Cardio Fitness doesn't have Apple Watch as a data source

Ok, my i s working now. What I did...

I've started my training "Walk outside" outside with my iPhone (iPhone 11 pro with 14.3 iOS) with me. Walked only about 1 km (9 minutes) and after ending this trening, cardio fitness on Health App on my iPhone is visible.

I hope this will work for you as well.

Cheers

The cardiofittness function needs the heartbeat and the distance to determine a value. If the energy saving mode is activated for training in the watch settings, no heart rate is recorded. Therefore deactivate the settings in training / energy saving mode in the Apple Watch APP on the iPhone. Then check in the iPhone settings whether the GPS mode is activated for training settings / privacy / location services / training sessions. You can then reset the calibration of the watch in the watch app on the iPhone under Privacy. Now you need to exercise outdoors for at least 20 minutes while walking or running. This is required for recalibration. It is also possible that values ​​under Cardio are only displayed after several training sessions. The cardio fitness function only works outdoors because otherwise the GPS data for the distance is missing. No cardio data is recorded for indoor training, e.g. steppers or yoga.

Greetings from Germany

After first posting this issue way back, I've learned that cardio fitness ONLY tracks and reports on Outdoor Walk. Period. Not outdoor hike, not core training, not anything indoors. So to have some idea of my cardio fitness I have to do at least a 20 minute outdoor walk. And once I started doing this my apple watch 6 is now listed as the data source. It seems weird to me that cardio fitness only tracks an outdoor walk. I can't speak to a run because I don't run. Or an outdoor bike ride because I don't do that either. Would love to hear if anyone has experiece with that. "Outdoor" seems to be what the watch likes.

I had the same problem, and had tried everything to no avail, until I realised that I had my watch on Workout Power Saving Mode. When that is switched on, the watch won’t record a continuous heartbeat during a workout so obviously it won’t calculate VO2 max. Switched it off, went for a walk, and boom there’s my cardio fitness score! Find it under ‘Workout’ in your watch app on your phone.

I had the same issue and it ended up being a permissions thing. Go to Motion and Fitness in the Privacy settings and allow tracking . This solved it for me

So I would unpair, then when pairing not use the back up?

PQC wrote:

So I would unpair, then when pairing not use the back up?

yes, it will ask you if you want to set up as "new watch"

What will that do to any data or info?

You will have to reinstall all your watch apps and of course, your settings will be lost so you will have to redo those. can't imagine that the watch stores any kind of data per se since that would usually be handled by the corresponding phone app but if there is anything you think is life-shattering, you should double-check first of course.

I had to reinstall my credit cards in the wallet twice already.

If the cards are on your phone, it shouldn't be any more than entering the verification codes. I always freak out about that but it never is a big deal in the end.

At this point, I don't think you have much choice and I am surprised the Apple support people never brought it up since it is a standard part of the support mantra. I can't see any other way of making sure that nothing went wrong in the original WatchOs setup since you have already tried re-paring.

I hope it helps so let me know the result and if not I will try to go further with it.

It needs to be outside because I had the same issues and the minute I did a brisk walk outside it worked. My gps was on and I did initiate the activity on my watch telling it I was doing a walk outside but it ended up working after a lot of failed attempts inside! :)

Hello, i had a same issue, no data source etc. so i did the following, 1. Made My current watch as priority source 2. Recalibrated my watch 3. ( standard setting on watch) i had by default power saving mode on, which resulted into no continuous heartbeat tracking but sporadic( which is used to calculate VO2max) i switched it off in Watch app dock> Settings> workout> power saving mode 4. Then 2 outdoor walking workouts of approx 40 min each and today after 2nd workout vo2 max appeared and data source got updated.

hope it will help!

Finally had my first VO2 Max reading after an outdoor power walk of 30 minutes. I followed all the advice and instructions posted within this thread. What I did differently was to reset fitness calibration data within the privacy tab of My Watch app right before I activated the outdoor walk tab on my Apple Watch. When I completed the walk I noticed I had data for Cardio Fitness for the first time. Now when I open the Health app I find that my Apple Watch is the data source for Cardio fitness.

I finally got mine 4 days ago. It did take a few days and quite a few exercise sessions to start showing something. It did not actually show “Apple Watch” as a “data source” up until the moment it gave me the first reading. What really bothers me, though, is that Apple does not care to inform its users, “Hey! Be patient. It’ll take a few days for it to show up but it WILL, just keep wearing your watch as long as possible and keep exercising.” But no, that’s too much for them, I guess 😏

But anyways, it looks like I’m below average, a bit disappointed, I have to admit 😅, but it also means there’s a lot of room to improvement, which is kind of motivating as well.

Here again my post from January 15th. I hope it helps with your problem

The cardiofittness function needs the heartbeat and the distance to determine a value. If the energy saving mode is activated for training in the watch settings, no heart rate is recorded. Therefore deactivate the settings in training / energy saving mode in the Apple Watch APP on the iPhone. Then check in the iPhone settings whether the GPS mode is activated for training settings / privacy / location services / training sessions. You can then reset the calibration of the watch in the watch app on the iPhone under Privacy. Now you need to exercise outdoors for at least 20 minutes while walking or running. This is required for recalibration. It is also possible that values ​​under Cardio are only displayed after several training sessions. The cardio fitness function only works outdoors because otherwise the GPS data for the distance is missing. No cardio data is recorded for indoor training, e.g. steppers or yoga. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, I have not yet tested whether cardio fitness is also possible when cycling.

Greetings from Germany

The cardiofittness function needs the heartbeat and the distance to determine a value. If the power-saving mode for training is activated in the watch settings, no heart rate is recorded. So deactivate the settings under workout / energy saving mode in the Apple Watch APP on the iPhone. Then check in the iPhone settings whether the GPS mode for workouts Settings / Data protection / Location services / workouts is switched on. Then you can reset the calibration of the watch in the watch APP on the iPhone under data protection. Now you have to do an outdoor workout while walking or running for at least 20 minutes. It can also be that values appear under Cardio only after several workouts.

Greetings from old Germany

Nothing against you brother. I love Apple too. I’m just saying that just a little statement within the instructions for the feature, saying, “Don’t worry if your watch doesn’t show up as data source in the begging. It will take a few days to gather the necessary data. Just keep wearing it and keep exercising.” — Just a simple statement like that would set the right expectations from the beginning, saving a lot of customers the aggravation; it would create a better experience and wouldn’t cost them anything. Peace ✌️

Finally! I have worn the watch for 3 straight days only taking it off to charge. Today is the third day where I have selected an outdoor walk on the watch, each walk has been in excess of 20 minutes. Cardio Fitness has now registered in the health app showing the watch as the source. Now I will wait for the 2 notification functions.

I was having he same problems then I did one outdoor walk/ run for over 20. Minutes BUT I did not bring my phone with me. As soon as the workout was over Apple Watch appeared in the data section and a cardio fitness level was displayed.