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

Special-Ed said:
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...
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I mean...what’s the big deal? I’ve been running for 26 years. I didn’t log a darn thing for the first 14 of that. To this day I still use a word document to log my workouts.

Did they drop the ball with this update? Yes, I absolutely agree on that. Is it the end of the world because you can’t look up your bike ride from July 5, 2017? No.

I’m kind of a purist and I get downvoted for it a lot on Reddit. People are so overly focused on data. Data they don’t even use or don’t know how to use. For running I need time, pace, and distance. I use the stopwatch function for track workouts and let the workout app just run in the background for total mileage. My advice: stop being so reliant on a device. Run, cycle, whatever you do by feel and effort. Truly learn what paces feel like and what it naturally feels like to take a little speed off or put just a little on without relying on a device spitting out a number at you.

Sorry, rant over!!
 
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Suggestion - never trust important data to a single repository.

RunGap works well to sync workout data to external locations.
 
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In lieu of going through this nightmare, risking losing stuff, could you simply wait 'till the next Watch OS update?
 
MJ22 said:
I ran again with it last night though, on a track, and the route was as good as its ever been.
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I'm jealous! Here's the latest track from a walk I did (I've drawn in blue the actual return route I took) which looks more like a Jackson Pollock painting.

iPhone X on 14.0.1 / GPS Series 3 on 7.0.1 / watch only "Outdoor Walking" workout tracked via Apple Workouts app:
IMG_6971.jpg
 
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I was going to do what Apple suggest but find that now, since iOS 14 my iPhone will no longer sync with iTunes. Most of my music is my own collection and not from Apple so wiping my device would mean losing all the music from my phone. Great
 
mm4e said:
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.
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I find the activity, awards and workouts all fine and up to date on my Apple Watch Series 6. My awards progress is on the watch and correct. According to the iPhone I have done no workouts since iOS 14 and made zero progress on my awards. For me this is the worst iOS update since Apple Maps (which is still pretty useless). I still won’t touch an Apple Music subscription after it completely changed all my correct album artwork with the wrong artwork, even the wrong artist. I’m beginning to think it’s time to ditch Apple.
 
I did a full restore of my phone and re-paired my watch, but my runs are still not mapped. Not the end of the world, but a bummer when you're training. Let's hope an update cleans this up soon.
 
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I've done the whole process, and still lacking all GPS routes for the last 4 years. Like everyone else.

It seems people think the process can bring lost data back. But the support article doesn't actually support that notion:
"If you updated to iOS 14 and watchOS 7 and are missing Activity or Health data, learn what to do to prevent future data loss."
 
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Finally tried restoring and it did nothing. Still only 50% of my activities are syncing and no GPS data attached. I just went for a run and cool down walk logged as separate activities and only the walk synced (and only shows my starting point) to my phone but both activities show on the watch. Absolute quality work by Apple :rolleyes:
 
Here's my experience. I have an iPhone 11 Pro and an S4 watch.

I updated to iOS 14 on the day it came out. The watch wouldn't update from 6.2.8 to 7.0 so I installed a beta profile. It then updated. I had terrible battery drain issues, although the workout I did (outdoor run) was logged and vo2 Max was calculated.
Due to the battery drain, I researched on how to correct this. I unpaired/re-paired the watch many times. Nothing worked so one of the options was to set up the watch as a new device. I therefore wiped the watch, set it as a new watch. This caused problems. GPS didn't work and vo2 Max wasn't calculated. I unpaired/re-paired, nothing worked.
I followed the advice from Apple re unpairing watch, resetting iPhone, restoring from backup (I used my Mac instead of iCloud) and then re-pairing the watch from a backup.
My latest attempt is to restore from the last backup that registered vo2 Max, from 22nd September.
I've tried beta profiles on both he watch and iPhone - I cannot get the vo2 Max to be calculated. In Data Sources in Health - the watch is not shown, I'm guessing that's why I'm having the issue.
I echo most other people here, in that Apple really messed up with this update. Really unprofessional. I'm still hoping that I can get the vo2 Max to work at some point. I suppose the only sliver lining is that I haven't lost any of my historic workouts.
 
I did a reset and restore from backup. All historical maps appear to only include the start point and are still missing GPS data. This appears to be confirmed by exporting my health data and looking at the files.

New workouts are saving GPS data. Very frustrating if all that data is lost and cannot be brought back. But realistically, it's not like I went back and reviewed all my running routes.
 
za0uk said:
I'm jealous! Here's the latest track from a walk I did (I've drawn in blue the actual return route I took) which looks more like a Jackson Pollock painting.

iPhone X on 14.0.1 / GPS Series 3 on 7.0.1 / watch only "Outdoor Walking" workout tracked via Apple Workouts app:
View attachment 962865
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lol that's wild. You should send it to Apple, maybe they can use it in their next Keynote when they show their impressive artsy pictures :p
 
deeddawg said:
Rather depends on whether one has a Series6 Apple Watch on order... requires iOS14.
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This is part of what makes Apple's "fix" so insane to me. I've been an AW user since the S2 and have an S4 right now. But if I were a brand new AW user/first time buyer and bought it for the fitness features touted and this were my user experience I'd be returning it. Not a great first impression for new watch users.
 
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wineandcarbs said:
This is part of what makes Apple's "fix" so insane to me. I've been an AW user since the S2 and have an S4 right now. But if I were a brand new AW user/first time buyer and bought it for the fitness features touted and this were my user experience I'd be returning it. Not a great first impression for new watch users.
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The problem is in iOS14 - not the watch. So if your experienced the issue after updating the phone upon receipt of the new watch, returning the watch won't accomplish anything.

It also doesn't affect everybody - I updated at 14.0.1 upon arrival of my S6 and haven't had any issues.

Sucks for the folks who have had issues, and maybe with 14.1 the issue won't recur. Not sure what will happen with the folks with corrupted activity databases though. With all the beta testing performed it's strange the problem wasn't detected. Did it somehow not ever affect beta testers? Did they not notice it? Certainly not an auspicious start for ios14.
 
deeddawg said:
The problem is in iOS14 - not the watch. So if your experienced the issue after updating the phone upon receipt of the new watch, returning the watch won't accomplish anything.

It also doesn't affect everybody - I updated at 14.0.1 upon arrival of my S6 and haven't had any issues.

Sucks for the folks who have had issues, and maybe with 14.1 the issue won't recur. Not sure what will happen with the folks with corrupted activity databases though. With all the beta testing performed it's strange the problem wasn't detected. Did it somehow not ever affect beta testers? Did they not notice it? Certainly not an auspicious start for ios14.
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I realize it's with iOS 14. I just mean that if I were a new AW user who was affected I'd probably return it altogether because I wouldn't be able to make use of the features I'd purchased it for, especially since the S6 requires iOS 14. Not that I'd exchange it hoping I'd have a better experience with the next one.

Fortunately I didn't lose any old activity data. My main issue has been lack of GPS route data, etc. when running since updating. I was excited for iOS 14; but as you said it did not have the best start. I did just update to 14.1 so I'm hoping that that GPS issue may have been fixed! I'll give it a test run (literally) this week.
 
wineandcarbs said:
I realize it's with iOS 14. I just mean that if I were a new AW user who was affected I'd probably return it altogether because I wouldn't be able to make use of the features I'd purchased it for, especially since the S6 requires iOS 14. Not that I'd exchange it hoping I'd have a better experience with the next one.

Fortunately I didn't lose any old activity data. My main issue has been lack of GPS route data, etc. when running since updating. I was excited for iOS 14; but as you said it did not have the best start. I did just update to 14.1 so I'm hoping that that GPS issue may have been fixed! I'll give it a test run (literally) this week.
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Kudos for proper usage of affect vs effect. :p

Just curious - do you have the same GPS track issue using the just the phone as using the watch?

I do hope apple is able to provide a fix that doesn't involve folks clobbering their data. I'm not too confident though - if the bug created database corruption, that may not be fixable with an iOS patch. I hope it is for the sake of those affected, I'm just not super confident of it.
 
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deeddawg said:
Kudos for proper usage of affect vs effect. :p

Just curious - do you have the same GPS track issue using the just the phone as using the watch?

I do hope apple is able to provide a fix that doesn't involve folks clobbering their data. I'm not too confident though - if the bug created database corruption, that may not be fixable with an iOS patch. I hope it is for the sake of those affected, I'm just not super confident of it.
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Haha, thanks! I actually haven't tried tracking GPS with just the phone. I usually run with the watch alone, but I will try tracking with the phone on a walk out of sheer curiosity!

I'm not optimistic that a patch is coming either, unfortunately. I'll test GPS tracking with just the phone, because now that you've brought that up I am curious whether it affects outdoor workouts tracked specifically using the phone (and I do realize my situation could have been worse; I didn't lose old Activity data at least and the only real issue I've had is the lack of GPS maps. But since the majority of my workouts these days are outdoor, I'd like to be able to have that GPS information without using a third party app!).
 
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jbachandouris said:
This is why I have and STILL use my Garmin Forerunner 235. I have never ever had a problem with my routes being saved or my data. When I do a run, even on a treadmill, I wear both.

I REFUSE to wipe both of them. Not happening. Hopefully, a software update will fix this as this 'solution' is beyond ridiculous for a company that previously used the tagline 'it just works.'

:(
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Yup I am on your team. I had the GPS problem so just stopped using Workouts, using Strava instead. Works fine, but with the AW6 noticed that my HR spiked. Before, with my AW3, my HR would be around 135-150 when I run. Now with the AW6 it was around 170-180. It did not feel that high. I could have a conversation and run for 90 minutes at that HR.

Today I broke out my old 235, put that on one wrist and put the AW on the other. Garmin had my average HR at 133. AW at 170. I just realized this is the bug.

I too am not going to wipe stuff. I have 10k songs on my iphone, So not happening.
 
deeddawg said:
Just curious, what happens to those 10k songs when you next upgrade to a new phone - or your current phone goes goes up?
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I VOLUNTARILY redownload them all over three days via iTunes match, because I have to redownload everything anyway -- that goes into the decision to get a new phone. But it's such a pain in the ass I am not going to do it to fix a damn bug.
 
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wineandcarbs said:
Haha, thanks! I actually haven't tried tracking GPS with just the phone. I usually run with the watch alone, but I will try tracking with the phone on a walk out of sheer curiosity!

I'm not optimistic that a patch is coming either, unfortunately. I'll test GPS tracking with just the phone, because now that you've brought that up I am curious whether it affects outdoor workouts tracked specifically using the phone (and I do realize my situation could have been worse; I didn't lose old Activity data at least and the only real issue I've had is the lack of GPS maps. But since the majority of my workouts these days are outdoor, I'd like to be able to have that GPS information without using a third party app!).
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I have used Strava on the phone AND Strava on the watch and the GPS on both is fine except for bad HR data on the watch.
 
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