Activity Tracking in Fitness App without an Apple Watch

[weepystamp565462311134252]

In iOS 16 you're supposed to be able to use the Fitness app to track activity/calories without an Apple Watch. But after updating my phone to the iOS 16 public beta and my Watch to WatchOS 9, the Fitness app still seems to only track activity and calories when wearing my watch. For example, if I go for a walk with my phone in my pocket but leave the Watch behind, there's no change to the calorie count in the Fitness app.

Maybe it's just a bug in the beta but has anyone gotten this to work?

 

[yoheywut]

Exact same thing for me. I haven’t worn my watch in a few weeks and the phone doesn’t track any of the rings.

 

[jkel777]

I was just gonna ask this. Same thing here. I was most excited about this as I could still hit my move goal and wear my mechanical watches when I don’t wanna wear the Apple Watch.

 

[Kashback]

Same here, left my watch at home and the Fitness app was non-functional as it was before in iOS 15. Tried a few things like turning on background app refresh and switching back on a few other location services but that didnt make a difference either. The Health app still tracked my steps but they were not being translated into the Fitness app.

 

[TimFL1]

This is afaik only for people without a Watch paired to their iPhone.

 

[jkel777]

Same here, left my watch at home and the Fitness app was non-functional as it was before in iOS 15. Tried a few things like turning on background app refresh and switching back on a few other location services but that didnt make a difference either. The Health app still tracked my steps but they were not being translated into the Fitness app.

This is afaik only for people without a Watch paired to their iPhone.

So basically, you have to NOT have a watch paired to be able to add to your move ring with your iPhone?

And will deleting the fitness app remove any of my previous historical fitness data?

 

[compwiz1202]

So basically, you have to NOT have a watch paired to be able to add to your move ring with your iPhone?

And will deleting the fitness app remove any of my previous historical fitness data?

I don't understand why it wouldn't be seamless. Keep the data synced, and use the watch to track if you only have the watch or have both, and use the phone if you have the phone but not the watch. Not everyone's work allows smartwatches, so I don't have my watch on workdays. It should use the phone then.

 

[TimFL1]

So basically, you have to NOT have a watch paired to be able to add to your move ring with your iPhone?

And will deleting the fitness app remove any of my previous historical fitness data?

Deleting the fitness app wont delete your data because that‘s stored in Health (make sure to have Health in iCloud turned on).

 

[jkel777]

Deleting the fitness app wont delete your data because that‘s stored in Health (make sure to have Health in iCloud turned on).

Unpaired my watch, removed it from iCloud, and deleted the fitness app and reinstalled it. Still didn’t work. But that might be because I had existing workout data for the day.

 

[k.alexander]

I had the watch and trial of Fitness+.
Watch is returned, deleted from my acct. Fitness+ subscription ended.
Fitness app deleted and reinstalled.
Still showing me all three rings (as if with a watch, of course they’re blank), can’t figure out how to get to the new “fitness app without watch” deal.