Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

A follow up: it's now been about two weeks since I reset my 11 Pro Max from iCloud backup. Everything concerning Fitness and activities is back to normal after the reset. (Watch is an Nike S4 LTE). I only use the built in Fitness/Exercise app in the Watch.

After the restore:

• All activities sync flawlessly to the phone.
• GPS tracks and heart rate diagrams always work.
• Energy at rest is back to values similar to before the iOS 14 update.
• Some, but not all, exercises during the troublesome week never synced to the phone and I consider them lost.
• All pre-iOS14 exercises have their maps restored, but those done during the week of trouble still lack GPS data and often also heart rate diagrams (that is, those that did sync to the phone). I see in the thread that not everyone is equally lucky in this regard.

My current longest streak achievement was messed up for several days - after the restore. It somehow mentioned two different numbers of days in the streak - but eventually it sorted itself out so my current streak of 285 days is intact and ongoing. Despite the trouble, I managed to close my circles every day during the week-or-so it lasted.

Just spent another hour on the phone with Apple support.

Latest iOS 14.1 and watchOS 7.0.2

As far as Apple Engineering is concerned they are no longer looking into the issue as it can be resolved using the following ;

If you're missing Workout GPS routes or Health data after updating to iOS 14 and watchOS 7

Essentially, UnPair Apple Watch and Backup iPhone to iCloud and then restore from iCloud backup.

There will be no further software fix.

I got told I'd need to buy a new iPhone or perform the above fix.

If you don't currently pay for iCloud storage then you will need to purchase the required tier to backup your phone.

Restoring the phone and the watch did fix the issue for newly recorded activities, the map is available again.

For the activities recorded after the faulty update no data is available, but I could understand a problem with the update.

The huge issue for me is the loss of almost a year of data (gps route + hearth rate), can we expect Apple to do something about it ? I use their product because I trust them not to hand my data to anyone, but I’d like to be able to access it myself...

iOS 14.1 and watchOS 7.0.3 did not fix the issue for me.

For what it is worth, unpairing the watch, erasing the phone, restoring the phone from iCloud, and then restoring the watch from iCloud (all as recommended in the Apple support document) did indeed fix this for me.

I was a bit worried since I had transferred my setup from an iPhone 11 Pro to a new 12 Pro first, hoping that would fix things (but it didn't). I thought maybe the iCloud backups of the 12 Pro would have a problem, but no. Restoring the 12 Pro using the most recent iCloud back up worked. It was a non-trivial amount of effort, of course. But it appears to have worked. I think I lost some GPS data and some of the old workouts, but new workouts are behaving correctly.

The 14.2 golden-master fixed this for me. I.e. syncing between Watch 5 (7.0.2) and iPhone XR (14.2 GM) is working again including GPS data. It did not bring back any GPS data that was visible before the iOS 14 upgrade though.

I took the advice of some and unpaired my watch and then re-paired it from back up. Today it recorded my route. Happy person. Thanks for the advice. Definitely worth trying folks.

Same issue with iPhone 11 Pro Max and watch series 4, even after 14.0.1 and 7.0.1. So I unpaired and repaired. This definitely resolved the issue. It also seems to have fixed the battery drain issue.

Upgrading to 14.0.1 and 7.0.1, upairing and pairing again solved the issue (AppleWatch 4)

After restarting my watch and using the app today for an outdoor walk, the map data appeared perfectly. So, it seems the restart is required.

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...

I gave up on the Apple apps for this now. My workaround - record all my rides/runs/walks in the Strava app on my watch. That still works to get my map tracking. I'm really annoyed with Apple on this one. I've been unable to get any actual help from Apple Tech support. Waited on hold for almost an hour yesterday, but had to bail for a work call.

Apple really screwed this release badly

stokstaartje wrote:

I'll give you all an update: I called Apple Support again today. They could not find this bug reported to engineering. All previous solutions from you guys (force shutdown, unpair/pair Watch, restore Watch from backup, etc.) did not work for me.

I helped friendly Apple Support with submitting the bug report. Including diagnostics and screenshot from my Apple Watch series 6 (watchOS 7, with correct rings, graphs and workouts) and diagnostics, log reports and screenshots from my iPhone 11 Pro (iOS 14, correct rings, incorrect graphs, missing (but not all) workouts and missing routes/just a pin). Routes from my Watch 2 (not updated to watchOS 7, of course) from last week are also missing, so this must be an iOS 14 bug.

Let's keep out fingers crossed for a fast bug fix and update of iOS 14.

Someone in another thread did report being contact by Apple engineers. However, what you did was spot on. The more people who file reports, the better.

In my case, neither outdoor walk nor outdoor run activities pass any GPS route info to Strava if I record them with the watchOS Workout app.

If I use a a different watchOS app (WorkOutDoors) to record my activity, then export to Strava, the correct GPS route data is included.

Tried the backup / wipe / restore from iCloud. New things are syncing, but I lost the last month of data in my health app (despite still having ring data in the fitness app). I also can’t see a single one of my prior workouts except for today in the fitness app. Holding out the tiniest bit of hope it’s just super slow to sync, but being real that it’s potentially all gone. Not sure what I did wrong. Frustrated and disappointed, but at least it’s working properly now.

I did the unpaired, backed up, resetting and repair and now for me it works fine via the apple workout app I get the route up so all it’s recorded. Sure hope next updates will keep things as it should be and hope those that haven’t got it sorted will get it right soon.

however I found it the text size and everything else went track to original settings? As was too small and I forgot if I did ever change the text size before all of these step. As I seems to recall that everything looks bigger since the update of iOS 14. Right.