Health App not possible to add new data and no Favorites in the Dashboard

Question

Level 1

9 points

Health App not possible to add new data and no Favorites in the Dashboard

I have an iPhone 5s with iOS 10.2.1 and I have always used the Health App to track key indicators.

Some of them with a manual input (weight, body fat percentage), some automatically (steps) and some through linked apps (e.g. calories from MyFitnessPal or sleep time from Sleep Cycle).

It has always worked fine until a couple of days ago when I found out that the sleep time was not stored and also that I couldn't add manually the new values for Weight and Body Fat Percentage.

Also, I found some issues with the Favorites feature: I had previously set up to have in the dashboard the Weight and the Body Fat Percentage, but they are not there anymore.

When I activate for any indicator the "Add to Favorites", it goes to the Dashboard, but when I exit the Health App and get in it again, the Dashboard is empty and the "Add to Favorites" toggle in the Indicator is lost.

I already read multiple discussions and tried many solutions (turn the iPhone off and on, "hard reset" (pressing Home and Start button together until Apple logo appears) and few minor ones), but with no results.

iPhone 5s, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Feb 28, 2017 6:06 AM

Reply

Answer 1

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Feb 28, 2017 7:27 PM in response to M Ca

Hello M Ca,

Thanks for asking the Apple Support Communities for help with your Health app. I understand how important it is to have this data synced and tracking. Thanks for letting me know what was tried already too. You did not specifically mention if you have force quit the app, restart the device, then reopened the app and tested. Doing this in this exact order can resolve quite a few problems. If necessary, use this help article to show how to force close the health app: Force an app to close on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch .

If you still have issues, since we are unable to delete and reinstall the Health app, the next step will be to reinstall the iOS. We can reinstall the iOS using this help article: If you can‘t update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch . This step will not erase your data. Please pay close attention when you reach step 4 which says:

When you see the option to Restore or Update, choose Update. iTunes will try to reinstall iOS without erasing your data. Wait while iTunes downloads the software for your device. If the download takes more than 15 minutes and your device exits recovery mode, let the download finish, then repeat these steps.

Once your iOS is reinstalled, test if the issue or issues are still occurring. Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 2

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Mar 1, 2017 12:09 PM in response to M Ca

Hello M Ca,

Thanks for continuing our troubleshooting here in the Apple Support Communities. Also, thanks for trying our steps and letting us know the issues remain. Now that we have reached this point, I am going to recommend you get a full system backup. You can make a backup in iCloud or iTunes using this article: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch . Since we are discussing Health data, we must make an encrypted backup, as that is the only backup that saves such data like the health info, passwords, Wi-Fi settings, and website history. You can read about encrypted backups here: About encrypted backups in iTunes . I highly recommend using a password you normally use, OR making it the same as your login password for your computer, the Apple ID, or writing it down because as stated in the article:

There is no way to recover your information or turn off Encrypt Backup if you lose or forget the password.

Once you have your iPhone data backed up, we will need to restore your device back to factory settings using iTunes. This option will erase all the data on your device, which is why I recommended an encrypted backup above. Please ensure you have your backup completed prior to doing this step. The reason we need to use iTunes to do this step is because we need iTunes to help install a fresh version of iOS. This help article will assist you: Restore your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to factory settings . Please ensure you set the device up as new, and do not restore any information from any iCloud or iTunes backups yet. Not even the encrypted backup. This will isolate the issue and let us know if it is related to the iPhone hardware or not.

Once the device is set up as new, you will test to see if the Health app is functioning properly. If this issue is no longer happening, we know the issue was with some data on the device or in the iOS version, which will most likely be saved in your backups. You can manually bring data back using iCloud or iTunes, but do not restore from the backup as you will bring the problem right back in. Once you log back in to iCloud with the same Apple ID that you used previously, all your data saved in iCloud will start repopulating on the device. Depending on whether you have a Mac or PC, you can use one of these two help articles to assist you in getting your music and other data back to your device from iTunes:

1. iTunes 12 for Mac: Sync iPod, iPhone, or iPad

2. iTunes 12 for Windows: Sync iPod, iPhone, or iPad

You can also redownload fresh copies all of your previous purchases using this article: Download your past purchases . Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 3

sterling r

Community Specialist

Mar 2, 2017 1:44 PM in response to M Ca

Hello M Ca,

Thanks once again for continuing our troubleshooting here in the Apple Support Communities. We are happy to hear that the Health app is working properly again. As stated above, the only way to preserve the health data is in an iTunes encrypted backup. Since the issue was not resolved when we reinstalled the iOS through iTunes, and it required us to restore the device to factory settings and set the iPhone up new, there is a possibility that the issue is within the health app data, or elsewhere in the backup. The only way to restore the heath data, is to restore the data from that backup. We can attempt to restore the backup to restore your health data, but this may bring the issue back in as well. We are happy to try this with you though.

The steps to restore your iPhone from the iTunes encrypted backup are in this help article: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup . If you have added any new data, contacts, pictures, etc., you may want to make a fresh new backup of your device prior to restoring.

Once you restore, the iPhone will restart, and your data should all be back. Test if the health app is still working properly. If it is and everything is good, then we are happy to have been able to assist you with this.

If the data returned, but the issues with the Health app did also, then the issue is within the backup, and we will need to restore the device to factory settings and set the iPhone up new using iTunes again, as we did in the reply before this. Then, you will need to manually enter in the data, as described in this help article: Use the Health app on your iPhone or iPod touch under the section titled "Manually enter health data".

Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 4

M Ca Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 1, 2017 9:59 AM in response to CarlAVII

Thanks Allen for your quick reply.

I had already tried the "force quit the app" procedure that you described in the first paragraph of your message, but in any case I tried again: still with no results.

I have then reinstalled the iOS using iTunes as described: the Update was successful and the data were not erased, but the issues still remain.

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Answer 5

M Ca Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 2, 2017 3:01 AM in response to chuck_3rd

Thanks alex_h1 for your reply.

I have restored my iPhone back to factory settings using iTunes and after that the Health app is functioning properly.

Now I would like to recover the data that were in my Health app before the reset".

In your reply, you wrote: "You can manually bring data back using iCloud or iTunes, but do not restore from the backup as you will bring the problem right back in. Once you log back in to iCloud with the same Apple ID that you used previously, all your data saved in iCloud will start repopulating on the device."
I didn't restore the backup and I have connected my iPhone to the iCloud with the same Apple ID, but no Health data is repopulating; how can I bring these data back?

Thanks

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Answer 6

M Ca Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 7, 2017 10:33 AM in response to sterling r

Thanks sterling r for your reply,
I am also happy that the Health App works properly again and I can consider the issue solved although it's been a bit complex to solve it.

I have decided not to restore the data from the encrypted backup because as you and the other contributors mentioned, it could bring back the same issue.

I would add manually a (very) selected subset of the old data that I can recover from the backup of the linked Apps.

Maybe it already exists and I am not aware of, but I would only suggest to Apple (or to some developers) to provide us with a way to massively upload data to the Health App (e.g. from an Excel / csv file; maybe also allowing to access the Health App through the browser via iCloud similar to the Photo App).

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Answer 7

VHAJR

Level 1

105 points

Aug 15, 2017 12:10 AM in response to kaitreni

This is Apple's go-to fix for EVERYTHING: Wipe the phone and restore. I keep finding Health data toggled OFF -- my Jawbone Up recorded data for a while... then it mysteriously stopped. No indication the access had been denied by the Health app. A "wipe and restore" will NOT fix this! No matter what Apple thinks. There's no way to import my sleep info, and months of data is missing.

This is unacceptable.

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Answer 8

jec0249

Level 1

4 points

Oct 31, 2017 12:57 PM in response to VHAJR

I agree completely. What good is a health app if you're only going to eventually lose all the data you've entered. I have this same problem, but fortunately I've only lost a small amount of data. Guess I'll find some other way to be "healthy".

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Answer 9

kaitreni

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2017 2:50 PM in response to M Ca

I've been having the same issue. It's unacceptable to me that wiping the phone and abandoning all previous data is the only way to fix this. Time for a new app.

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