't reset my mobile iphone xs max

You have to reset the phone too. Unpair the watch first. Reset the phone and restore from backup. Re-Pair watch ( used restore from backup). All my historical routes are back. Routes that were not recorded correctly on the phone before are still gone in my case. New routes, data, etc are now working for me. Check farther back in the thread, others have posted the same information already, and it worked for them.

Okay I can confirm that I’ve now done a complete erase of the phone AND watch an restored form ICLOUD (not PC/Mac) backup.

All is now good. everything appears to be working normally - logged two different activities (one bike, one run) and both worked torn and imported into Strava with no issues too.

your mileage may vary but if you haven’t tried a full restore then it’s probably your last best hope...

Had same issue since updating to iOS 14 and watchOS 7. All I had to do was unpair watch and then re-pair watch. Issue solved. Route data now appears when I import to Strava. I did not reset my iPhone.

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.

Looks like they issued guidance on the 30th September:

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

This is such a garbage solution and an utter last resort for me.

Why has Apple declined so drastically after Jobs died?

Ok

im back working again

I HOPE this helps you people.

as a reminder I’m on iOS 14.0.1 and watch OS 7.0.1

all I did was unpair the watch. Then restore from the backup I made right beforehand. Basically the first part of the Apple-issued advice.

I really did NOT want to have to reset my iPhone too. My advice would be update both devices to the latest software then if it still doesn’t work, try the above.

after that then I suppose it’s an iOS wipe, unless of course Apple pull their finger out in the meantime.

I hope this helps you guys. This has been an extremely disappointing experience.

If that’s the case (it was with me) do the update to 14.0.1 and 7.0.1 because that’s one of the bugs those updates fix.

rhat resolved the health size for me and I could do the backup and restore successfully

Resolved the issue of new workouts not recording GPS routes by unpairing and repairing the watch (S3 and iPhone XR). This also fixed an issue with elevation min and max and the last km in splits for run workouts not showing up.