Fitness Tracking (Disable) and Focus Mode ?

I’d love for someone to walk through exactly how to set up a shortcut for this specific set of actions (to turn off fitness tracking). I haven’t been able to figure it out. I had someone tell me to use the driving focus, but I’m not sure that’s ideal.

I honestly can’t believe after all these years Apple still hasn’t realized people need a quick way to turn off fitness tracking. Drummers, knitters, guitar players, all kinds of hobbies and crafts and careers require heavy use of the hands that mess with fitness tracking. A very quick way to toggle it on and off would be great. People have literally complained about this since the very first watch.

Hi rafter74,

To create a shortcut, you'll want to follow the steps in the article we provided earlier, using the actions we also provided. "On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to My Watch > Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Disable Fitness Tracking (and also Heart Rate, if desired)."

Create a custom shortcut on iPhone or iPad

Create a Shortcut

1. In the Shortcuts app  on your iOS or iPadOS device, Tap  in the upper-right corner of the screen.

An empty, untitled shortcut appears in the shortcut editor.

2. Tap New Shortcut, tap Rename, type the name of your shortcut, then tap Done.

3. Tap Add Action.

A list of action categories appears.

4. Tap a category (such as Media or Web), then tap an action in the list to add it to your shortcut.

Note: You may have to scroll to see all the available actions in a category.

You can also touch and hold an action in the list, then drag it to the position you want in the shortcut editor.

5. To add another action, swipe up on the search field at the bottom of the screen, then choose an action.

Tip: When you add another action, the action category you previously chose from opens. To return to the list of all action categories, tap Done.

6. When you’re finished adding actions to your workflow, tap Done.

The shortcut is added to your shortcuts collection, in both the All Shortcuts and My Shortcuts categories.

For information on customizing the appearance of your new shortcut (the rectangle in your shortcuts collection), see Modify shortcut colors and icons on iPhone or iPad.

7. To test your new shortcut, tap  on the shortcut to open it in the shortcut editor, then tap .

To stop the shortcut, tap .

Cheers!

ADangRabbit wrote:

I honestly can’t believe after all these years Apple still hasn’t realized people need a quick way to turn off fitness tracking. Drummers, knitters, guitar players, all kinds of hobbies and crafts and careers require heavy use of the hands that mess with fitness tracking. A very quick way to toggle it on and off would be great. People have literally complained about this since the very first watch.

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Thanks for reaching out rafter74,

It sounds like you'd like to disable Fitness tracking on your Apple Watch. We can help.

To disable this feature, follow these steps:

On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to My Watch > Privacy > Motion & Fitness > Disable Fitness Tracking (and also Heart Rate, if desired).

If you'd like to set up a Shortcut for this, check out these steps: Create a custom shortcut on iPhone or iPad.

Hope that helps.

Take care.

rafter74,

We want to make sure we understand it is what you are trying to accomplish.

Are you wanting to permanently disable fitness tracking?

Or, keep fitness tracking and just disable/enable using a shortcut?

We look forward to hearing back for you.

Thanks for pointing to the Feedback, I will do it again (I've done it in the past). I know it's been a complaint around the internet for many years. I can't imagine they aren't aware of it, but I'll do it again anyway.

It's really a no-brainer that it should be fixed. It's hard to believe the developers haven't already run into the issue. Maybe it's just needs to be pointed out that a quick way to toggle fitness tracking on and off would be an easy solution. LOL.

Hi rafter74,

There wouldn't be a faster way to disable or re-enable the feature. WIth that said, you can submit feedback to Apple on this if you'd prefer: Feedback.

Cheers.