You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Apple Watch "Activity" and "Activity Rings" do not record proper time or calories

I noticed before that it seems like maybe Activity is designed not to let you "cheat", for example if you start a workout and then just sit on the couch it doesn't log minutes, which it probably shouldn't. But also if you do a workout and forget to stop it until it prompts you or even just have a few minutes of inactivity before you stop it, it will recognize a 30 minute workout as 9 minutes, for example. Very annoying and buggy.


Today I went for a brisk 36 minute jog and made sure to stop the workout immediately at the end of the workout. The Activity Ring shows 6 minutes. Why? Everything else recorded the workout accurate. All my apps that read from Apple Health show a 36 minute workout. Apple Health shows a 36 minute workout including my path on the map. However apps the read Apple Health also show two line items "Active Energy" only 6 minutes and 35 calories plus "jogging" 36 minutes 312 calories shows. This is double counting because the whole thing was 36 minutes, not 36 + 6. This is obnoxious and annoying. Even more ridiculous, a watch notification popped up and said "congratulations, you've worked out 7/7 days this week" so it is detecting the workout (obviously, I started and stopped it manually).


Is there a fix?

Posted on Jul 26, 2022 9:35 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Similar questions

3 replies

Jul 27, 2022 1:31 AM in response to Community User

That's all setup correctly. Pretty lame that Apple's poor programming over-rode my workout. I wasn't still for even a second and my heart rate was up. It also tells me my VO2 max is 31 and "below average", if that were true even thinking about standing up should get me into a zone that qualifies as "exercise". How can I be both way below average in cardio vascular fitness and able to go for a jog up and down hills and not get a heart rate high enough to qualify as a "brisk walk".


That's all good and well for auto-detecting but if you are doing a workout and you're moving it should not over-ride and say it's not a workout.


"Every full minute of movement that equals or exceeds the intensity of a brisk walk will count towards your daily Exercise and Move goals. With Apple Watch Series 3 or later, your cardio fitness levels are used to determine what is brisk for you. For wheelchair users, this is measured in brisk pushes. Any activity below this level will only count towards your daily Move goal.

To make sure you earn Exercise credit during walks, allow the arm you're wearing your Apple Watch on to swing naturally. For example, while walking your pet, let the arm with your watch on swing freely and hold the lead in the hand on your other arm.

If you need both hands while walking, for example to push a pushchair, you can still earn Exercise credit with the Workout app. Open the app on your Apple Watch and tap Outdoor Walk. The Activity app relies on arm motion and an accelerometer to track movement, but the Workout app can use the accelerometer, the heart rate sensor and GPS."


As for walking or running outside for 20 minutes, I do that almost every single day and the watch now has more than a month of data for that.


Will try resetting the calibration data.



Apple Watch "Activity" and "Activity Rings" do not record proper time or calories

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.