Apple Watch Ultra 2 Heart Rate tracking issues auto-pausing workouts.

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Level 1

4 points

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Heart Rate tracking issues auto-pausing workouts.

I've been having an issue since around Sept 2025 where my Ultra 2 suddenly has a very hard time finding my HR while working out. This was not an issue for the six months before Sept, and I can't tell if it's update related or not.

This happens during all of my strength training workouts, the HR field on my watch during the workout grays out and spins as it can't seem to read my HR and then that causes the watch to automatically pause my workout. This happens anywhere from 10 to 50+ times during an hour workout. It's maddening unpausing the watch so many times, and it has to be really messing up my stats like calories burned and VO2 with endless interruptions and tracking issues. My watch is always up to date on updates as soon as they're available.

My questions are: Why did my watch suddenly begin having problems HR tracking during exercise, and is there a fix? Is there a way to turn off automatic pausing when it can't find my HR?

Apple Watch Ultra 2, watchOS 26

Posted on Dec 8, 2025 3:45 PM

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Answer 1

Ingo2711

Level 10

80,073 points

Dec 9, 2025 1:05 PM in response to ejokent

I have the Auto-Pause disabled on my Ultra 2 in the WatchApp -> Workout -> Auto-Pause.

You should try the other wirst as well, Apple seems to have tweaked the Wrist Detection feature in watchOS 26, which seems to add issues with tattoos, compared to the previous watchOS 11.

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Answer 2

Ingo2711

Level 10

80,073 points

Dec 10, 2025 3:26 AM in response to ejokent

Unpairing and setting the watch up as a new device, without using the latest backup would be the way to rule out defective data from the backup. You will lose your created Watch faces and might have to add your cards to the Wallet app again.

Then test your workout/heart rate recording again.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 3

ejokent Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 9, 2025 12:40 PM in response to Ingo2711

Thank you for replying! Yes wrist detection is enabled, and wrist orientation is correct in the settings. I have tried all different positions on my wrist (lower, higher, middle, tighter, looser, etc.) without luck, but I do have a couple of tattoo lines that cross the area. However, I don’t recall it being an issue until recently.

Do you happen to know of a way to turn off the auto-pausing? That’s the most irritating part for me, though I wish the HR tracker was more solid too.

I might test my other wrist, that one is clear of tattoos.

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Answer 4

ejokent Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 9, 2025 1:44 PM in response to Ingo2711

Thank you for the suggestions! I do have auto-pause off, but that seems separate from the issue I have. WatchApp -> Workout -> Auto-Pause is for when you stop moving during a workout (this was already off in my settings), whereas the problem I’m having is that the watch stops detecting my HR and pauses the workout because of no HR detection. It seems this function can’t be turned off for some reason.

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Answer 5

Ingo2711

Level 10

80,073 points

Dec 9, 2025 12:37 AM in response to ejokent

Wrist detection is enabled and there are no tattoos beneath the sensors?

I have to wear my watch 1-2cm further away from the wrist during workouts, because the weight of the watch pushes it towards the wrist, which will cause the sensors to lose the heart rate.

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