Starting an exercise - or thinking that you did only to find out you didn't.

deborahfromlaurel wrote:

starting an exercise - ios 26.3 - WHY is it so difficult now? I pressed the green button to start, spent an hour or more only to come inside to end the exercise and find out it didn't start. I also have a habit of ending exercises early and there was a nice fix for that, but you took it away.

"you took it away" -- that's misdirected since the only readers here are other users. To communicate and send feedback directly to Apple use this link https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch/

I use two types of workouts, outdoor walks and outdoor bicycling. For each, I push the small green arrow and the watch provides audible confirmation and counts down 3-2-1 and then the workout starts with elapsed time ticking. I've never had a workout fail to start, and in fact once I forgot to push the green start arrow and a few minutes later the watch asked me, "you appear to be in a workout, do you want it to be recorded?"

You can also use Siri to tell it to start a workout.

If you check for the audible and visual confirmation that the workout has started there should be no issues.

It is always worth looking at the watch 10 seconds after starting to ensure the numbers are ticking up.

You must be setting some sort of timed exercise otherwise "ending early" makes no sense.

If you want to be reminded that you appear to have stopped the workout then iPhone, Watch app, My Watch tab, Workout, Reminders, End workout, on.

Start Workout in the same settings will detect walks and runs if you did not start a workout and offers to start one.n

Also if like most people you carry your phone with you, since iOS26 you can start a workout in the Fitness app, and the action is far more obvious.

You can also use Fitness if you don't have a working Watch, so third party workout apps are no longer needed by watchless users (or if like me the Watch is away for repairs for 4 days)