Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

This morning I upgraded my iPhone XS Max to iOS 14 and my S4 Watch to watchOS 7. I then went for a run, using the Outdoor Run activity on my Watch as usual, holding my iPhone while I ran (as I was listening to a podcast with AirPods). When I finished, everything was recorded as normal, and I could sync the activity to Strava.


Later, I went for a walk. I used the Outdoor Walk activity on my Watch, but this time didn't take my iPhone. When I returned, and attempted to upload the activity to Strava, I received a warning that no GPS/route data was present. I checked the Fitness and Health apps, and sure enough, there was no route on the map - only the starting point.


I spoke to someone at Apple Support and they suggested I turned off/back on a couple of related privacy settings. I have since tried another Outdoor Walk activity, without the phone present, and the problem persists - no GPS/route data.


My wife also tried the same this evening, after upgrading her iPhone X and S4 Watch too. She had the same results - i.e. with just the Watch, no GPS/route information was saved with the activity.


This seems like a bug to me. Has anyone else experienced the same issue, or has any suggestions as to how to fix it?



[Re-Titled by Moderator]


Apple Watch Series 4, watchOS 7

Posted on Sep 17, 2020 1:24 PM

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Posted on May 8, 2021 11:43 PM

It also seemed to me, as if turning wifi off on the phone and watch helped. My theory is that the phone doesnt use GPS on an active workout and thus falls back to locating me via nearby wifi SSIDs. This would also explain the extreme rubberbanding of the position indicated in Apple or Google Maps on the phone while a workout is running on the Watch. But some time ago I was pretty sure that I turned Wifi off and still got really low quality of location tracking on a workout....


I think there is something wrong with the phones location API that doesnt want to go into "full power" GPS tracking during a Watch workout so the watch just receives garbage location data...


The only real 100% working workaround is turning on Airplane Mode on the Watch before workouts so it has to use its internal GPS. This has always lead to perfect tracking for me.

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1,375 replies

Sep 20, 2020 8:25 AM in response to Hageltjes

Same problem here; My watch is recording my cycle rides but the data is no longer transferring to the fitness app on my iPhone 7+since updating to iOS 14.

Everything worked fine before the update.

I should have expected this and waited a while before updating as I have always experienced problems with Apple software updates.

I have turned off both the watch and phone but restarts have not solved the problem as yet.


Sep 21, 2020 9:34 PM in response to Hageltjes

Exactly the same issue running Iphone 8Plus + Series 5 AW

Also the recorded steps from my apple watch are different to the fitness/activity app reading.

I have manually tried adding in the differences over the last few days but it does not record the additional inputted data.

Tried all the settings on both devices but cannot resolve the steps issue.


Sep 21, 2020 10:35 PM in response to Hageltjes

I have noticed that active kcal and resting kcal also don’t calculate. Active kcal doesn’t even agree to move kcal. I unpaired, paired and did all the suggestions, still doesn’t work as before. It is frustrating as ****. I use different apps, e.g. sleep watch, also stopped receiving data and myfitnesspal stopped receiving workouts from the watch. I see the workout on the watch, but nothing in the iphone fitness app. I have an iphone x on ios 14 and watch series 5 on watch os 7.

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Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

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