Level 1

65 points

Cardio Fitness not working on my Apple Watch Series 6 (or on my previous Series 5)

I have owned an Apple Watch (first series 5 and now series 6) since November of 2019. I frequently run or walk outdoors for much more than 20 minutes at a time and I always use the Apple Watch Workout app, selecting either Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run, accordingly. In 14 months of this outdoor activity (hundreds of runs and walks by now), I have only had Cardio Fitness data recorded ONCE (December 5th, 2019, and called VO2Max then). Before and since that random single entry, NO DATA has been recorded for VO2Max or Cardio Fitness. I compared the other workout parameters (exercise time, heart rate information, active calories) for that single workout that recorded a VO2Max entry with the data from my hundreds of other workouts but I don’t see any significant differences, other than the fact that VO2Max data was NOT RECORDED. When I traded my series 5 watch for a series 6 this past November 2020 I had hoped that this feature would start working, but nothing has changed (NO DATA for Cardio Fitness, aka VO2Max). I don’t normally take my phone with me with I exercise outdoors, but even when I do, NO DATA is recorded for this parameter. I have reset my Fitness Calibration Data several times in an effort to get this feature to work, but still NO DATA is ever recorded. What really has me confused is that it did work ONCE, but has not worked before or since that one day and I didn’t do anything different on that one day. Any ideas? Is this a know bug?

Posted on Dec 29, 2020 6:24 PM

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swapnil303

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 4, 2021 10:07 AM

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!

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150 replies

Osugrad85 Author

Level 1

65 points

Jan 5, 2021 5:42 PM in response to swapnil303

Hi swapnil303. Thanks for the info, but this did not work for me. Since my Apple Watch is NOT listed as a data source for Cardio Fitness, I can’t make it a priority. I did go through ALL of the other Health App data parameters and made sure that my Apple Watch was the top listed data source, but Cardio Fitness is still not working for me. I had three lengthy phone calls with Apple Support today, but still no solution. They captured a lot of diagnostic info from both my watch and phone and say that they will get back to me, hopefully with a solution. If I do get a solution, I will post it here.

Osugrad85 Author

Level 1

65 points

Jan 5, 2021 9:48 PM in response to swapnil303

Swapnil303, yes, I do get a heart rate map in my workout details. Occasionally it has some data dropouts, but usually it is a complete map.

cnatilia, the Apple Support person I am working with believes (like me) that I am satisfying the requirements needed to generate Cardio Fitness data, it just isn’t being generated for some unknown reason. Hopefully they will come up with a solution. Thanks for sharing your experience. Hope it continues to work for you.

Jan 25, 2021 3:59 AM in response to Osugrad85

I spent 2 months going thru same process and never got engineers to resolve the issue and finally gave up. Company like Apple should have a senior member of leadership spend some time understanding the user’s pain and hire someone who can resolve this issue. This became more problematic when Watch OS 7 was released. Looking forward to resolution soon (no high hopes considering this has been problem for over 4 months now)

km1117

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2021 3:39 PM in response to Osugrad85

Hi Osugrad85,

Any updates? I was on a call today trying to figure this out. The only thing I haven’t tried: I am going to recalibrate and do two 20 minute work outs outside.

Hope you got some answers!

Osugrad85 Author

Level 1

65 points

Jan 25, 2021 4:20 PM in response to km1117

Hi Km1117. No update this week. I’ll call them on Wednesday if I haven’t heard from them first. BTW, recalibration got and doing two 20 minute outdoor workouts (walks or runs or both) did not work for me. 15 months of lots of the proper types of exercises and still NO Cardio Fitness data reported by my watch.

Feb 1, 2021 3:03 PM in response to Osugrad85

I too have this problem so please keep providing updates Osugrad85 or anyone else who has previously tried everything and hopefully has found a solution. I have the IPhone 11 and just upgraded to the Apple Watch 6, partially in the hope that the cardio fitness issue would be resolved. It hasn't been. My Apple Watch 3 did a fine job until June 2020 and then for no apparent reason, stopped recording cardio fitness info. Apple needs to get on this and provide a software update. It really seems like an issue on their end. It's infuriating.

JE35

Level 1

4 points

Feb 1, 2021 3:27 PM in response to Osugrad85

Same issue. Tried everything in this thread multiple times. Watch not showing up as data source. Had the watch for a month with a workout outside almost every day. zero VO2 measurements. Waiting for Apple's response.

joepla03

Level 1

4 points

Feb 4, 2021 1:56 PM in response to ohill4

I've been following this thread since I purchased my Series 6 watch in mid January. On January 31, my watch finally appeared as a data source for cardio fitness and started recording data. Very, very strange. I didn't do anything special and I had numerous workouts that should have been recorded prior to January 31. So I can't really say if it was a result of anything I did.

dpasp

Level 1

4 points

Feb 16, 2021 2:55 PM in response to Osugrad85

i have the same issue.

I bought apple watch 6 yesterday, and it is my first one ever. I actually bought it for this feature, but it doesnt work, and I have 2x 30 m outdoor walks.

it seems incredible that one of the most advertised feature doesnt work and I see very empiric methods people are using to get it work like it was a sort of macumba. I think Im returning this watch until I can and stick to my omega speedmaster.

Feb 17, 2021 6:15 AM in response to Osugrad85

I found this thread trying to find an answer to the exact same problem. I can’t seem to get my health app to list my new watch as a cardio source at all. I think it may be that my old watch and my new watch had the same name for a bit, confusing the app somehow? Did that happen in your case as well? I completely got rid of the old watch in my settings once I realized but it is still a problem, so who knows if that was a factor at this point. Would love to have this solved. Hopefully soon.

Feb 17, 2021 1:44 PM in response to Camerashy1

Same thing for me. No Vo2 for a month now for some reason. iPhone 11 Pro Max and Apple Watch Series 5. I went back in my history and Vo2 only shows up on days when I did an outdoor walk. I do cardio almost daily and no Vo2 reading.

Osugrad85 Author

Level 1

65 points

Feb 17, 2021 1:54 PM in response to Camerashy1

Hi Camerashy1. I don’t think the problem has anything to do with the name of your old watch. Early on I thought that might be my problem so I renamed my watch to something unique. It still didn’t show up as a data source for Cardio Fitness.

Hi again Whetts. As an update to your suggestion, as I mentioned my settings were already correct, but I toggled them off and back on, and did another outdoor run today (41 minutes, 4.5 miles, good gps mapping and HR data) but still no Cardio Fitness (VO2Max) data.

Feb 18, 2021 8:46 AM in response to mascarawitch

Hi all,

Reading all this hoping a solution would be waiting for me at the end. Sadly not.

About a week ago I swapped my Apple Watch 4 for a Series 6 and Cardio Fitness hasn’t worked since. Like everyone else here my AW6 is not listed as a source for Cardio Fitness but my AW4 was supplying data right up to 11th Feb. I’ve tried all the suggestions here without success. It’s truly amazing that Apple can’t solve this.

Feb 18, 2021 1:42 PM in response to dpasp

“I tried to then fix the synch issue. Opened the Apple watch app on the iphone and clicked: General>Reset>Reset Sync Data”

Alas this did nothing for me. In fact “>Reset Sync Date” had no effect whatsoever. Apart from Indoor cycling I also walk (the dog) a couple of times a day and despite selecting Outdoor Walk this has no effect.

Feb 19, 2021 11:01 AM in response to Matt_SG

I’ve made sure all the settings on both my 12 Pro Max and AW6 (all latest updates installed). Today I did 50 minutes strength training plus 2 very brisk walks, both over 20 minutes and no change at all. Still nothing since the day I unpaired my AW4 (11th Feb). AW6 not shown in list of data sources.

Happy that some have sorted the problem but no change here. 😡

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Cardio Fitness not working on my Apple Watch Series 6 (or on my previous Series 5)