Apple Suggests Restoring iPhone and Apple Watch to Fix Excess Battery Drain or Missing GPS Data

[zippster]

I have restored my wife's phone , factory reset and re-paired her Apple Watch 3 and still no GPS data

I have now ordered her a Series 6 AW, but I dont think this will resolve the issue either! as my friend had this issue and upgraded her S2 AW to a S6 SE and still has the issue.

mine however never had the issue, I received my S6 nike Wednesday and unpaired my S4 and paired my S6 with no issues. I think the bug is IN the heath app data not the watch

COME ON APPLE!

 

[mm4e]

For what it's worth, I spoke with an Apple Tech "Mike" about this issue. I did the unpair, backup, restore, repair, etc. process as recommended in the published guidance but my step counts and move ring stopped.

Here is the fix...

Keep in mind the process Apple recommends in the guidance will NOT restore the lost data GPS data. In fact, workouts where I didn't take my iPhone were lost in their process but the exercise minutes and move data remained seemingly accurately. Their fix is about fixing it for future workouts, not past workouts.

After the restore, as I mentioned my steps stopped being counted and move ring stopped. Stand hours continued and I was able to capture additional exercise minutes with a workout but the calories from that workout did not show in the move ring at all.

I was having the same problem with the move ring, step count, and missing workout calories. I happened to go through the process around 10pm so it wasn't as big of a deal for me (aside from ending the day 40 cals short of my move goal, there goes that streak ), but the problem went away literally as soon as it hit midnight. Of course no way of knowing if that's the case for everyone, and obviously it would be way more frustrating if I went through an entire day with that issue, but I'm really glad to know there's a fix - and I'm VERY jealous I didn't know about it sooner! Could've kept that streak in tact...

 

[za0uk]

If you are now seeing GPS tracks recorded on watchOS 7, has anyone looked closely at them? I have a Series 3 on watchOS 7.0.1, paired to iPhone X on 14.0.1, and after un-pairing and re-pairing the watch it is recording tracks with either Apple's Workouts or third party apps (I use iSmoothrun) - however the accuracy is really poor, with drifted tracks as well as 'skips,' fast/slow movements that I didn't do, and even 'zig-zag' patterns showing presumably the watch isn't able to calculate or hold good GPS data.

Everything was fine on watchOS 6 & iOS 13.

Spoke to the Apple Health support team today and all they could suggest was the full 'unpair/reset phone/reset watch' combo - I'm skeptical this will help because I can see this is happening whilst on the walk/run itself, done without the phone - and not linked to downloading the data to the phone - as the on-watch display for distance will skip noticeably.

Intrigued to hear other peoples' experience? One thing's for sure - wish I'd not done the updates.

 

[mm4e]

I have restored my wife's phone , factory reset and re-paired her Apple Watch 3 and still no GPS data

I have now ordered her a Series 6 AW, but I dont think this will resolve the issue either! as my friend had this issue and upgraded her S2 AW to a S6 SE and still has the issue.

mine however never had the issue, I received my S6 nike Wednesday and unpaired my S4 and paired my S6 with no issues. I think the bug is IN the heath app data not the watch

COME ON APPLE!

It's definitely an iOS 14 problem, not a watch issue. Is your wife missing all historical GPS data or just the data from workouts recorded after iOS 14? I successfully restored everything and it's back to normal, I'm still missing GPS from anything post-iOS 14/pre-restore, but everything pre-iOS 14 came back about 12 hours after restoring. The Fitness app was stuck on "Downloading data from cloud" (or whatever it says) forever.

 

[zippster]

If you are now seeing GPS tracks recorded on watchOS 7, has anyone looked closely at them? I have a Series 3 on watchOS 7.0.1, paired to iPhone X on 14.0.1, and after un-pairing and re-pairing the watch it is recording tracks with either Apple's Workouts or third party apps (I use iSmoothrun) - however the accuracy is really poor, with drifted tracks as well as 'skips,' fast/slow movements that I didn't do, and even 'zig-zag' patterns showing presumably the watch isn't able to calculate or hold good GPS data.

Everything was fine on watchOS 6 & iOS 13.

Spoke to the Apple Health support team today and all they could suggest was the full 'unpair/reset phone/reset watch' combo - I'm skeptical this will help because I can see this is happening whilst on the walk/run itself, done without the phone - and not linked to downloading the data to the phone - as the on-watch display for distance will skip noticeably.

Intrigued to hear other peoples' experience? One thing's for sure - wish I'd not done the updates.

I and no doubt many others can confirm I have performed a complete factory reset and restore on my wife's iPhone 11 and AW series 3 and the problem still exists.

 

[jose.g404]

Ok so I’ve been having ridiculous battery drain issues with my iPhone XR, and was so bothered by it that I actually gave this a shot. Went through the trouble of restoring my iPhone back from scratch and as a result having to unpair and pair my Apple Watch as well.

At first it seemed like the battery drain was resolved. About an hour after charging the phone to 100% and no use of the phone it was at 100%. I went to sleep and woke to an 85% charge. But two hours and a half later the phone is at 38%.

So in short, this method does not work

Note: According to the battery health thing my battery is at 93% and it’s functioning properly.

 

[MJ22]

If you are now seeing GPS tracks recorded on watchOS 7, has anyone looked closely at them? I have a Series 3 on watchOS 7.0.1, paired to iPhone X on 14.0.1, and after un-pairing and re-pairing the watch it is recording tracks with either Apple's Workouts or third party apps (I use iSmoothrun) - however the accuracy is really poor, with drifted tracks as well as 'skips,' fast/slow movements that I didn't do, and even 'zig-zag' patterns showing presumably the watch isn't able to calculate or hold good GPS data.

Everything was fine on watchOS 6 & iOS 13.

Spoke to the Apple Health support team today and all they could suggest was the full 'unpair/reset phone/reset watch' combo - I'm skeptical this will help because I can see this is happening whilst on the walk/run itself, done without the phone - and not linked to downloading the data to the phone - as the on-watch display for distance will skip noticeably.

Intrigued to hear other peoples' experience? One thing's for sure - wish I'd not done the updates.

Yep, issues, even after the whole restore process. I went for a run yesterday and I did get a map. However, the start point it recorded was almost a quarter mile up the road. My mile markers were noticeably off. So something is going on.

 

[deeddawg]

At first it seemed like the battery drain was resolved. About an hour after charging the phone to 100% and no use of the phone it was at 100%. I went to sleep and woke to an 85% charge. But two hours and a half later the phone is at 38%.

What's the battery-usage-by-app show as the likely culprit app? (Settings->Battery and scroll down)

 

[Toni Helton Collins]

Help! Im a new apple watch owner. Just got mine yesterday! But its draining my iphone battery. I don't know what to do? Im reading the suggested solutions within this thread but Im worried about restoring my phone. I do have Icloud backup but still nervous. Should I wait a bit and see if Apple comes out w/ a fix?

 

[Expos of 1969]

Help! Im a new apple watch owner. Just got mine yesterday! But its draining my iphone battery. I don't know what to do? Im reading the suggested solutions within this thread but Im worried about restoring my phone. I do have Icloud backup but still nervous. Should I wait a bit and see if Apple comes out w/ a fix?

Return your watch and be thankful you got out early. How long have you had your phone? Is it still in the return period as well?

 

[Toni Helton Collins]

Return your watch and be thankful you got out early. How long have you had your phone? Is it still in the return period as well?

No, my phone is the 6S lol! I really got the watch to track my activity/calories burned.

 

[Expos of 1969]

No, my phone is the 6S lol! I really got the watch to track my activity/calories burned.

May be safer to wait a bit.

 

[bottsjw]

Also ... if you're using it ... be sure to re-enable "exposure notifications" on your iPhone after the back-up restore. I just realized that my local region was no longer selected. 🚫🦠

 

[GeekyGrannie]

Help! Im a new apple watch owner. Just got mine yesterday! But its draining my iphone battery. I don't know what to do? Im reading the suggested solutions within this thread but Im worried about restoring my phone. I do have Icloud backup but still nervous. Should I wait a bit and see if Apple comes out w/ a fix?

I would advise taking baby steps: give it a day or two to see if it settles down. Then rather than going for the "full Monty" right away, try just a simple unpair, power cycle the phone, and then re-pair the watch. This fixed a runaway battery problem on my watch. YMMV

 

[Apple_Robert]

So each time I restore my phone I need to re-enroll in my office BYOD program that goes trou multiple approvals. So its utterly idiotic of Apple to give this as a solution.

I shall write Apple on your username behalf and tell them, that they need to come up with a new solution to address the overall problem, because the current solution is an inconvenience for you with work.

 

[MJ22]

Yep, issues, even after the whole restore process. I went for a run yesterday and I did get a map. However, the start point it recorded was almost a quarter mile up the road. My mile markers were noticeably off. So something is going on.

Reporting back. Went for another run and the map was A-OK. It was a warm up on streets, then a track workout, and cool down on streets. I have to say the track laps mapped out very accurately and the distance on the watch matched up the the distance I knew I’d run on the measured track. I’m very happy now. Fingers crossed no more issues.

 

[Jerry Carrier]

We need a new update. Perhaps iOS 14.2

NO DO NOT DOWNLOAD 14.2 BETA. You will lose iWatch faces in the process. And it will force iWatch 7.1 beta and it can’t be removed unless you go directly to an Apple Store.

 

[Macyourdayy]

Just curious - serious question.

The cited procedure is functionally the same process we follow when we buy a new generation iphone and prepare our old phone for resale or trade in. The difference being only that the restore occurs on the same phone instead of the new one we've just purchased.

So if you feel this is damaging, counterproductive, messes with iCloud and important data, just what exactly are you planning to do instead when you next buy a new phone?

When I was complaining about crappy Bluetooth and gps on my pro max, I got the set up as new speil. I gave in an did it, and of course nothing changed, except after running that way for a couple of weeks, I lost important messages and other data as I must assume it was being overwritten. I can’t remember now, but the usual choice of backup dates when trying to restore from the cloud seemed to be unavailable and I was furious for allowing myself to be talked into the Microsoft “solution”.
Normally when setting up a new phone, the cloud restore works as close to perfect as I could hope for, even restoring the app versions I was running, rather than a “latest” version.
Sorry if my rant was unclear. The whole “setup as new” deal as a default for troubleshooting might be convenient for the Genius, but likely to be problematic for the user, especially if it’s actually a hardware issue.

 

[TAL74]

So an update... Having reset & restored both iPhone + Watch, GPS routes are now being recorded again and showing up in the Fitness app (although the GPS failed to 'lock' for about the first km; hopefully that's just a one-off). HOWEVER, my historical route data has NOT returned. And heart rate data is also missing from the majority of the entries. Not sure if the data is still stuck on iCloud but it's been 48 hours, so I doubt it... ☹️

Is there any way to see if Apple Health is still actively syncing with iCloud?

 

[MJ22]

So an update... Having reset & restored both iPhone + Watch, GPS routes are now being recorded again and showing up in the Fitness app (although the GPS failed to 'lock' for about the first km; hopefully that's just a one-off). HOWEVER, my historical route data has NOT returned. And heart rate data is also missing from the majority of the entries. Not sure if the data is still stuck on iCloud but it's been 48 hours, so I doubt it... ☹

Is there any way to see if Apple Health is still actively syncing with iCloud?

My GPS did that for my first run out - only about a quarter mile though, but it showed my start point as that far up the road.

I ran again with it last night though, on a track, and the route was as good as its ever been. The red part near the top is where I started my cool down after finishing on the track (I only paused it, so no start pin) and that was my exact parking spot. On the track, I ran in lane 1 so I’m really happy with how the mapping looks. As far as that straight cut across the one turn, I’ve had a weird interference with GPS in this spot with every watch I’ve ever used here so I am not worried about that (I run the Workout app in the background anyway, and use the stopwatch function for the actual workout).

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Well, - still holding off on 14, Wanting to update - if I had issues, Fine I'll try the fix today.
After checking in to see how THIS "solution" would turn out.

Just forget it...I'll remain on 13.7 until Apple figures out the nonsense. This is just flat out stupid.

 

[bottsjw]

So an update... Having reset & restored both iPhone + Watch, GPS routes are now being recorded again and showing up in the Fitness app (although the GPS failed to 'lock' for about the first km; hopefully that's just a one-off). HOWEVER, my historical route data has NOT returned. And heart rate data is also missing from the majority of the entries. Not sure if the data is still stuck on iCloud but it's been 48 hours, so I doubt it... ☹

Is there any way to see if Apple Health is still actively syncing with iCloud?

Yes. If Apple Health shows a recent backup to the cloud it is syncing. You check the status of the recent backup by going to Health, tap your avatar and scroll to the bottom.

As I mentioned in a prior post, you will not get your historical route data. The fix of backup/wipe/restore is to fix the issue going forward. I lost all the workouts that were watch only. The move calories and exercise minutes were there but the workout data and route were deleted after the restore. You can add those workouts back manually with an entry if you want your green dots back.

 

[IrrationalMan]

I made an account here so I could post a warning to other people about this "solution", and also register my disgust and anger at Apple.

I followed the instructions given by Apple. Yes I did it correctly.

The result is I lost years of data, both activity data and health data.

The workout I just completed does not appear on the fitness app.

THIS SOLUTION DOES NOT WORK. WORSE, IT CAUSES FURTHER DATA LOSS.

Apple, you should be ashamed at the quality of your products lately.

edit: Apple Watch 4, iPhone X.

 

[trashmac]

I am not experiencing the battery drain problem but I all my workouts have had GPS data deleted and my Activity and Health apps are showing data that doesn't match up with the data on my watch.
The main issue for me is that I have completed all three rings for 1106 days (trying to keep it up during lockdown was a real effort) and so I don't want to risk losing any data.
It sounds like some people have ended up with gaps in their data - I'd be pretty disappointed if that happened.

I think for now I am going to live with it and hope that Apple manages to sort it out (although given their current stance I am not hopeful).

 

[Special-Ed]

Apple dropped the ball pretty hard on this one. I got tired of the inaccurate health/fitness data so I wiped and restored both of my devices (XR and series 4). While it seems to have fixed the issues it also wiped out all of my gps data. Every mountain bike ride, run and hike from the last four years are gone. Last Apple Watch I’ll ever use...