my apple watch keeps pausing during workouts

I understand the frustration. If I had tattoos on both wrist I would of taken the watch back to the store and got my money back and bought a Garmin or more reliable fitness watch.

Seems like Apple just love releasing overly complex technology and can’t seem to grasp the importance of reliability.

Hi

With Wrist Detection and Passcode enabled, check that you are unlocking your watch after placing it on your wrist and that you are wearing your watch sufficiently snugly during your workouts.

Tracking can be affected if your watch loses contact with your skin, causing it to believe that it has been removed from your wrist, leading the Workout app to pause.

A loose fitting band can trigger this by allowing your watch to lift from your wrist and/or by allowing clothing (for example, the end of a sleeve) to slip beneath the back of the watch.

Better contact with your wrist may also improve heart rate sensor performance during your workout.

Apple suggests that you consider tightening the watch band before workouts and loosening it again afterwards.

Sensor performance can also be affected by temporary or permanent changes to your skin, such as some wrist tattoos.

Workouts may also be paused or ended early due to accidental interactions with your watch's screen (including by clothing). To help prevent this, you can lock the screen during workouts (see the Workout app article below for instructions).

It can be normal for the Workout app to pause automatically during indoor and outdoor running workouts when you stop moving and to resume again when you start moving. To turn this feature on or off:

On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > Workout - turn on / off Running Auto Pause.

More information:

Use the Workout app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Your heart rate. What it means, and where on Apple Watch you’ll find it. - Apple Support

I just found this solution as I’ve been having the same problem. While it doesn’t fix things, it explains why they’re happening to me.

If you want it to Auto Pause a workout when you stop moving:

1)

Open the Watch app on your paired iPhone and navigate to the My Watch → Workout section.

2)

Slide the Running Auto Pause switch to the ON position.

“When this is on, indoor and outdoor running workouts

will automatically pause when you stop moving and resume when you start moving,” notes Apple.

If you leave this setting OFF, your workout will pause if you press both the Digital Crown and Side Button (like taking a screenshot). Apparently this happens to me when do push ups or other similar movements where my wrist bends and can press the buttons without my knowledge.

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<Link edited by Host as following the procedures at the site may lead to damage to the user’s device>

The fitness app is one of the only reasons to get the watch. Otherwise you might as well have a normal watch. It doesn’t do anything your phone can’t do and it was released to compete with the fitbit. So if the fitness tracker doesn’t work properly, I would say that’s the definition of something that doesn’t work well.

I play flag football and have a similar issue. During a workout/game, the workout will just freeze. I originally had the series 1 and thought it was the watch so upgraded to a series 3 but same issue. The only thing I can think of is my gloves probably get pushed up against the wheel/button and Pause it even though the screen is locked. Going to try and wear it up higher but does anyone know if pressing on the buttons together would pause the workout even if it is locked? This has been an annoying issue

I've been reading about this pausing issue for it feels like forever.

My Series 3 keeps on pausing no matter what workout i start. I've owned a series 1 previously, same there. Under Armour apps like Endomondo or Record are tracking just fine without any pausing issues. I can not understand how tattoos can affect the tracking process of my workout. My heart rate is found by the watch and displayed correctly. Can anybody at apple please explain why a workout should pause on tattooed skin, even if all heart rate data is picked accurately?

Thank you for your quick reply Jonathan. But, why is this only an issue in the apple workout app, and not in advanced fitness tracking apps (Under Armor Record) mentioned above? Obviously it´s more a bug then a feature. So that means I am stuck between tracking my workouts just fine with third party apps but not getting any achievements for my workouts in the activities app - or - using the built in workout app, hoping for my watch to detect me from time to time and not pausing during a workout? That's pretty frustrating, and more a software than a hardware issue - that could be terminated pretty easily imho.

Can the feature be turned off? Every time I overhead press it pauses the workout due to the my hand pressing on the Crown and side button.

So basically if you have tattoos you shouldn’t buy this product. I’ve been having the same issue with my watch , I didn’t know this whole time it was because of my tattos...

If you have tattoos, try swapping your watch onto the opposite wrist (if that wrist doesn’t have tattoos). This worked for me. Every workout I put it on the opposite wrist and swap it back after. Can’t use the watch during workouts without it auto pausing every 30second on my tattooed wrist.

Its so frustrating that there doesnt seem to be an answer to this. My Apple Watch Series 3 keeps pausing while I’m on a run. I’ve tried:

Turning it on and off again

Restarting my iPhone

Switching which wrist I wear it on

Wearing it high on my arm

Wearing it low on my arm

Loosening the strap

Tightening the strap

“Locking” the workout app

It JUST won’t stay on! I don’t understand why there isn’t a “lock workout” option? So that nothing can pause it unless you unlock it? Seems like a simple solution to a problem literally EVERY SINGLE FRIEND I HAVE who has an Apple Watch????

Wrist tattoos can affect the performance of the sensor on Apple Watch. This can lead your watch to believe that it has been removed from your wrist, causing workouts to be paused.

This can happen even if heart rate readings are being recorded.

No, it cannot.

It may help to wear your Apple Watch a little further up your arm and/or with the buttons on the other side:

To change the configuration: on your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > General > Watch Orientation > choose the preferred wrist and side for the buttons.

I have the Apple Watch 3 and I've had this issue as well. I use the high intensity interval training option 3-4 times a week while I am doing my boxing exercise (I am not physically boxing anyone, just using boxing as a exercise...it is really good and I recommend it to anyone). When I use my wraps, I wrap right my bare wrist in front of my watch and use the excess wrap over the face of the watch. The gloves is very padded and I haven't had any issues with shock absorption. I put the workout on Lock, so the wrap and gloves don't automatically pause the workout. For the last few months, I've been forced to take the gloves off and unwrap my wrist to see if the program paused, which it has done numerous times over the last 3 months. As you can probably tell, this is very annoying and sad since it doesn't calculate my results for 3+ minutes.

After some research, I think I discovered the problem: if the crown and side button are pushed at the same time, then that action will automatically pause your workout, even when the screen is locked. To me, this has to be the reason why my workouts are paused. I just need to discover a new way to wrap my wrist and watch to prevent this. I am also not sure if there is a way to deactivate this option...if there was, then I would do that instead.

Hope this helps.

I have the same issues and I just discovered that this is the case. If you push the Crown and Side Button at the same time, it will automatically pause the workout...even if the screen is locked.