My Apple Watch 4 was the same. If I forgot to turn it off and restart it before a swim it wouldn’t count the laps properly. Got the new series 6 worked fine for the first swim and now it’s back to not counting laps properly again. Just checked here and it seems this has been a problem for years with Apple watches. Any ideas on how to resolve this issue once and for all
Apple Watch Series 6, watchOS 7
Hi there Marimarg,
We understand you're experiencing an issue with the swimming workout on your Apple Watch, and we'd like to see how we can help.
Get started here: Use the Workout app on your Apple Watch
The information here may also help: Workout types on Apple Watch
Specifically, review the section below:
"Swimming
With Apple Watch Series 2 or later, you can choose Pool Swim or Open Water Swim. When the workout starts, the screen automatically locks to prevent accidental taps from water droplets. Learn how to swim with your Apple Watch and view your workout history, including auto sets and splits.
Here's how your Apple Watch measures each workout:
For any additional questions, reach out here: Get Support
Cheers!
unlink the wath from iphone once and connect again, then it will work. Even after this, if it is not working contact Apple support and update them about the issue.
Thanks
[Edited by Moderator]
It worked after I have reset the watch (unpair and paired). The next day the problem came back. Apple expert could not solve the problem.
I am having the same issue. My Apple Watch 4 was working great at measuring laps and distance and then it stopped accurately measuring them this summer. It would also drain the battery from 100% when I entered to the pool to about 10% within a few minutes. After resetting the watch, unpairing and pairing, recalibrating, etc. I decided to buy a Series 6 Watch which arrived on Friday. I used it Saturday and Sunday during my swims and both times it didn't measure laps or distance correctly. And it's off by a lot! Frustrating.
Same problem with my Serie 5 watch running on Watch OS 7.1
After going to so called Apple Support Expert, they are still not able to resolve the tracking problem during my swim workout.
I do not now why Apple is not able to solve this problem when other cheaper watch like my Mi Band 5 can do a better job at the swim tracking.
At each OS updates, I was hoping the problem can be fixed only to be greatly disappointed yet again.
Come on Apple, you have an obligation to win back the confidence of your loyal customers by fixing this problem after so long already.
From a very disappointed customer.
Margaret,
Thanks for those additional details.
To look into your Apple Watch not accurately recording your swimming workouts, reach out through this link: Get Support
Take care.
Thank you so much for your response and all the information you provided. It is appreciated.
However, it’s not that I don’t know how to track my swimming on the watch. This is my third Apple Watch. I’ve had series, 2 4 and now this 6.
my problems started back in July/August with the 4. And as well as not recording accurately at times there were several occasions when I’d put the watch on with 100% battery (straight off the charger) walk outside, hop into the pool and bam! The battery would drop to 10% then drain completely.
I decided to update to the 6. But straight out of the box I’m having issues with its accuracy. I’ve got my pool size set and I know that when I’ve done 2 laps of my pool the watch records 1. That would be right. As I have a 7.5 metre pool (set to 7) and by the time you kick off from the wall you’ve lost at least a metre each end. So roughly 20 laps of my pool should record 10 laps on the watch. It’s recording at most 5. Sometimes 3. On the days it works those 20 laps will count as 10.
i usually swim 2km in around 1 hr 10 mins at the most. Im struggling to get 1km in an hour. On a day when the watch is accurate that should take me between 34 /37 minutes. This morning it took 1 hour and 20 minutes to do 1.148 metres. I’ve done well over 600 laps of my pool. The watch should’ve tracked at bare minimum 300. It says I’ve done 164.
it often starts off ok. Eg it tracked 309 metres in 12 minutes this morning. Then in the next 20 minutes it said I’d done just over 400 metres In total. So basically it recorded approx 100 metres in 20 minutes. My usual pace on an average swim is 250 metres in 10 minutes.
my neighbour told me yesterday she has the series 5. Often she will look down during a workout to find her watch has stopped recording. No heartbeat - nothing. I have found it sometimes fixes the problem if I turn the watch off and on again before my swim it will record properly. But that doesn’t fix it every time.
margaret.
I totally agree. It’s time they sorted this out. My series 4 was over a thousand dollars. My 7 was $750 and these aren’t cheap so they should work better than this.
It’s really annoying. Over to apple to fix then I guess. It appears to be their issue.
Apple Watch Series 6 not counting swim laps properly
