Outdoor cycling not credited as exercise with Apple Watch series 6

This happened to both me and my husband today while doing an uphill climb, logged as an outdoor cycling workout (see screenshot below). Only about 10 minutes of each our workouts counted towards exercise and it also seemed like it wasn’t counting as many active calories towards our move ring based on our heart rates. Super frustrating!

I hadn't realized it might under pitching the calories too (just what it counted towards exercise, even though the HR is up). But I just compared it to similar workouts I had recorded with the Polar app/chest strap (similar time/distance/HR) and see that Polar puts my calories much higher -- and the AppleWatch credits about the same number of calories for a similar Indoor cycle of 20 mins that it does for an hour outdoors (same HR avg). I don't really do anything with the calorie count so hadn't really paid attention.

Yes, again, this is not a great help but I have had the same problem over and over again with the walking and cycling. Yesterday I rode my bike for over two hours with plenty of difficult uphills, my average heart rate was in the 150s, my mileage was above 6mi in either direction. My exercise ring clocked in 24 mins. SMH I was so disappointed. So, later I put my watch on Mixed Cardio and went about regular activity that included sitting on the toilet for a few minutes and my ring closed. This is not right. Apple needs to change this immediately. This device is way to expensive and high tech not to be able to function properly. Very frustrating. And I feel like my fist gen watch tracked way better. So, this could be corrected in an update.

I reported this problem to Apple because I have had two hour long rides in which my heart rate got up to 156 or higher and my watch didn’t record either as exercise. I guess I could let it run on other for an hour like you suggested.

I think it’s a broader outside exercise issue. I’ve been doing some hiking lately and notice that hiking too does not fully credit for exercise. I am certainly keeping my heart rate at or above the brisk walk criteria and today well above it consistently and in the range or above of an indoor pool swim that does get fully credited. I hiked for 140 minutes, no stopping just catch my breath pauses at the top of some particularly intense ascends where my heart rate was right at the top of my maximum, and was credited 90 exercise minutes. in someways I’m just annoyed because I always close my ring otherwise and I keep track of my workout minutes rather than my exercise minutes (especially since sometimes it credits exercise for just walking around the grocery store). It’s nice that it exports my work out information into my YMCA app in which I’ve been tracking workouts for years so I can see year-over-year comparisons. And so I’m not that worried about Apple fitness’s exercise minutes algorithm, although it is still annoying

Same problem for me. My girlfriend and I did nearly 20 miles by bike today in about 2 hours and average heart rate was 140BPM…and we both averaged about 20 minutes of exercise also the calorie count for calories burned were much less than if we were walking. This is clearly a problem with this activity that Apple hasn’t seemed to be able to fix or recognizes as a problem. I use the watch constantly for other training such as weightlifting, running and elliptical all of which do a fine and correct job of tracking activit calorie burn etc. I sincerely wish Apple could fix this; it strangely disincentivizes one from doing cycling.

Another person here with the same outdoor cycling issue. It’s the first time I’ve written on a forum, so Apple review this and potentially look into these issues?

Wondering if you are using “other” or “indoor cycle” whilst awaiting a fix?

Thanks TM

I’m having the same problem my outdoor bike ride never log correctly. And it’s beyond frustrating.

Apple fix this, it’s annoying. By the price we pay for the watch it should not bring this kind of frustration.

On today’s ride, I used both the outdoor cycle function on Apple Watch AND the Komoot app. Here are the results. Between the two, it records all the data. The move

is correct on this ride because I stopped often while training my dog to run with me.

Right, I’m aware. Which is why I’m also using Komoot. I’ve battled a lot of Heath issues this year, so I’m still gaining strength and endurance. But I need that ring to close when I do get out there and do anything. Eventually I’ll be able to hit the required metrics from the watch app.

I’m in the same situation. Very frustrating to say the least. All other workouts work fine, except Outdoor Cycling, which happens to be my favorite. I’ve checked all the calibration settings, I’ve tried unpairing/pairing again, I’ve tried resetting calibration, yet yesterday I was credited only 15 minutes out of a 38 minute ride 😟 I’m not the fittest person but my HR is by far exceeding that of a ‘brisk walk’. Sorry not to be of more help. But if you find a solution please let us know. Cheers!

Good thing: since watchOS 8 the watch will pause the outdoor cycling workout timer when you stop moving (at a stoplight, etc). This will help offset the time discrepancy. Before this, we figured out that it will calculate exercise minutes ONLY when your heart rate is at a minimum.

Apparently still an issue. I received the SE for Christmas, have done two outdoor bike rides, neither registered in the exercise ring. All my walks and runs outside show. Sure hope apple fixes this soon!

Thanks for sharing! I'll go for a similar test ride today here too .... let's see how that compares. Back laters....