Apple Watch - workout app freezes

Fully agree apple need to sort this! To me it seems the cause differs depending on the series of watch. I myself have series 2 and none of the suggested workarounds have made any difference. I wonder if series 2 being discontinued means they have not investigated the issue on that model, as others here are seeing slight improvements over time, mine is not changing at all!

I've tried everything to get this issue to stop.

I've unpaired the watch from the phone, ive removed all apps from the dock, Ive made sure the phone is connected still via bluetooth but it keeps lagging bad, so much so that the lights on the back remain constant green and none of the watch functions will work, the entire watch freezes. considering the workout function was the sole reason i bought the watch this is pretty terrible, it feels like Apple are deliberately doing it so im forced to buy the watch series 3.

my current watch is series 1 by the way.

My theory is the same as well. Apple slows down the watch deliberately on every software update so you eventually have to buy a new one.

I have a series 1. It isn’t a battery issue like how they slow their phones... because I recently got a brand new replacement watch from Apple. But the problem is still there. Some times I just gave up and started working out without the app, because it completely freezes up.

One thing is for sure, I will never invest in a new watch until this is fixed... I won’t be tricked into buying an upgrade if that’s what apple thinks.

I had this problem for ages, tried all the suggestions, nothing worked, so I called Apple Support. They got me to completely unpair the watch. And by un-pair I don't mean just disconnect bluetooth, I mean completely unlink the phone and watch (ie. go into the Watch app on your phone, select the watch, click on the "i" icon, then select un-pair Apple watch).

Once this is done, you then need to re-pair it, and what this does is completely re-install all the apps etc from your phone, onto the watch.

This solved the problem and my workout app has been working fine ever since, no more freezing. Hope that helps someone.

I just started having this problem a little while after installing 4.3.1 on S3 (no LTE).

Workout app would freeze upon opening and then be responsive 10-20 seconds later, another symptom was my battery life had decreased. I wear the watch overnight (sleep tracking) and it has a 100% charge before bed. In the morning it would be sitting at 94-96% consistently then this problem arises and it started sitting at 80-84%.

I also noticed that when I checked the Usage section in General settings (first thing in morning) of the Watch app on the phone it was saying that watch was active for ~5 hr and standby of ~9 hr. This has been going on for at least a week now.

So today woke up and watch is at 95% charge, usage is 25m, 9 hr standby and Workout app is completely responsive no lag?

The only thing that I can recall doing differently yesterday was installing 3 apps to the watch ( and checking that they worked after install). So I'm wondering if somehow some previous app install was stuck in limbo i.e. trying to install but not quite getting there and thus constantly putting a drain on the CPU and battery and interfering with Workout app being able to start up quickly. Just a theory but perhaps my installing the other apps kickstarted it?

I have been experiencing this issue since day one with my Apple watch 0 and now with my Apple Watch 3 Nike edition. With every apdate I was hopping this issue will be fixed, it's been almost 4 years now. I give up,

I might switch to fitbit and solve the problem once and for all.

Hmm not sure how to link to a previous post but I'll give it a try...

Re: Apple Watch - workout app freezes

You're welcome - best of luck! 🙂

Same here. It started recently on wOS 4, probably since 4.2

Same issue, suddenly started about 5 weeks ago. Apple?

the same for me. Since 4.0 or 4.2 the Workput App needs aprox. 30 sec to start and react to userinput. Everything else is quite slow .... not a nice experience 😟

Greetings greg,

You know what, you are definitely onto something with the recent app setting. I changed the dock to favorites and I haven't had the freezing issue...