Fitness+ won’t use screen mirroring

This is so upsetting. I am on hold with customer support right now. I have been a loyal Apple fan all my life. I was so excited to workout with my family this morning and we could not get it to mirror to our TV. I thought it was a technical issue... I cant believe they are actually blocking the ability!

To me, this should work with any tv without Apple having to specify which ones.

It kind of like music - can you imagine if they introduced a new music service that only played through Apple HomePods and not through the speakers you already had?

My point being that some things are just assumed. Or at least I think they should be.

Agreed. Sometimes I want to work out in my bedroom or living room, sometimes the kitchen. Am I supposed to buy Apple TVs for each room? And then when I'm traveling I want to work out in my hotel room. Is Apple saying I can't use Fitness+ there? Or should I carry an Apple TV with me at all times?

Ridiculous.

We are Apple fans. Our family has 2 Macs, 7 iPhones, 4 iPads, Apple Music, and an Apple TV.

Needless to say, I’m cancelling Fitness+ because I’m not lugging the Apple TV to different rooms.... and on principle.

At least Apple could explain the strategy/rationale so their loyal customers could better understand the logic and make our own judgement.

Silence on the fact it won’t mirror or cast to anything but Apple TV is misleading to the consumer.

Strike one, and in my mind, NPS just went down.

Well, I just wasted 3 hours on a problem a lot like this one. I don't have an Apple TV, and the iphone screen is obviously way too small to view during a workout. I just assumed Apple would make it easy (or at least possible) to mirror the screen to a Macbook Pro. After scouring the internet, it turns out you need to use a quicktime hack where you plug in your phone and "record a new movie" and select the phone as input (why can't you use Airplay to mirror your iphone screen to your laptop?). Even this quicktime hack didn't work out of the box - I had to reset all my settings in order to get this basic mirroring to work... Then, I needed to restart my phone and watch multiple times to get Fitness+ to be able to find my watch. After all of this (literally 3 hours), it turned out that the screen mirrors BLACK in the quicktime hack, so I couldn't even watch the video on my laptop while working out. Come on, guys. Terrible user experience. Does not make me want to spend more time on this.

I have fairly poor eye sight and can't workout looking at my small phone screen as I have to stand away from it, therefore screen mirroring to my smart TV was the only option so I thought great....

Then it just didn't work and only showed the preview and not the actual workout.

This was the one thing I was looking forward to after buying the apple watch 6 and the app can't do something as simple as this?

Complete joke. I'd like to know why I can't do this and when this will be fixed.

Thanks

Agree! Mounted TV in workout room for this. Connected lightning to HDMI cable, watched preview and all is fine. Start the workout and no picture. Not interested in constantly disconnecting and reconnecting Apple TV in family room. Will drop fitness+ before having to purchase 2nd Apple TV unit. Very disappointing.

I know Apple says they don’t read these discussions, but I think they are. As many users have outlined, it’s impractical to require a specific Apple TV to play Fitness+ on a TV. It appears to be something Apple is holding back, so what gives? Is Apple trying to alienate people and lose subscribers?

Even when you try to use QuickTime via lightning cable with iPhone you can't see the workout on your MacBook.

Are you kidding me Apple?!

Are you seriously forcing customers (after they bought Apple Watch, iPhone and MacBook) to buy Apple TV?! Or not allowing customers to use screens with AirPlay?!

If this will not be sorted out with next update - FitBit Coach waiting me.

Ridiculous move Apple!

This is ridiculous!! The entire purposes is to workout! The phone is so small I can barely see the movements!! You need to fix this so it’s available on out tv 📺 via mirror if not your loosing mine and many other people account and that’s very sad for your trainers. I started the trial and think you have great trainers but if your not going to connect to the tv then I’ll be canceling. That’s very disappointing to your trainers.

I’ve use my setup the last 4 days in a row on 2 different TVs with no issue. I see the videos and get the sound. I just happened to have that cheap little adapter (I think Onn might be a Walmart brand) and an additional hdmi cable so I gave it a try after seeing everyone complain about not being able to cast. I don’t know about the regular usb-c to lightening cable from iPhone to MacBook Pro though. That cable isn’t really meant for that since it’s just a sync cable for charging and data like backing up your iPhone to your MacBook Pro. I’ve never tried to use my MacBook Pro like that where I wanted to connect something to it to play video. I have connected it (my old one, not my current 2020 MBP) to a tv or projector via cables to play video from it on a larger screen but that was awhile ago....before I had more casting options with my TVs.

Thanks for reply. you can cast from IPhone via QuickTime and I see the preview no problem and everything else from my iPhone. But not the video of the workout ;))

Black screen with Apple Watch vitals.

I have no clue. Like I said...I’ve never used my MBP in that manner to pay a video of any type from my iPhone. I’ve never had the need so it’s not something I’m familiar with. Can you play any other video doing the same thing? I would assume it’s the protection like you said. Most people probably aren’t trying to view it on their MBP unless they don’t have access to an iPad or tv but maybe someone else will eat across a work around that will make that option work too. If you have access to a tv though the Onn adapter is like $15. Not a thrill to spend extra money period but if it’s an option you really want to be able to use to see the videos on a bigger screen than the iPhone it works and it’s something you can easily use on any tv anywhere you go (assuming it’s not a super old tv that doesn’t have hdmi ports of course). A lot cheaper than having to buy an AppleTV unit if you never wanted on or having to keep moving it around if you do have one but the tv you want to use isn’t the one it’s connected to. Apple has never been accused of offering all of the most convenient options 😂. Especially not out of the gate...I remember when AppleTV+ first came out people were complaining that they couldn’t easily cast the content to all smart TVs (felt like another push to have to buy the AppleTV unit to be able to do it). So hopefully this is similar to that...where options will start to open up...just at Apple’s snail pace lol

Or an iPad (not a substitute for a full sized tv but it’s bigger than the phone)...or trying the cheaper hack I got to work so I didn’t have to spend money in a Apple TV box when I have absolutely no need for it (I can only confirm my hack works for an iPad Pro though). Hoping they change this but until/unless they do there looks like there will be a lot of unhappy customers

This is very very disappointing, I have just purchased an Apple Watch 6 with the express reason of working out to fitness+, I have two smart TVs which I can access AppleTV from so feel there is absolutely no reason to also have another Apple TV box

unless this is sorted I will NOT be extending my Fitness+ subscription beyond the 3 free months

I repeat VERY VERY DISAPOINTED