Activity Ring not recording workout

Hi

If your exercise intensity levels are unchanged and, after switching your Apple Watch to a new iPhone, you are earning different amounts of Exercise credit, then the following steps may help, having resolved the same issue for other users:

Check your personal information:

• The definition of a brisk walk (the minimum equivalent intensity level for activity to earn Exercise credit) varies by person and depends on your personal information. To check that this is accurate:
  • On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > Health > Edit - tap and adjust items, then tap on Done.

Check your Location Services settings:

• On your iPhone, go to: Settings > Privacy > Location Services:
  • Check that Location Services (the main setting at the top) is turned on.
  • In the list of apps beneath, check that Apple Watch Workout is set to While Using.
  • Also enable options under System Services including Motion Calibration & Distance, Wi-Fi Networking and Mobile Network Search.
  • If the settings are already enabled, try briefly turning them off and then back again.

Reset your existing calibration data and recalibrate your Apple Watch:

• Calibration can improve the accuracy of estimations made by Activity app and Workout app.
• More information and instructions are available via the link below:
  • Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support
  • Resetting your calibration data can be equally as helpful for Series 2 & 3 models and will not erase your Activity history.

Check that you are wearing your Apple Watch sufficiently snugly on the top of your wrist:

• If your Apple Watch is worn too loosely, it can believe that it has been removed, causing activity to not be tracked.
• For the best performance from your Apple Watch - including the most accurate readings from the heart rate sensor, which is used continually during workouts - be sure to wear your Apple Watch snugly (but not too tightly) during your workouts.
• Apple suggests tightening your Apple Watch band before workouts and loosening it again afterwards:
  • Wearing your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Record workouts under Other for full Exercise credit:

• If you would prefer to receive Exercise credit for the full duration of workouts, regardless of their estimated intensity levels, then track them via the Workout app using "Other" as the activity type.
• This will credit one minute of Exercise for each full minute of the workout. Active calories will be estimated at a rate equivalent to a brisk walk or based on data recorded by the heart rate sensor, whichever is higher.
• However, note that neither distance nor a route map are recorded for outdoor workouts under this workout activity type.

More information:

Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Work out with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

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

The following further steps may help:

Close certain apps and restart both your iPhone and your Apple Watch:

• Close the Watch app, Activity app and Health app (if open) on your iPhone:
  • Double-click the Home button, then swipe up on each app preview to close the apps.
• Turn both devices off together, then restart your iPhone first:
  • Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support
  • How to restart your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If the issue persists, then it may help to unpair and re-pair your Apple Watch:

• The Watch app on your iPhone takes a backup of your watch automatically when unpairing via the app.
• Initially choose to Restore from Backup during set up (most data and settings will be restored, with some exceptions, such as Apple Pay cards, passcode).
• If the issue persists, consider instead unpairing and setting it up as a new watch.
• Unpair your Apple Watch and iPhone - Apple Support
• Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If the issue still persists, then - given the steps that you have already tried - I suggest that you contact Apple Support (remote diagnostics and/or mail-in service may be available, if required), make a Genius Bar reservation or visit an Apple Authorised Service Provider for assistance:

• US: Apple Watch Service Answer Center - Apple Support
• Elsewhere: Apple - Support

Sglemarbe wrote:

I have tried everything you suggested nothing has worked ..

As previously advised:

Jonathan UK wrote:

.. If the issue still persists, then - given the steps that you have already tried - I suggest that you contact Apple Support (remote diagnostics and/or mail-in service may be available, if required), make a Genius Bar reservation or visit an Apple Authorised Service Provider for assistance:

• US: Apple Watch Service Answer Center - Apple Support
• Elsewhere: Apple - Support

Note that you are not talking to Apple here - this is a user-based technical support community.

See my first reply, including the final paragraph beginning "Record workouts under Other for full Exercise credit:"

I have the same issue, except that mine is a 3-week old Series 3 Watch that's only been paired with a 8 Plus. In addition, the issue is not calibration nor tightness of watch nor Location Services, as the Workout app has all the information on my 21 minute walk today. All data is there, distance, heart rate, pace, etc. However, the Exercise ring in Activity refuses to add the 21 minutes. The distance via a walk is shown at the bottom of the Activity screens, if you scroll all the way down.

If I told it I did a walk for that time, why wouldn't it add it to the rings?

You implied in your first response that the workout had to be strong enough, brisk enough, to qualify. Where is that setting so I can turn it off? If I record a walk for a certain time & distance I don't need the watch to interpret whether it was exercise or not - *I* determine that.

My Fitbit Charge 2 has a choice for walk and it handles the data automatically with no fuss. I'm confused why the Apple Watch can't do the same.