Oxygen monitor app no longer available in new Apple Watch

The Watch, even when it worked, was far from an ideal solution, as it did not monitor continuously. There are products that do. I have an Oura Ring, which is primarily for sleep monitoring (and is consistently ranked as the best sleep monitor, above the  Watch and other devices), but also can monitor SP02 continuously.

I have the same issue, I was in the US 10 days ago (I live in the UK and I'm back home now), while I was there I decided to upgrade my Series 7 Apple Watch to the larger (46mm) Series 10 (did a trade in on my old one), and all was good, till I got back to the UK and decided to check my blood O2 and found it was no longer available.

At no point in the sale in the US did the Apple Store staff member say this would happen and I wouldn't have upgraded there if I'd known, I would have waited till I got home, and having visited an Apple Store in the UK now I've been advised that because I bought it in the US they are unable to do anything to help or exchange it.

There's no way to change the lockout on the watch as it's not one set by location (I have a UK based Apple Store account and there's no difference). The only way to get it back is for Apple to win their case and send out a Firmware update that unlocks it again.

If you’re within the 14 day return period you can return the product. Contact the store and speak to a manager. A manager can extend the return period to allow for shipping. The manger will have to fill out an exception report, but that’s not a big issue.

Explain the situation and the need to return the item. The refund and value for the trade in can be worked out. I’m a former Apple Store manager.

The patents that Apple infringed on are set to expire in 2028. Apple will not say if they activate features retroactively. I suspect such an announcement would interfere with any negations etc. Things will play out and it’ll eventually be resolved whether through the courts again or when they expire.

Chunkywelsh wrote:

At no point in the sale in the US did the Apple Store staff member say this would happen and I wouldn't have upgraded there if I'd known, I would have waited till I got home, and having visited an Apple Store in the UK now I've been advised that because I bought it in the US they are unable to do anything to help or exchange it.

I don’t know how you missed it, this was major news around the world that in the US the feature would not be available due to a patent dispute.

Many devices have feature restrictions based on the country in which they are sold.

This is just one of the pitfalls of purchasing something outside of the country where it will be used.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done about it now.

You’re a 100% correct. It’s not possible to research every potential feature of a product. It was big news in the US, but certainly minor back page material in the rest of the world.

You’ve got a path forward, should you choose to exercise it. If not, I understand the frustrations. Myself, I like to concentrate on solutions and not dwell on what can’t be changed. 😀😀

AlliD_63 wrote:

Thank you. I will get it, I didn’t want to have to walk around with gadget but it is what it is I guess.

They're very small.

Due to a patent dispute and ruling by the United States International Trade Commission, Apple can no longer offer O2 level monitoring on US-sold Apple Watches and no third-party app can enable it. So if you're in the US, O2 monitoring will not be available for the foreseeable future. If you bought your Watch from Apple within the last 14 days, you can return it if you wish.

Regards.

I'm not sure. I think that once you are able to set a different region that might be enabled since it's a software lock, not lack of hardware, but I haven't seen any confirmation of that from anyone who's tried it.

AlliD_63 wrote:

I have a new Apple Watch and now no longer have the oxygen monitor app. What can I get to replace it, had I known I would not have upgraded. Is there any other app I can get

to replace it?

Here'a an inexpensive one:

Oximeter (Amazon)

It says that it can sync data to Health.

There are lots of others. That was just the first one I found.

I ordered my series 10 online and was trying out the new features to see if they differ from my series 6. Nice watch but no O2 sensor. I never would have upgraded had I’d known the O2 never worked. In all the predictions on the series 10 I read back in August not one of them mentioning the problem with the O2 sensor. I still have 6 days for my return and I’m now wearing my series 6 with the O2 sensor and have my series 10 packed up and ready to return today. I will wait until it actually works again before upgrading. Maybe if everyone would return their watches Apple would get a move on. We’ll see. I see Apple stalling for another year or more.

I’m from the UK, it wasn’t classed as major news here, and doing a Google search is 99% US news sources not UK ones. Just because something is news in the US doesn’t mean it’s global, your country isn’t that big/important.