Apple Fitness + won't connect to Apple watch or stuck on confirm on your Apple watch.

Tried two things on Sunday which seems to have fixed it.

I unpaired my watch from phone and paired it again and while doing that, found out you can force quit apps on your apple tv just like you can do on your phone. So I did that as well and issue appears to be fixed for now…

But if it happens again, I would force app closing the app on my Apple TV first since I don’t think the watch was the issue. Hope this helps!

Force quit apps on AppleTV:

1. While on the Home screen, double-click the Apple TV/Home button on the Siri Remote. It is the top button on the right side of the face of the remote with a TV icon on it.
2. Swipe to the right on the trackpad to find the app you wish to force-close.
3. Swipe up on the trackpad to force the app to close.

So I have had this same problem since mid-December. It got so bad this week that I couldn’t even get the app to open for me in my Apple TV (4k version). Excited to see the iOS, TVOS and watch OS updates today and I quickly did all three with still not connection.

Finally broke down and text with support who eventually set me up on a phone call with a specialist (Amanda). We troubleshooted until the last moment when we realized the only thing left to do was unpair my watch (6) and start over. Didn’t really want to, but we tried everything else. It worked!!! Amanda was patient, friendly and knowledgeable. She was just excited as me to see that it worked as she had another customer with the same issue. She was going to follow up with that customer to have them give it a try. (I’m telling you, she was one of the best tech support people I’d ever worked with)

It really is a hassle to unpair but the payoff is being able to access the awesome content on Fitness Plus! Hopefully this will help the rest of you with this issue. Just make sure to update your devices first then unpair and re-pair. Oh and make sure you back your watch up immediately prior to unpairing it.

Apple just released watchOS 8.4.2 today 2/10/22. I updated my watch a moment ago (not my iPhone or AppleTV) and it appears to have fixed the problem! Connected in less than a second — this morning’s workout took over 11 minutes to connect. Fingers crossed this is truly fixed.

I had done the force quit of TV apps several weeks ago with no luck, but after trying everything else, 2 rounds of software updates; restarting Watch 6, iPhone 12 and the Apple TV (several times); performing the unpairing/re-pairing seemed to do the trick for now. I had this happen a few days prior to one of the software updates in late 2021, spent considerable time on the phone with Support and nothing worked until after the update. Hopefully this won't become a regular problem as I've lost over a month of use of Fitness+ this time!

Was able to get things working again on my own. Unpaired Apple Watch from iPhone. Re-paired Watch to iPhone. Then, restarted all devices, including unplugging Apple TV for about 10 minutes. Whew! Glad to have it working again.

My series 5 watch wouldn't connect to any 3 of my Apple TV's in the house while my gf had a series 7 watch that worked fine. I was able to solve (for now) by unpairing my watch from the iphone and pairing it back to the iphone. Hope this helps someone.

Unpairing and re-pairing worked, although it took about two hours to reinstall everything and set up Apple Pay again. Since then, the amount of time needed to start the Fitness app has increased (just like everyone else). It was about 3 seconds the first time, 20 seconds the second time and now it's just under a minute. I'm really hoping Apple can fix whatever they broke!

I had this exact same issue - I rectified it by resetting/reformatting my apple watch (a bit of a pain, but it didn't take me long to set back up). To clarify, I set it up as an entirely new watch when going through the reset process.

Just spoke with Apple support. Changing the Apple TV location to another room and then back again fixed it for us. Hope it works for others.

Woot!!!

updated watch and fitness app works!

updated phone after, Fitness app still works.

will report it to them tonight in case i see more confirmation :)

Hi there rcrobinson,

Thanks for joining us in Apple Support Communities! We understand you're having difficulty starting a workout with Apple Fitness+ on your Apple TV. We're glad you're here, and we'd like to learn more to see how we can help.

"Your Apple Watch syncs with the Fitness app on Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD with tvOS 14.3 or later, so you can work out with Apple Fitness+ at home, in the office, or while you’re traveling.

To start a workout on Apple TV, your Apple Watch must be updated to watchOS 7.2 or later, be unlocked, and have Bluetooth turned on." Have a look at this link for more information:

Set up Apple Fitness+ on Apple TV

Keeping that in mind, which tvOS version is running on your Apple TV? You'll find that listed in Settings > General > About. Learn more about updating Apple TV here:

Update your Apple TV

Also, which watchOS version is currently on your Apple Watch? You'll also find that listed in Settings > General > About on your Apple Watch. If needed, this link provide details about updating Apple Watch:

Update your Apple Watch

Send over these details, and we'll take a closer look from there.

Cheers!

Curious if you’ve heard anything more from Apple Customer Support?

In the meantime, here is a workaround until this gets patched. Find the workout on your iPhone, and click “Let’s Go”. In the bottom-right, there’s an option to AirPlay it to your AppleTV including stats and timer. Note: Using screen mirroring (rather than AirPlay) does not include the stats and timer, but AirPlay shows everything as you’d normally see it. Annoying, but it works. Hopefully the real issue is patched soon.

I too had this issue. I now have my Apple TV 4K, iPhone 13 pro and Apple Watch series 7. All up to date. I got my fitness plus to work by pressing the reset and update on my Apple TV and unpairing then repairing my watch to my phone. Fitness plus is still very glitchy, but I can get in and it doesn’t just circle on “connecting” like it was.

For what its worth, I have similar problem. Fitness and tv were working fine until the Pilates upgrade (Sept 2021). Since then when hitting connect on the watch the connection takes longer each time I connect (usually 1 day apart). Day 1 will connect immediately, day 2 may take a few seconds, after a week or 10 days it can be 25 minutes (thats the longest I have let it get to!).

The only solution seems to be: On the watch / Settings/ Reset/ Erase all, Then select the latest backup on Iphone when prompted.

This is extremely frustrating. It reminds me of my mainframe days years ago when the only solution for some glitches was rebooting.

A trillion dollar company should be able to do better than this.