Apple watch green activity ring not working

I also have the same problem! Today I worked out on the treadmill for forty minutes and even entered it as an indoor run. After my workout it states on 22 minutes of exercise was done. This is just one of many issues I have found with this watch.

I'm on my second Apple watch, but unless Apple gets this fixed, it will likely be my last. For the last two weeks or so a 30 minute treadmill workout that ends with me dripping in sweat is only 10 minutes of "exercise." I've tried all the standard Jonathan UK type solutions--even unpairing my watch and setting it up as new--and nothing helps. Very frustrating. My wife's iPhone has been displaying Messages out of chronological order for almost six months with no fix from Apple. I'm not sure what's going on with this company, but I don't like it that much anymore.

My partner and I both brought apple watches to replace trust worthy Garmin devices. We are too both very frustrated by this bug.

My watch seems to be working just fine awarding me exercise credit whenever I use the workout App. I get full credit for walks, any exercise.

However my partners watch has the same problem as listed in this forum. She will go to the gym for 45 mins, uses the workout app. During that time she runs on the treadmill, cross trainer and comes back sweating. The workout is recorded with high heart rate but she is only awarded 10-15mins of exercise credit.

Whenever we walk the dogs we start the activity app at the exact same time, her watch always shows less distance measured by GPS and never credits her more than a few minutes exercise. Mine however gives me full credit. With our Garmins the distances were always the same or no more than 0.05 miles difference. Our apple watches vary by anything from up to a mile!

Last weekend I wore both apple watches and my old Garmin. The Garmin measured the distance exactly what we walked however both apple watches were different. I got full exercise credit and she hardly got any.

All settings an iPhones and watches are exactly the same.

I've literally tried all solutions from the apple support site, other support sites. I've spent hours resetting, setting up as new to no avail.

One thing for sure is we are seriously considering switching from Apple. The quality of the software being released has been frustratingly sub standard. I never minded paying more for an apple product before because of the quality of its products and well thought out and well designed software.

Apple you need to sort this out!

I am also having this same problem 40 mins high intensity cycling high heart rate consistantly recorded all fine on the heartrate app but the apple watch only shows 2 mins of activity yet on a day where i feel i have done nothing it will rack up 30 /40 mins when you check back to heart rate on those days there is no significant elevation

I have recalibrated as suggested several times its not that its used to me beng active as until recently i have done very little. Apple please sort this out. I dont want to have to swap back to a fitbit for workouts its stupid and disheartening

Is there a work around? If i tell the watch im older/ young or heavier/lighter can I fool the watch into reading correctly that way?

I have the same issue. Had my watch for over a year and it’s just started to fail on the exercise rings. I went for an hour brisk walk this morning. It recorded the steps and kms and yet I got like 4 minutes in the green ring. So annoying. If they’re going to stuff up th software with updates to try to make you upgrade watches like they do with phones I’m going to be so annoyed. Grrrrr.

Has anyone found a fix yet?

Hi not a fix as such but being pretty grumpy with it’s response the day before I didn’t bother to select a workout when I went for a cycle the next day did exactly the same router same speed and got full credit of excercise time. So before you do anything you have to decide if you want to notch up credit for a workout OR exercise minutes.

Not good enough apple sort the software

This is clearly a bug that Apple must address. My series 2 Apple watch worked fine until a few weeks ago when it suddenly stopped giving any credit for work outs on the Exercise Ring of the Activity App, even though all the work outs are recorded in the Activity App as work outs with accurate durations. The information is simply not flowing from the watch to the green exercise ring. The only work out that now flows reliably is if I select "Other", which only tracks minutes. I get no distance, or any other helpful metrics displayed when using the "Other" workout, so this is all worthless. Users have been complaining about this for over a year. I've done ALL the suggested measures- just a huge waste of time. The problem is a software bug in WatchOS that is blocking information from being passed from the work out apps to the green exercise ring in the Activities App.

I was just on the phone for an hour with a senior advisor at Apple Care who told me the exercise ring was never supposed to work while on a treadmill, because the GPS is not registering any movement. The fact that it used to work was a flaw, he said. My watch was just replaced with another one that works fine outside, but does not register any exercise inside. WTH Apple???

Wow - it’s been a year since this thread was started and we’re still having problems. I’ve only noticed it just today, though. My husband and I went for an almost 45-minute walk where I averaged 138bpm and burned almost 120 calories... and I can see all of this info in the actual activity app, but my green ring is only showing ONE MEASLY MINUTE OF EXERCISE! We have the original Apple Watches, and I thought that was the reason, but seeing others with newer watches and the same issue means it’s definitely on Apple’s end. When will they fix this?!

Same issue. It won’t record stairs either! I walked and gained 55 feet in elevation, but not stairs. It completed the ring while I was walking, but a half an hour later, it took ten minutes away!! So irritating. I thought it would be better than my Fitbit, but now it’s just a very expensive watch.

I have the same problem. I had a series 1 and recently upgraded to series 3. I thought upgrading would correct the issue. The outdoor walk always gave me less in the green exercise circle than the actual exercise shows. I just completed a 33 minutes walk and I was credited with 2 minutes of exercise. I can see the walk details in the activity app on my phone. It clearly shows 33 minutes. I don’t understand why Apple can’t address this. This thread is a year old and the advice given by the “expert” isn’t even relevant to the actual issue. I’m truly disappointed and really unmotivated.

I’ve had my Apple Watch for 2.5 years – My green ring stopped working properly a month ago – mid June 2018. Very annoying.

My husband and I began walking to work in May. He bought a refurbished 3 in February. His green ring didn’t stop working last month like mine did, neither did my daughter’s, who bought a 2 less than a year ago.

Okay, here’s another one. It changed by it self to othe,dis not move the ring or show calorie burn on the health app. I pushed my strollor with my right hand and instead of swinging my left arm this time I bent it and moved it back and forth like they show in weight watchers.

Tomorrow I am going to set it to run like someone suggested. What do y’all think?

But this has nothing to do with excercises / workouts 😪 It’s an issue of activity that the watch is collecting in background - the 3 coloured rings, of which the green has stopped working for a vast amount of people including my girlfriend who has brand new S3.

It works fine on my S2.

I have been very frustrated by the same issue and had no success resolving it. At least not until today, I suspect that my issue isn't the same as everyones because it was such a simple fix. However, I thought I would share what I did that fixed mine, just in case. My Watch app on the phone ~ General ~ Workout Power Saving Mode ~ turn it off. That was it. My exercise ring closed right on time when I was at the gym this morning. I hope this works for someone else.