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.

I have been having this issue for weeks. In fact, mine has been in the “Confirm on your Apple Watch…” loading screen for over 20-minutes as I write this. It started at least a few weeks ago. At first it was annoying, maybe a minute or two to connect. Since January 6, 2022 (I know because I recorded it) it takes more than 10-minutes every time. All of my software is up to date. The only “workaround” I have found is workouts on my iPhone or iPad work almost instantly (like the Apple TV had for about a year) — I do a 20-minute workout on the iPad and if I’m lucky, the Apple TV connects by the time I finish for a Mindful Cooldown. Today I started to connect at 7:10 am ET (verified on Nest Cam), and as I post this at 7:36 am ET, it is still connecting. This is 100% an error in Apple’s software somewhere between the TV and the Watch (because it doesn’t affect the iPad or iPhone Fitness Plus workouts). Please share if anyone gets a solution or Apple acknowledges it is a known error that they are fixing with a software update. Thank you!

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!

rcrobinson,

Thanks for following up and confirming all your devices are updated to the latest software versions. From here, the next best step is to reach out to Apple Support directly. The link below will help you get started:

Contact Apple Support

Take care!

Thank you for sharing. I tried to call a few weeks ago and got a message that they’re only available 7-7 central time. I coincidentally commute/work at exactly that time so I tried the chat feature which works outside of those hours, but it just tells you they don’t support help with Apple TV by chat. This thread with 40+ “me too” and people documenting their configuration should be enough for Apple to take action. In an act of desperation, I even tried emailing Tim Cook and Eddy Cue (head of services) linking them to this thread and a related thread on MacRumors. Fingers crossed someone is taking action.

I have the same issue as well, after I accept my watch to connect to Apple TV Fitness +, it takes like 2 minutes+ before all to available workouts shows up. This started when the new features were added (time for run, collections, etc). My phone, watch and apple tv have the latest os on them and also shutdown and restarted all 3 devices and problem is still present. AppleTV 4K (15.2), Apple Watch Series 6 (8.3) and iPhone 11 Pro (15.2)

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.

Thank you for sharing. I tried it this morning and it didn’t work for me, but glad it worked for you and hopefully others.

To make sure I tried the right thing, I went to Apple TV’s Settings, the option for Home (I don’t have it right in front of me to see exactly what it’s called), changed the room of my device from Basement to Bedroom. Restarted. Went back to settings and changed the location back to Basement. Restarted. Then tried to load Fitness+ but had the same error. Is this roughly the method you described, or maybe I misunderstood? Thanks!

I did it via my iPad as the TV is set up in my “Home” app. If you open the Apple TV in the home app on phone or iPad there is a cog. I changed the room there. What you described above I would imagine did the same thing but if you want you try it just in case?

Several attempts to rectify this same issue. Worked with Apple support for a very long time last night to no avail. Apple 4K TV on 15.2 tvOS with Apple Watch Series 4 watchOS 8.3 with iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 15.2.1 Fitness+ has been working fine on Apple TV until recently. Have changed Home room, reset Apple TV (painful experience), turned off all devices, and tried every other posted remedy in this forum. Nothing will work. Unfortunately I am now considering canceling my subscription to fitness+ because of it. I will really miss it. I wish Apple would post publicly about this issue, would make a commitment to fixing it, and reimburse for the paid expense of a costly service that simply doesn’t work. Fingers crossed that one last attempt with an Apple support call-back will yield results. So frustrating. It worked fine for months and then abruptly stopped working without any changes on my end, so I believe strongly that a bug has been introduced into one of the operating systems during an update.

I do agree, things just don’t stop working for no reason. I was thinking of canceling mine as well until I got lucky and made it work again, now getting 3 sec delay which may of been what it used to be before…

Keep us posted in case issue comes back for us.

Good luck!

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.