Screen Mirroring Apple Fitness Plus from Iphone to LG TV, not working...

I just signed up for the Fitness+ trial and planned to use it with an Apple TV 3rd Gen through iPhone screen mirroring. Thought I was losing my mind when as soon as the fitness class would start, the video would go blank but the audio would still play. This seems to be a deliberate limitation from Apple. I have no desire to buy a new Apple TV just to work with Fitness+. I already subscribe to a competing online workout service but would have considered switching if I liked the Fitness+ content. But this limitation is a deal breaker, so I will not continue after the free trial ends. Too bad, because I did like the Fitness+ class I tried, the Apple Watch integration, and how it logged the Fitness+ workouts in the Fitness app.

Just got off the phone with support. They confirmed with engineering that screen mirroring with Fitness Plus is "not supported at this time." This despite the fact that I already paid $45 for an Apple HDMI dongle. There's no way I'm paying for this "service" after my free trial if my only option is to use my phone for the workouts (and I'm absolutely not buying an Apple TV). C'mon, Apple, this is ridiculous.

Arturo_S - I used your solution...beautiful. I have been a loyal Apple fan for years. I love Apple products, the way they just work and they work seamlessly with one another, including that pesky screen mirroring feature. However, I too, feel this is an overreach on Apple’s part. As a consumer, I get tired of getting caught in the cross-hairs of which powerhouse tech company is playing money games with their LOYAL consumers. And I agree with the sentiments of another post...the last thing I need is another freaking streaming device. PS I have an Apple TV, but it is first gen and I cannot cast Fitness+ to it, although I can still cast other videos and photos, etc.

You cannot use HDMI to Lightening adapter directly with the casting device for only Fitness+. It works for all other casting purposes.

I have a Gen 6 iPad. It is updated and I have downloaded the Fitness+ to it. It doesn’t recognize my Gen 5 watch. I have researched this all over the internet and through the Apple forums....lots of people having the same problem. My daughter has a brand new iPad Pro and a gen 3 watch and it works fine. They just want us to buy the newest stuff to get everything to work together.

To set this up: use another device that can cast, or use an HDMI to Lightening adapter. Cast that device to your TV. Turn on your camera and face the device you are casting with to the iphone (that you spent $1,200 on...because they need more money). It will show up on your TV.

This is also the case for me and my wife. I bought a lightning to HDMI adapter so she could play the workouts from iPhone to our Roku TV (which is too old for the Airplay 2.0 release) for the video to cut away the moment the workout started. I have an iPad Pro, so we turned the iPad camera onto the iPhone screen and put the camera view of the iPad onto the TV. It is far from an ideal solution and cheapens the entire experience, I feel cheated by Apple on this. I do not know if this is a bug/hiccup, software issue, or withholding on Apple’s part, but I would expect them to at least issue a statement about it. It would seem unsustainable behavior for consumers to spend $$$ for a bandaid level feature.

That is exactly what I had to go buy to get it to work.

Ill say it again....

Samsclub 4K streamer. 90 day return policy

Apple fitness giving up to 90 day free trial.

coincidence?

this gives 90 days for Apple to address the issue IF they intend too.

I can wait it out.

This doesn’t work for me either. I called them and told them I’m a broke college student that I can’t afford an Apple TV right now. Which sucks because I’m locked in the house because Covid. And they basically told me sorry buy an Apple TV.

Not sure why this post is continuing. The iOS update resolves the issue. Yes, Apple handled the whole affair badly, but it’s resolved. For Apple staff that may read this, share your planned updates with your call center. Everyone who posted here was treated poorly by customer service seemingly at the direction of their management instead of just telling us a fix was being developed. Many people abandoned Apple over this ( mostly the poor treatment and phrases like “the ad never stated airplay would work” when we inquired about why a native function didn’t work). For those of us left, the beta update worked and so will the ongoing functionality. Please stop insulting your long term, multi product, customers.

From all the posts, it seems the HDMI only works on iPad Pro with USB-C

Not with the Lightning to HDMI.

I called to and your Apple TV has to be 4K or HD. The previous versions aren’t compatible 😒. I guess I will check out Peloton. Do others have a good experience with them?

That's a third-generation ATV. It does not support Fitness+.

I have just attempted this - the audio transfers successfully to the TV, but the video stream is blacked out by the application.

Arturo_S wrote:

Can you try starting the workout, then once you get past the countdown, pause it, connect the dongle and see if it shares the video?

Thank you for this question and everyone who posted a response. Thought it was just me. Called Apple support and advisor was trying to convince me it was a tv compatibility issue. I have a Roku tv. I found this discussion while they had me on hold investigating issue. Talked to 3 advisors. Told senior advisor of this discussion. Finally told me there is definitely an issue with screen sharing and it was nothing he could help with. Up to Apple to fix the issue. Sent me a link to provide my feedback. It will help since fitness+ was just released and there are bugs they need to fix. Hopefully, this will be fixed with the next software update. It is very disappointing!

I just called Customer Support again and spoke to another Sr. Advisor who told me to send feedback at apple.com/feedback which goes to the developers. Let's send feedback to see if this issue gets resolved.

Because no where on the requirements website does it state that an Apple TV unit is the only way to get workouts to a Tv. A huge number of us SHOULD MEET these requirements by owning devices on their list. Nowhere does is state that AirPlay nor and hdmi uplink via lightning will not work. There's a LOT of people that fully expected to be able to easily get the workouts up to our TVs (me included) without the sole need to purchase an Apple TV unit.

I find the marketing for this extremely deceptive. The should mention on their product support page "Apple Tv 4K device required to get workouts on a TV set". They are missing out on a lot of subscriptions because of this -- and I do not buy the fact that devices other than usb-c iPads are too slow to handle it. My iPad Pro is 3 years old and the usb-c hdmi works to TVs, however my wife faster iPhone does not through lightning.

Apple is trying to use this as a way to get people to buy more Apple TV units and to try and take some market share from Roku and Amazon.

Yeah - I can see the potential issue with AirPlay (wirelessly) in working potentially due to however it is sharing data between the watch, the iPad/iPhone and streaming the content down. That's where the adapter should come into play and work without a problem. With it working on a USB-C adaptor -- functionally it can work.