I Went for a 20 minute outdoor walk today using the Workout app, with my phone GPS on And I didn't get credit for even one minute. I had my hands in my pockets because it was cold but given I was using gps, shouldn't it have given me credit in the exercise ring?
So I did end up going to the Genius Bar, and showed them all my data. They agreed it was odd, and sent it to The Depot to have the software reloaded and retested. They sent it back after doing so and said it tested fine. This time, they did tell me that it could take 7-10 days to "learn" my habits, so I should make sure to give it that much time. I gave it a full 14 days, but was having the same issue. I was about ready to bring it back and tell them I wanted a new watch, when I decided to try one more thing in desperation.
I blew up ALL the data. I had to kind of play around and figure out what order to do stuff in, but ultimately I think it's this: You unpair the watch from the phone first, then you restart the watch, and go to the watch settings and reset it so it gets reset as if it's new from the factory. It will say "are you sure you want to delete all of the data from the watch?" and I replied yes. I also deleted the watch app and the activity app from the phone, then shut down the phone and restarted it. After that I erased all content and settings on the phone...yep. Desperate! I did try to remove the watch from the phone without doing that, but it seemed like it kept the data in the phone and wouldn't accept the reset. What's really weird tho, is that I did a restore on the phone data from a back up, and it pulled the watch app back in, but not the data. Anyway after I FINALLY cleared out all the crap data, the watch has worked like a dream. My actual activity time has been spot on every single time from the very first day, down to the minute.
There may have been an easier way to do this, but at least it works. Too bad Apple couldn't get to this solution with me.
Every point you’ve mentioned in this post is accurate, that’s what’s been going on with me , on and off , outdoor walk might give me 18 minutes out of 20 or can give me 2 minutes out 30 mins of walk , couple days ago I did about 45 minutes outdoor walk 2.03 miles average Bpm was 97 and average pace was 22’25”/M , recorded ring was 0 ( very confusing) thanks to Runkeeper again ,it did record the whole 45 minutes , again today first 20 mins I recorded 12, 93bpm , average pace 20’51”/M , distance 0.96M , then I tried 24mins 49 “, 98bpm , average pce 20’44”/M distance 1.19M recorded on ring 7 minutes only !!!! Inconsistency , no logic whatsoever, I think Apple should look at this issue closer and mange work with calories burning based on the conditions of the exercise and the individual , no matter what is the time duration, this shouldn’t be touched , I liked your post because it’s exact analysis for the issue , I’m gonna bring my watch to Apple to make my point effective 😄
Congratulation on fixing your Watch!
I think the key to your success was getting corrupted data off your phone. The Watch stores data on the phone. If you could have removed the Activity app without nuking your phone, that might have been enough.
Apple does let us offload some factory apps. And now with iOS 11 you can off load them without losing data. That probably would not have helped you, so it's important to know that you've actually deleted potentially corrupt data.
With the way Apple, the latest iTune 12.7.x and iOS 11 treat apps now, it's not surprising we're reluctant to nuke and pave the phone, but sometimes that's the only answer.
Glad you got it all worked out though.
KirkF, I agree with the problems of the rings. It doesn’t log outdoor walks on the rings, my wife is on her feet all day (a nurse) and constantly up and down but goes to bed at night with only 5 stands!!, and I, who do nothing all day start off with 4 stands when I wake in the morning (slept all night) and have 16 at days end!
I use the workout app for brisk evening walks, but a couple of days ago went for a 8+ km dog walk around a nature reserve which took over 1.5 hours (without using the workout app) and was only credited 9 minutes, even though I had 11k steps and it showed the correct distance! How can it get the distance and steps reasonably correct but think you’ve not the exercise?
I have this same issue and it straight up ticks me off - actually makes me want to go back to my Fitbit for activity tracking but who wants to wear two devices? For example I walked 30 minutes this morning with my dog which was not any type of record setting activity but we consistently WALKED at about 3 mph for 30 minutes, i.e. did not stop for 💩 or anything, and my Apple Watch registers only 17 minutes of activity. I am irritated. Not every day is a run day for me and not every day is super intense activity but I would like an accurate record of my exercise (not as concerned with calories captured here). Pairing the watch again doesn’t seem to have fixed the issue. Help?!
Totally agree. I just want it to measure exercise, irrespective of how fast or slow I walk. I’m a reasonably fast walker so when I walk much slower, it gives, as you state, lower minutes of exercise than actually did.
Am glad I’m not the only one!
You may find it helpful to review my previous reply in this thread, which also explains (at the end) how workouts can be recorded via the built-in Workout app whilst receiving Exercise credit for every minute of the workout (although note that Distance is not recorded for Other workouts):
Wow. Not the type of helpful response I was expecting from the Apple community. Thanks for judging my lifestyle which you know zero about. Perhaps I can coming back from a serious illness and ALL activity is an accomplishment and should be recorded and celebrated. Perhaps a lot of things . . . I am truly shocked by your critical reply.
I Am in a similar situation, but think I can add some additional details that may be helpful. For the first month of use with my Apple Watch Sport, my exercise was relatively predictable: a few brisk walks between my home/car/office during the day and a long dog walk at around 6pm to meet my exercise goal. For the most part this remained unchanged other than some yard work. I hit my exercise goals doing this level of activity without issue.
however, this past weekend on Sunday I went on a long hike with my wife and daughter. I used the workout app for an outdoor walk and since I was carrying my daughter in a frame on my back, my heart rate was much higher than usual for an extended period of time.
Since that walk, I have found it very difficult to get the watch to recognize any exercise at all. It's almoat as if I confused it, and it thinks my heart rate needs to hit a higher base level for it to start counting towards my goals. My same daily routine above barely registers towards my daily exercise goals.
Alex, this stock Apple answer is not helpful.
I've counted at least 40 people on the forums with this issue.
The Apple Watch is not registering any distance or speed in any workout despite following your instructions.
We need some response from Apple as to whether this is hardware or software before the refund period has expired.
I reported the problem to Apple and they said the fix is this:
Make sure the iPhone and the Apple Watch are both running the latest software. UNPAIR the watch from the phone and they pair again as a new Watch (not from backup).
I did this fix just today and it seems to be working better. Later today I am going to test out the Outdoor Walk feature to see if it works better.
I would like to add this:
I just called Apple support and they think they will have to replace my watch but before that, the person I talked to will ask the engineers if there is something I can do. I also asked the following question: On what criteria is based an intense activity (the activity app will register the 30 minutes of the green circle for each minute of activity intense enough like a brisk walk or something more intense). Is it the speed of the walk or run or the heart frequency that matters? If it's the speed of the walk or run, I can't grow longer legs to walk faster. If it's the heart frequency, that's different.
Anyway, if I walk slower one day and my heart doesn't go as fast, but I walk 90 minutes, that should count. That's what I did the other day and it registered as 10 minutes in the green circle of the activity app. That is frustrating!
I also said to apple support that I'm not the only one with the problem, there are at least 40 other people having the same problem.
I'll keep you posted when I will get a call from Apple.
I'm having an interesting problem myself. The first few weeks, I had success with using the exercise app for running and walking. Having my phone in my at all workouts. I always used the "no goal" since I just wanted it to record my stats as I run a fixed loop in the neighborhood and walk a fixed loop at lunch around the buildings. Then 2 days ago something strange started happening. I'd exit the building at lunch, choose outdoor walk - no goal, and hit start. As I began to walk I checked my watch and noticed that after about 6 minutes, I had hit 22.78 miles! I had to cut my walk short of course, I was getting tired after such a long distance in such a short time.
I thought this a little odd. So I took these pictures.
Yesterday, I went out and did the same thing. This time I started walking and kept looking at my watch. 10ft, 20 ft, 50ft, 6.5 miles, 6.6 miles. this was after about a minute of walking. All the other stats seemed reasonable, but the mileage varies.
I stopped the tracking. I deleted it. I went to fixed program of 1.1 miles (which evidently was my longest walk it remembered). I turned that on and walked the mile or so, and it was fine.
This morning I went out for a run (first time in a week) and I started w/no goal. I ran to the end of my street and my watch buzzed and I looked down and I was at 55miles. Call me Flash. I stopped the watch, went to the fixed distance (that I know it is) and hit 2.8 miles as my goal. I ran the rest of my loop. I know the various points along the way that it used to say "buzz...1 mile...buzz 2 miles." and it did neither. I had run almost the 3/4 of my loop and it said I now was only at .48 miles and when I was done I had only done "50%" of my workout. So I ended up saving that. Mind you the activity app knows that I did something from about 6:30 to about 7:05 at a decent intensity, but the green ring only showed that I did a bit of my workout. sigh.
When I got back home I figured that something was amiss, so I reset erased and re-paired the watch to my iPhone. I restored from backup. Today about 2 I went to do my 1 mile lunch loop and the watched warned me that it needed 20 minutes of activity to calibrate. ok. I set it to the no-goal setting was still a mess after about 50 feet. 11 miles or something like that. I stopped and discarded it, and then I set it to a 1 mile fixed target. it seemed to work ok. unfortunately it hasn't synced that activity back to the iPhone yet (ya'd think it would be almost immediate). So I looked on my watch and it also says that I only did 3 minutes of exercise (although it does say that I walked 1.09 miles).
I like a lot of the other features of the watch...but I'm starting to miss my fitbit.
Having the same problem with the Exercise ring not recording the correct minutes of exercise. Went for a walk using the workout app "outdoor walk" - walked for 40 minutes at a brisk pace - got my heart rate up - and the exercise ring minutes only recorded 23 minutes. Sort of discouraging when you are trying to meet that goal - have met it - and the watch won't record it. I can use Runkeeper as well - it records the proper minutes, distance, etc, but the apple Excercise app just won't do it. Had my watch for a couple weeks and have only 'ringed out' a couple times - even when I know I have exceeded the 30 minutes. Bummer!
I see you joined today - welcome!
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Apple watch exercise not counting
