Activity GPS issues after watchOS 7 and iOS 14 updates

So I have done updates, unpaired and repaired etc. Still same problem.

However switched over to Nike Run Club app and that seems to record all data including GPS tracking and works a treat :)

Still have the issue of activity/fitness app and health app not recording the same data.

Health app records lesser steps than fitness app and cannot get them to mirror data as per when using ios13.

Will have to wait and see.. cmon apple you can fix this !!!

i had done the same thing, but finally made sure my phone was backed up to iCloud, erased all content and settings, then restored it from backup. Finally, my workouts and everything seem to be working fine!

Hello apple users,

Out of despair, I have taken a radical issue to fix the gps issue concerning the apple watch native app we are concerning.

From this feed I have notice that the only workable solution for now is unpairing the watch and resetting the iphone... which I have done except that I have set up as NEW phone. The only valuable data are my photo which I have downloaded to my PC.

Well... I don't mind using my phone as a new phone it provides a fresh start and I had hundreds of apps that I was not using anyway. Did a test and it is working fine.... and hopefully will continue to do so... GPS routes and workout data are syncing except that I lost all my previous GPS route data from my previous workouts.

iPhone X and AW series 5 here both on latest firmware.

There is now an official support document:

https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT211865

Seems as if there is no fix to be expected soon.

(I did the workaround last weekend, and everything is back to normal.)

re: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865 just try doing the "Unpair your Apple Watch from your iPhone"

step and then re-pair watch to your iPhone. Skip the "Erase all content and settings from your iPhone" steps. It worked for me and I still have all my historical workout data including route info. Only the workouts from when I upgraded to iOS14 until I did this un-pair/re-pair are missing route data. New workouts are recording route data. It's a pain (have to re-sync music, etc to watch) and Apple should really take this more seriously.

Reluctantly I did the reset as instructed and all the banking and card authorisations et all

it worked, recording routes again, but past ones lost, although total distances still recorded

not good, feel let down by Apple’s incompetence

Yeah after reading through the thread that some works after reinstalling the watch so I did reinstall watch 5 and completed reset my iPhone 11 and luckily it solved the issue for me. Got the route back which is good at my end for apple health link to Strava app.

I went through the whole process yesterday afternoon. 

ITS NOT BAD. 

You can determine how big your backup needs to be to ICLOUD. Remember for 20GB its only $1/mo. So if you don’t keep your backups there this process costs a dollar. Annoying? Maybe. But worth it. And I’m going to switch to iCloud backups permanently now seeing how easy this actually was. 

Yes the first backup takes a little while...but most of the restore process can happen while you use your device. 

I had to go out for a while. Took my phone. When I came back it finished up. 

re-syncing musix from iTunes took a little while too. But that’s a small issue.

Phone and watch restored fine. Have the activity app working like it should!

I’ve been having the same issue on iPhone XS on iOS 14 and S3 Watch on OS7. GPS data isn’t recorded period (I’ve tested with my phone and no phone on workouts) with my watch in the fitness app.

The good news: Strava app on my watch will track gps and route data stand alone!

Apple definitely missed the mark with this release for a “fitness and health” system that doesn’t actually track it 🙄

Well my VO2 Max is recorded after the update but it didn't stop when the tracking stopped so perhaps the two are not connected. My GPS tracking returned after the erase and rebuild the phone and watch and it looks like VO2 max has been recorded all the way since my IOS14 update.

So it's been two weeks since I did the unpair/reset-restore from iCloud/pair workaround (and I know exactly the date, because I'm missing workout routes before then). Satisfied to report that watch Workout app still records routes from that time on, and syncs without problems with iPhone. I also upgraded from S2 to S6, which means I unpaired/paired once more, without any major issues, at least on the workouts front. All in all the workaround seems to work solidly, at least in my case. I would still recommend that one should refrain from using it, especially if one uses Strava or something similar that properly records routes even when watch Workout app doesn't. I think a future iOS update has more chances to recover routes from original data that somehow got corrupted/rendered unusable, than cloud-backup restored data which might not contain the route information anymore.

Yes, I had to upgrade my plan to the 200 GB option to complete this step (and then I immediately downgraded). I did not attempt to get apple to refund/credit the $2.99. I am sure they would refund this amount. Maybe I should get a refund out of principle; but, I just don’t have the time to get through the support tree and I really don’t feel like arguing with someone about this problem.

More concerning to me is that they advised you that the local backup would work. It did not work for me. So, unless just doing a complete restore from a factory reset *twice* changed the outcome the cloud backup is necessary.

Just to be clear... this “fix” only restores the phone/watch functionality. For example, it restored the GPS routing/mapping functionality for me. It does *not* restore/fix the issue that all previous route information is missing. I do not know if the GPS data is lost forever or if there will be future updates that restore that as well. One concern I had was if this “fix” would lose my achievements etc. For me, at least this data was preserved.

I have been watching this post since the first week and think a few things should be cleared up. First this is a community forum and is not necessarily viewed and responded to by Apple. Just because you post your frustration here does not mean that Apple management is reading it. Secondly Apple did not purposely mess with a perfectly good product to ruin it. Modification of the code and database was required to implement new features that apple introduced with iOS14 and the new Apple Watch. An inherent issue with such additions is that new issues or bugs are introduced to affect things that used to be working. From all the posts i read there is no guarantee that apple is working on a fix. Most of the techs don’t understand the real issues and Apple support in general is very poor (in lack of using different stinger words). Apple posted a guide on how to fix it which requires backing up to iCloud and resetting and restoring. This may be the only fix they provide. At the same time the next update expected to be released with the new iPhones in the coming weeks will hopefully address it but there is no guarantee. While i believe every option of a product including software should be tested prior to making it public i doubt that all the testers at Apple are “couch potatoes”. The most probable reason Apple testing did not see this is because they use the iCloud for all backup and restores. I seem to recall Apple wanting to deprecate a lot of the iTunes and iPhone integration so they are more than likely not testing that. Their testing probably included resetting their phone install the lates iOS build for testing and restore from iCloud and thus never saw the issue. A different team probably did a quick run of the upgrade process and saw that things seem to be restored with out digging into all the metrics to make sure they were there. This is my option however. That said there is no excuse for not testing it, and more importantly not noticing the the in place upgrade issues to include workouts not syncing health metrics not being recorded and the lost or missing GPS data.

The main thing i want to address is the backups if iOS. A iCloud backup is very different than a iPhone backup to a computer or even a computer back most people are familiar with, where all files are backed up or even a bit for bit copy is made. An iCloud backup saves your phone settings and things like play lists and information about installed apps and their settings. The data like health actively data is synced to a database associated with your account. Photos are about the only thing that is truly backed up. When you restore your iOS device from the iCloud the settings are pulled from your backup, Apps are pulled from the App Store, Music is pulled from Apple’s Music store etc. Only things that are unique to your phone mainly metadata and settings are restored. Photos are re-downloaded separately from the iCloud and the Health and Activity data is synced from the iCloud database to a new database on your phone. With an iOS backup to your computer the actual databases mainly SQLLite and plist files and other non system files are backed up to the computer. During the restore the files are copied back to the iOS device. This means that the bad database you had before your wipe and reset is just restored over the default empty one and the same issues are restored as well. While its hard to say the exact reason the issues are occurring it is most likely related to an issue with the database upgrade during the upgrade to iOS 14.

I am not making an excuse for Apple here, i was in the same boat before the iCloud restore and am still missing all my past GPS data which is frustrating to say the least. I also think Apple should be refunding iCloud purchases made to do this fix, if they don’t plan on actually addressing the issue in an update. I just wanted people to understand the iCloud and iTunes backups of iPhones are very different despite what Apple support is saying.

Watch OS 7.0.2 didn’t seem to immediately fix the GPS track issue but Doing the watch and iPhone reset and restore from iCloud seems to have fixed the lack of activity GPS tracking. Old workouts seem to still be missing GPS data though.

iOS 14.0.1 on 11pro with s4 watch on 7.0.1

can confirm full restore from iCloud worked for me.

only after a restore from encrypted backup on iTunes did NOT work , this whole issue has cost me so much time it’s beyond a joke , no phone for days , replaced the watch the whole lot plus a 200gb iCloud upgrade ........ and you can bet your bottom dollar all the historical route data is long gone

really poor show apple but it’s still better than going to their closest competitor

let’s hope they learn from this