Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

I did the unpairing of the watch and a complete reset of the phone (XS Max) and did a restore from iCloud back up. Went for a ride this morning and the map is there Unfortunately, in my iCloud back up I didnt check my Whatsapp back up date and lost a whole year of whatsapp chat messages :-(

Yet to see if the reset did any help on the battery life.

Just wanted to say I’ve done the reset and unpair after putting it off and it did actually work for me. Did a walk today to try it out and gps and heart rate and all back. I’m not holding out that it will last but hoping it will..

I reset my AW3 and reset my iPhone 11 Pro Max. After that I did a restore from iCloud. Maps/GPS tracking is back now, but all old maps/GPS data from old workouts are lost. Even for those before the upgrade to iOS14/WatchOS7. I also assume that is cause something went wrong with the health/Fitness DB during the upgrade to iOS14. I can‘t believe that this happened and I am curios if the data is lost.

I had another interaction with Apple Support yesterday. I can also appreciate the comments in this thread around the quality of Apple Support. Ever since this started, I had three people (two advisors, one senior advisor) in Apple Support tell me that local backups are the same as iCloud backups. Thanks F_E_C_V for explaining the differences between iCloud and local backup!

As I'd like to keep hope alive that all workout information will be restored eventually and also use somewhat functional product in the interim(like seeing maps for new workouts), I created two backups, iCloud and local encrypted backup on my Mac, and restored to see what data would come back.

• Restoring from iCloud gave me a health database of ~1.93GB of documents and data in the Health app (data was ~650GB), starting pins in the route map for workouts prior to the iOS 14.0 upgrade.
• Restoring from local encrypted backup gave me ~2.03GB of documents and data in the Health (data was ~750MB), no starting pins on the maps in workouts prior to iOS 14.0 upgrade.

I called Apple Support with this information and the question which backup to restore from in order to maximize possible workout data retention. The senior advisor didn't understand the problem really, claimed that iOS 14.0 was still in beta, and oddly favored a restore from local encrypted backup over restoring from iCloud backup. They claimed that activity data and workouts are only stored in the local encrypted backup - even though my test showed that activity data is the both types of backups. They were really most concerned about resetting the workout calibration.

Anyway, I ended up restoring the phone from iCloud and subsequently restored the Watch. I can see a new map for a run last night (Watch only, no celluar), I can also see the activity bars in the Fitness app on the phone now matching the Activity app on the Watch. It looks like the problem appears to be addressed moving forward.

MayoTom - The senior advisor didn't instill confidence that maps from workout prior to the iOS 14.0 upgrade would come back. But then again, they were off on a lot of things.

This was a terrible experience yesterday, it was the first of its kind with Apple Support in a decade of being a customer. I hope this is not becoming the norm moving forward.

I am installing the 7.02 update on the watch . There was no notification of this update. But when I went to the Apple Watch app on my iphone (10XMAX ), there it was at the very bottom of the page. I am

hoping this will fix some of the multitude of problems.

p

I had those issues along with the HR not functioning and went through the un-pair / re-pair which seem to help. Then 7.2 came out and I erroneously thought there shouldn’t be a problem. Same problems occurred and I had to un-pair and re-pair again.

I did the Apple recommended fix (backup, unpair, reset, pair again) and it seemed like it was all working, and then the next day my steps again didn’t match what was in the health app, and the GPS tracking didn’t track my walking route. I’m in a steps challenge and I’ll lose my money if I don’t get credit for my steps in the Health app. I scoured my settings and came across the “Data Sources & Access” part of my phone. In that section, there is a list of every data source I have ever used. It lists several watches (one for every time I reset and repaired) and my old phones too. I went to edit, and moved my current Apple Watch and current iPhone to the top of the data list, and my Health app synced my correct steps immediately.

My GPS route yesterday is now represented too in the Fitness app. It looks like my GPS routes from this summer are gone in the Fitness app (but I wonder if I moved the data sources around again, if they would show up?) I’ve never paid much attention to the GPS and I don’t care if I lose those since I walk the same trail every day.

Anyway, Health app steps and GPS tracking in the Fitness app are working now for me, and I hope the next update will restore everyone else’s data.

I gave my experience many pages ago and I'm really sorry to hear so many people still having the issue or being forced to restore both iPhone and Watch to solve a map issue. Luckily for me I solved just unpairing and pairing again my Watch. If restoring the phone solves the issue but breaks past activities is unacceptable (restoring two devices to solve a workout issue? Come on, I'm surprised they give it as a solution). I had many positive experiences with Apple Support in the past, both at home and around the world. This is not on par with what we are expect from Apple. The 72 pages of this thread are a testament themselves to a huge issue that deserves more attention from Apple.

[Edited by Moderator]

After hearing 14.1 doesn't help I bit the bullet and used my developer account to go to 14.2 beta 4 and 7.1 beta 3.

I just tried a walk and the gps was tracked.

BUT, it made no difference to old workouts. Activities recorded with the workout app shows the start location, activities from strava and iSmoothRun show no map data at all, not even the start point.

I did a factory reset off the watch a few weeks ago and that didn't work. What did eventually work was software updates.

I'm in the Public Beta program, so as I said in my previous comment:

iPhone: iOS 14.2 Public Beta 2 --> iOS 14.2 Public Beta 3

Apple Watch: watchOS 7.0.1 --> watchOS 7.0.2

This is exactly what fixed it for me, but judging by all the comments in this incredibly long thread, it seems like what works for one person doesn't work for all. That really annoys me, but I encourage you to try the steps I took to see if it helps.

All of the great advice - its now fixed by downloading Beta version of iOS and Watch OS. Pretty poor for a big company like Apple and for the cost of the watch. That said at least i now get maps.

For those who haven't got this fixed I tried all sorts but what worked was signing up to be Apple Beta tester.

Following the steps in the article (HT211865) resolved the issue for NEW data showing up for me. After the restore from iCloud, the Fitness App continued to restore data from iCloud for almost 48 hours. When it had completed, rings and awards were accurate, but only about 25% of the GPS and Heart Rate data from my previous 1000+ workouts was restored.

Just to save you a lot of pain and replies it is not a watch issue, it is a phone issue. The watch records GPS just fine, it just does not transfer it properly to the phone after a workout. Does not matter if you carry the phone, or if you use the watch on its own - it is the transfer from one to the other.

All other apps that use the data direct from the watch work fine (Strava etc) - just their own app.

In basic terms the developers broke the data import.

Makes no difference if you have a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The issue is a phone with IOS 14. The issue remains on 14.1 and discussions here from those that have a beta version of 14.2 say it’s fixed. That version is likely out in the first 2 weeks of November.

Yes, I bought a new AW6. The problem remained. The only fix that worked for me is the apple support document instructions followed to the Tee. I tried backup and restore from imac instead of icloud and that did not work. Also after backup to icloud, wipe and restore of iphone, my old gps routes and information came back. Interim routes after update to ios14 remained lost, after restore from icloud, new activities show gps routes, heart rate and battery drain appears to be normal. Dont think this problem has anything to do with model of apple watch more to do with ios14. Hope this helps!

Installed 14.2 GM and my GPS tracks are back. Also my tracks from the past BUT only starting from the date when I did the (unsuccessful) unpair/repair procedure with my AW at the beginning of October. All runs before that date have no GPS data.