Apple watch exercise not counting

Apple engineers, you need to think about this like geometry. A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square.

Exercise is activity, but activity is not necessarily exercise. Very simple. Sheesh, if a lil' ole RN can figure that out...

Apple keep hiding behind their finger, they just using excuses cont to fix this long existing issue , it’s over due they just don’t want to admit fault with outdoor walk , the same exact thing happened with me and my 15 years old son , his BPM average over 120 his watch records perfectl , I average 80-85 bpm I got 1 minute recorded for every 30 minutes of walk ! I’m using runner keeper app , on my iPhone , at the end of Walk it sinks every activity perfectly, if Apple don’t care to fix this issue I will give up their watch !!!!

Continuing from my reply on 6th Sep. I tethered my phone to another phone and then roamed in India and the mins then counted fine, either tethered or roaming, although I think they were still a few mins short. I therefore conclude the phone needs to be connected to the web.

On returning to the UK mins could walks plus a few mins, probably from walking round the house and office.

As for Apple stating the heard rate needs to be more that 110-115 that doesn't seem right. Checking my walks i vary from 104 up and the all count as walks.

To those loosing mins do you all have good signal and actual data connections during your walks?

Also do your mins fall short on day 1 or day 2 of no connection? I think there's a buffer of 24 hrs in the fone following 'no signal' because if I walk in the UK with no signal it counts correctly but in those cases I did have good connection in the 24 hrs before the walk.

Today like many many days before , 44 minutes outdoor walk and 2 miles distance , the exercise ring marked 5 minutes only!!! Bpm Average was 98, according to Apple 98 bpm is not enoug to record this activity !!! What are we suppose to do ? Go to Cardiologist and ask for some medication to increase your heart beat , then and only then Apple concider your outdoor walk is really a legitimate exercise!!!! Ridiculous !! At the same time I had my Runkeeper app open in my iPhone recording the out door walk the same 2 miles and 44 minutes were completely recorded on the watch , thank you Runkeeper . Apple keep finding excuses 😂

Of course, Bpm is not pace , but in many and previous contacts with Apple , “ you need to have average heart beat ( Bpm ) of 110-115 in order for the outdoor walk to be recorded , and it’s true because in previous reply I mentioned walking with my 15 years old son , his Bpm was over 115 and recorded every minute of his walk , in mine I recorded 1 minute for every 15 minutes of walk !

Walking is a legitimate exercise, Apple should recognize that and fix this issue , thousands of people if not every one has this problem , in my house 1 out of 6 watches is ok !

Answering your question about signals and data connections, yes, I do to both, so that's not my issue, and I have good connections before and after as well. My husband has been walking at my side, and his is counting differently (and higher) than mine.

I have a new theory that I'm testing this morning, I'll come back to post results. I bought the stainless steel, and it seemed I had consistent results with the milanese loop. It seems that I only started to get wonky ones a few days in when I changed over to the woven nylon band with the buckle. On my wrist, I wonder if the hole I've used on the band is too loose for me, but the next one in is too tight so I can't use it either. I'm back to my milanese band today, which I can adjust to exactly the right tightness for my wrist size...and ensure the correct contacts with the back of the watch. So we'll see if that makes a difference today when he and I go walking.

I found the following to work for me. I rest the calibration

Reset your calibration data. Here's how to reset your calibration data: On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app. Tap the My Watch tab, then tap Privacy > Reset Fitness Calibration Data.

Then a hard reset of the watch. Then I had to start a manual outdoor walk, walked 20 minutes with phone and watch to recalibrate the watch and everything was fine after that [though you need to also recalibrate a 20 minute outdoor run as well]

ok, results are no change. We did a 34 min walk, the workout app says 1.79 miles, Ave BPM 130, ave pace 19'10"/mi. Exercise in the rings shows 10 min, where my husband's shows all 34 min! I think I'll engage support next, at least get it registered.

I’ve tried that Calibration thing before it did not work , now I just calibrated the watch as you said , I went for 30 mins walk , the result was 0,96 miles , average heart rate 105 bpm , average pace 20.49/mile which is 3-4 miles faster than my regular pace , time recorded on watch was 18 mins . Here you can say it did work, the Q is it gonna keep working if I do my regular pace 23-25 / mile ?

Let’s wait and see , I will update ! Thank you

I had my hands in my pockets because it was cold

That's part of the problem. Apple specially states you hands should swing normally and not to keep them in your pockets. Without that happening, the GPS could think you're on a bicycle or in a car.

The other part of the problem might be what so many of us are having— the rings aren't showing up when we think they should.

Apple is to blame on at least one count— they haven't explained exactly how exercise is measured and what is necessary to complete the Exercise ring. I'm guessing it's a combination of BPM, steps, and time. Is GPS a necessary metric? Would running in place with a high BPM count towards Exercise for an outdoor run? I don't know.

The Activity app does change the requirements for Move closure base on the previous week's average workouts. So as your state of fitness improves, the bar raises. This might explain why two people doing the same exercise for the same amount of time, etc., get two different readings. Certainly two, three, or four people don't necessarily burn calories at the same rate. (Calories are really only an estaminet at best. Our watches and phones can't accurately tell us how many we've burned; they can only give us consistent metrics, if we can believe them).

I think at least some of us may slow down and not meet the minimum requirements to close the Exercise ring during a workout. But without knowing exactly how our Exercise is measured, we can't even begin to figure out where the problem lies.

On The 29 of September I did the reset and calibration of the watch , 20 minutes walk , the watch recorded 18 mins out of 20 , ( not bad) bpm average was 105 , pace average was 20.49/mile . Today I did 45 mins walk bpm a erage 105 , pace average 20.52/mile , recorded 26 mins only out of the 45 mins !!! Apple should take care of this existing issue almost with every one !!!!

There are people having problems that probably require either resetting, recalibrating, both, or replacing the Watch.

But I think a big part of the problem is not knowing exactly how Apple calculates exercise minutes for any Activity, in this case Outdoor Walking.

The first thing to check is the basic accuracy of the Watch itself. Go for a walk over a known distance and known elapsed time. If these aren't correct on the Watch, nothing learned from it can be trusted.

Then do all the re-pairing, resetting, recalibrating. This should put you in the best possible place to judge its accuracy.

I think a big part of this problem is the general belief that any degree of activity should constitute exercise, and that believing so is flawed and misguided. Apple is trying to do two things— measure (and/or calculate) performance and drive improvements in performance. I don't know if other devices do the latter, but if so, likely aren't doing it the same as Apple.

While Apple follows the World Health Organization and others recommendation of a 30min 'brisk' (not slow or casual) walk as a productive exercise, it has some unknown standard that constitutes and generates an Exercise minute. That standard varies per individual based on their personal data and progress, in order to promote greater progress.

Apple recommends an average pace to achieve Exercise minutes, but I believe that is misleading. Apple has a hard baseline number, possibly different for each individual, that generates an Exercise minute. But does Apple use an average to calculate them. I'm not sure they do.

If they did, then a very long walk could easily work against the user. He/she starts out at a 'brisk' pace for 30min meeting or exceeding Apple's unknown standard and closes their exercise ring. But averaging results, as the walk progresses and the user tires, the pace and/or relevant metrics may drop which would lower the average and possibly affect the Exercise minutes. This is why I don't think averaging is used even though Apple recommends one.

It's my belief that they use a hard number calculated for a given user. Let's say that for a 30min walk, a user meets or exceeds that unknown standard for the entire 30min. Bingo, Exercise Ring closed. If the user exceeds that standard at any point, or for the entire 30min, nothing changes with regards to the Exercise Ring. Apple's Standard(s) met, Ring close. Boom. Their recommended 'average' pace is to keep them at or above that baseline without disclosing what that baseline is. That's my opinion anyway.

If at any point their standard isn't met, the user loses that minute or minutes, depending on how long they fall below the standard. As it's a matter of time, that minute or minutes can't made up by exercising harder over the remainder of the 30min period. They have to meet that standard by doing more time, more qualifying walking. So we have maybe 30min of Exercise over a 40min walk, and not 40min over 40min.

The longer the walk the harder it is to maintain that standard over the entire walk. At some point, the pace slows for most of us, and during that time we're not earning exercise points. There is the common belief that walking slower. longer is the same as walking faster over a shorter period. This is mistaken and probably the cause of a lot of confusion. In weight training, lifting more with fewer reps gives a different result (bulk) over lifting less with more reps (endurance), and that result varies with the individual. I believe that parallels walking fast vs walking slow. If that weren't true, walking long enough could make runners out of everyone.

I think Apple is pushing progressive aerobic development and that means no Exercise minutes just because you're moving or think you're moving 'fast enough'. Ergo, 30, 60, 90min of walking won't necessarily earn the same amount of exercise minutes. In aerobic development, all walking isn't exercise, only 'aerobic' walking is exercise.

All this is not to say there are no problems at Apple's end. There may indeed be hardware and software issues that need to be fixed. But with a perfect Watch and software, perfectly worn, some users may still be disappointed due to a possible lack of understanding Apple's implementation of Exercise vs Activity.

Thanks PodGui, I think in your last post and one a few back you hit on some really strong points. Here are a couple of observations from me. I wasn't able to get any consistency in my readings, so I had the Apple Store send my watch to The Depot for a complete reinstallation of software. They tested it and said everything was fine. I was a bit skeptical however since they turned it around in a day but thought "OK, I'll give it a try." They also said that I needed to give it 7-10 days to get used to me and my walking habits. I've kept a log, and the first 7 days it was so far off I wanted to scream. Days 8 and 9 I did something different...I walked faster. Not a lot, but for my usual route instead of completing in 33-34 mins, I did it in 28. Both days the watch was spot on. I haven't tested it against the workout app yet, I'm only testing it against clocked time, but theoretically it should match the workout app.

Here is what I'm thinking, which would line up with what PodGui said. When you first get your watch, you tell it your stats M/F, age, and if I remember correctly, current activity level. I had told it I was at a moderate level. Well maybe what I think is moderate, Apple would define as still somewhat sedentary and the target heart rate I was hitting wasn't high enough for someone whose baseline was moderate. When I walked faster, my heart rate went up a bit, hitting that higher limit, and started counting as exercise.

I'm going to try to redefine my current activity level down to sedentary, and then get back to my prior walking pace, which was actually a decent clip and got me an average heart rate at 116-121 BPM, and see if the exercise registers correctly then. I'll keep you all posted.

MrsMike, thanks for your informative post. I was pretty sure that age, weight, and possibly gender were factors in calculating Exercise minutes but completely forgot about the three difficulty levels.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's currently possible to change your Activity setting. Maybe if you set the Watch up as new? But a lot of information is stored on the phone, and if it's possible to revisit the Health app and make that change, you might lose all your previous data generated by the Watch. Or not, that's new territory for me.

A couple of days ago, I started doing my Outdoor Walk workouts a different way— one in the morning and one later in the day, each about half as long as the original one daily Walk. My first walk gives me 30 Exercise minutes for 30min of elapsed Walk time. I continue on until my Exercise min are 10min behind my ET. Then I stop my workout and head home at a cool down pace. My second walk is much the same but head home after closing the Ring because I'm quite tired by then. Wholly arbitrary, but the takeaway for me is that my daily Exercise minutes are very close to my total daily Walk minutes, and I'm far less frustrated.

For my breaking up the one long walk into two bite-size chunks is the only way for me to meet my October Challenge. While I'll continue to do my daily walk workouts, I'll be passing on some of the Monthly Challenges as they seem to be asking more of me (and I think they very with individuals!) than the Holiday Challenges, and that's a lot for me to give.

Hang in there, MrsMike. Don't beat yourself up! 🙂 I feel better and sleep better (unfortunately, not longer) because of the Watch. I'm using the Feedback link a bit now, making what I hope are reasonable suggests and requests. Maybe Apple will see them in the same light!

You are correct, you can't change it. I did a bit of searching online and wasn't able to find out how. so tried impairing it and setting it up as a new watch. I knew it would pull the old data back in in terms of the prior walks, but I couldn't remember if it would let me set up new parameters for myself or not, and unfortunately it doesn't. I would have been ok losing that prior data, as I haven't had the watch that long, just to get it working correctly. On the other hand, it's also possible that all it needed was 7-10 days of consistency. I'll keep tracking my results for a while, and what variables I'm throwing at it, to see what I'm getting. Worst case I go back to the store and make them send me a replacement, in case the accelerometer is bad.