Outdoor cycling not credited as exercise with Apple Watch series 6

I have the same issue. At first I thought it was because I wasn’t getting my heart rate up enough on a fairly flat ride, but today’s was a nice hilly ride, my heart rate was up and was using the Apple workout app with my phone with me. Not really any help for you, but just to let you know you are not alone.

Interesting. I never tried the “indoor cycling” workout. I wonder if I use “indoor cycling” for outside, would it still use the GPS to record speed, mileage, etc.

Trying to figure out if it’s better to use “other” or “indoor cycling while we’re waiting for Apple to fix this issue.

Have you tried contacting Apple Support about this yet? There have been similar reports with the other workout types, such as Rowing not being credited while the other ones work normally. It is curious why it works fine for most people but then there are these exceptions, too.

Hey guys all the way from New Zealand! So I have just bought the 6 and records hr just fine in walking mode but experiencing the same issue with minutes however my hr stops recording through the ride which is annoying, especially after shelling out so much coin when other cheaper models/brands are consistent. I wonder if it is a fault with the outdoor bike programming, so I’m going to use stravias free 30 day trial to measure if it keeps the hr consistent and provides the results at the end, I know this doesn’t solve the ring problem but you can manually enter the data through health to fill your rings.

This is a slightly different issue. For me and the OP the heart rate records just fine and is consistent but doesn’t count as exercise in the exercise ring even though our heart rates are well up.

Let me ask you this: what kind of band did you choose with your watch? I tried the solo band because it seemed neat and convenient. I did not get a consistent heart rate with it while swimming or biking. I took it back immediately and sized down a size. But within the two week. I found it stretching out and not getting a consistent heart rate. Luckily there’s a two week return window and I returned it for a sports band. Since then I’ve got an a consistent heart rate.

A 5 mile 45 minute bike ride at 131 counted for 13 minutes. Maybe I got lucky because the trail was windy and I had to be turning a lot so it appeased the Apple Watch gods. Apparently that burned 137 calories while my 30 minute walk with a geriatric dog was 163.

Now here I am reading this thread with Other going to coast off of the raised heart rate from the bike ride and the frustration of this not working properly so I can fill my ring. I can’t stand a loading bar not being finished.

I have to be same problem. If you use “indoor cycle,” you won’t get all the important information you need but you’ll get the correct minutes! Only thing is after 20 minutes it asks you if you are done !!! I just hit dismiss

Well, I had an incredibly unhelpful discussion with an Apple so-called support person (a specialist in their fitness app and health benefits). She seem to feel that outdoor exercise is being set up to credit less than a full work out even if you have your heart rate up was correct. She suggested I try to figure out what pace I’m going out because if the Apple Watch feels my pace is too slow even if my heart rate is in a cardio range it will cut off minutes. She felt like getting 25 minutes credit for a 50 minute outdoor workout or 40 for a70 minute workout sounded correct (I had already pointed out that I did do the recalibration, I had my phone with me, software was up to date on both devices, and I was on trails where I was not stopping for lights/cross traffic but continually moving). And she said that I should try after the workout to figure out what pace would give me credit though it’s not clear exactly how I would do it. It’s just a bad algorithm. Indeed, while not crediting outdoor workouts fully, it’s sometimes still gives me credit for exercise just walking around the grocery store. I’m definitely not maintaining a swift pace there. So don’t look for full credit in outdoor workouts. I have long since turn my exercise ring back to 30 minutes and always exceed that, so I’ll just try to more thoroughly ignore it. Wish I could turn it off so I wouldn’t have to look at it. Really I’m just tracking workouts at this point. Deeply disappointed in Apple

There is clearly a glitch between the phone and the watch. I just finished a 12 mile ride in 1 hour, and my watch only shows 1 minute of exercise in the Exercise Ring. When I go to the iWatch fitness app on the phone, in the summary all the data from the Outdoor Ride is shown accurately, except on the Exercise Ring. Apple needs to fix this.

Did anyone get to fixing this issue? Its actually ridiculous to see that 30mins of brisk Outdoor cycle riding, with HR upto 130 is not being counted as exercise!!

Has anyone tried putting their watch on their ankle? Might be a stupid idea but wanted to see if it might work?

Did you have your iPhone with you during the ride? Yes

what version iWatch software currently running? 7.4.1

what watch model? S6, GPS only

what iPhone software version? 14.5.1

where are you currently located? Finland

Sure thing, I'll try slow down a bit. The above was at 10.8 mph by the way.

There are clearly differences between the workouts, and some are quite surprising. Cross country skiing in particular seems to get credited well above the actual contribution. Then Paddling and Water Sports seem to be the opposite - all my good work goes to nearly nothing :-) Well thats my personal opinion and experience anyway.

It's not the arm swinging that's the issue, because it will credit a stationary bike exercise just fine. I don't want to use "other" because then I don't get the mileage recorded. Annoyingly, if I use my polar chest strap to record the ride, while it will show up in Health and Fitness correctly as a cycling and count towards "exercise," the program treats my heart rate during the ride as "walking" so that my walking heart rate average for the day shoots up quite a bit. Since they base on "exercise" normally on what your walking heart rate average is (although outdoor cycling doesn't work even if you are above this), this would mean for the future such things like actually walking would no longer reach that target range to count as exercise. I deleted that day from my walking heart rate average, but clearly this isn't a solution either (but rather another problem).