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.
I am having the same issue, but only with the Outdoor walks. I walked for 35 minutes today, and the app is showing 16 minutes of exercise time. this has been happening for a few weeks. It calculates about half the time I actually exercise on outdoor walks. One user suggested just using "other" so I'll guess that will have to do.
I Just read this today and may have found a solution. I too was frustrated with this and even sent watch in to apple and had it checked out. They said it was all good. i did however find a setting that changed the logging of the exercise ring. I golf 18 holes and walk it and I didn't get hardly any measurement on the exercise ring but today it did
Here is the setting that I changed. Go into your watch app - go to workout app - look for Pace/Speed View setting and change it to average. Today while golfing I logged 4 hours of exercise
I wanted to report another datapoint of running into this defect with newer hardware and software than the original poster. I do this to provide evidence that whatever fix Apple has attempted for this issue has not fully resolved it.
Hardware/Software:
iPhone 6S Plus, 128GB / iOS 10.0.2 (current as of my posting)
Apple Watch Edition, Series 2 / watchOS 3
Initial setup was done at the Apple Store using their setup wifi in Pudong, Shanghai, China.
Chose English as language, region as United States (which has to do with unit display formatting, as I understand it), and install all apps. Ran to completion at store, played with for another 10 minutes before leaving to see if I had any initial questions. So things were definitely "completed".
That evening and next day tried to do outdoor walks in open areas for extended period of time, no distance ever recorded.
After reading posts here, I unpaired and setup again at home, this time changing a few options:
Chose English as language (same), region as China (different), did not install all apps (different).
Distance tracking has now worked correctly for last three days. For those with a series 2 watch, it should not take 20 minutes to determine if distance tracking is working--I went outside right after re-setting up and distance tracking worked within mere meters using outdoor walk as the activity (thanks to GPS).
Hope this helps others who might still be seeing this issue even with recent hardware.
You can calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of your distance, pace, and calorie measurements. Calibrating your watch can also help it learn your fitness level and stride, which improves accuracy when GPS is limited or unavailable. Calibration can also improve the accuracy of your calorie calculations in the Workout app, and the calorie, distance, Move, and Exercisecalculations in the Activityapp. Above is the list of basic troubleshooting, if your Apple Watch still does not track your complete activity then one of the users on Apple forum has a temporary fix which many users have found to be working.
www.imore.com/apple-watch-activity-tracking-5-tips-you-need-know
I have had the same issue since I first bought the watch. I have followed the steps you listed multiple times, with no consistent results. My watch this morning recorded that I walked 1.24 miles, but that I only exercised for 3 minutes! I know I'm not that fast!
I have an Apple 2 that I just received in November. It has been tracking my activity beautifully, until two days ago. Now I'm encountering this problem too of it not clocking my "Exercise" activity correctly. Neither yesterday nor today does it go past 5/30 min. I went 2.21 miles this morning in 5 minutes -- I was flying and am going to find a race to do this weekend!
Very frustrating Apple. I expect better. I don't see a reasonable fix to this. May take it in this weekend just to make the point again to Apple that this is their problem, not ours. It can't possibly be a calibration or rate of movement issue, as it was working/tracking fine until 2 days ago. I didn't get faster/slower. I did, however, travel, and am wondering if perhaps the change in time zone or GPS coordinates may have set this off? Anyone else start to have trouble after traveling?
The app was working just fine. The watch tracked perfectly at home Florida and over Thanksgiving weekend in Boston. It stopped working properly when I just did a software update to 10.2. It now has stopped tracking properly. It tracks the 1st minute and last minute but nothing in between. I too had all the same issues as noted in 2015 and early 2016. One of the updates fixed the issue and it started tracking properly and now this update must have undid something they fixed Does Apple review these notes? If so, can someone at Apple look to see what changed in the upgrade to stop it from working properly.
This does NOT work. I tried unpairing twice, just in case the first one didn't work. Haha! The activity app literally is the main reason I purchased this watch. It doesn't track my workouts or mileage. Very frustrating. Please fix this glitch.
Ditto. Unpaired, paired. I get to around 30 seconds and it pauses. I kept hitting the pause and after about 12 tries, it kept counting to 15 minutes (out of a 20 minute walk due to the pauses). I started thinking maybe it's because my watch isn't on tight enough and therefore is pausing because it is not detecting my wrist as well. Made it tighter on that last attempt at the pause button. Will test again later, but this is a possible solution if anyone else wants to try it. I find it interesting that this is happening exactly one year after purchase. Absolutely no issues till now. Apple needs a fix or this user is switching to Fitbit.
I have found that one hour of walking, even when swinging my arms from my head to past my hips in back, equals about one minute of Apple exercise. It will be impossible to get 30 minutes of exercise per day like this.
Tahoe, that made me lol. On my third repairing today. Have the day off to track this issue. Nothing changes. Goes into Pause on its own after 25-35 secondS in either Outdoor Walk or QuickStart. I wonder how many rings will fill up if I throw it as far as I can? I'm over it. It's going back to Apple with a long letter. Worked great for alost a year. It better still be under warranty.
I'm having the same problem. I chatted with an Apple support rep and did the unpair/pair and reset calibration data and Outdoor Walk doesn't give me exercise minutes. If I walk and do nothing with workouts, I get exercise minutes. I'm very disappointed with the Apple Watch as this is one of the key factors in moving away from the Fitbit for accuracy.
Just received my Apple Watch at the end of December. At first I had difficulty with the stand ring crediting me. I followed a fix a found on the internet which I think was pair/unpair. Unfortunately, I have had difficulty since day one with the exercise ring completing. My daughter received an Apple watch as well. We can do the same activity for the same number of minutes and she completes her ring but I do not receive credit for the activity. She is a fit 19 year old young woman. I am 50 not in as fit as she is. It would seem I should get credit for the activity since I am not as fit as she is and my heart rate is more elevated for the same duration of time.
First day and I am so dissapointed! I worked out for 40 minutes in a gym and it was a hard cardio work out- apple watch is telling me I had 4 minutes of exersise. And I burned 120 calories in the whole day. What?!?!? How could this be true?! And how can I fix it.
lovecybercat, I hear ya. I have had this problem on series 0 and series 2 watch since day one. Very frustrating when I have a robust 1-hour walking workout and get one minute of "apple exercise."
I have stumbled on a sort of cheat, but since my posts have been banned as not being helpful, you may never see this. There is an app that while engaged will put you in straight exercise mode. You can workout, or take a nap, and it will count as exercise. I am not a cheater and I only use it when I have clocked a good workout with no "exercise."
i notified the developers of this "bug" months ago, but no change. Whatever.
Apple watch exercise not counting
