Apple Watch activity rings filling while I do nothing

[Inked]

Over the last couple of days my Apple Watch activity rings have started to fill randomly when I’m doing nothing. It’s started happening since updating my iPhone to 12.1.4 and is even happening when the watch isn’t on my wrist.

I noticed that the green lights on the heart rate sensor were lit up while the watch had been laying on my bed while I got dressed this morning.

It seems to think that I did 27 minutes of exercise between 1pm and 2pm today while I’ve been sat watching the TV and eating lunch.

The watch had a white version of the activity status icon at the top (see photo) and the heart rate sensor lights were active when I took the watch off from my wrist.

The only app I can think that would have been activating the sensor would be Heart Rate Analyzer so I’ve removed it from the watch for now.

Anyone else had the same issue?

 

[mollyc]

Are you sure you don’t have a workout started? I don’t use the infographic face but when I have a workout going and go out to a regular face while it is running, the small round icon shows at 12:00.

Otherwise you have Workout in two different locations? If you are in a workout, it will keep the green sensors on.

 

[Inked]

Are you sure you don’t have a workout started? I don’t use the infographic face but when I have a workout going and go out to a regular face while it is running, the small round icon shows at 12:00.

Otherwise you have Workout in two different locations? If you are in a workout, it will keep the green sensors on.

Definitely no workout running, the icon would be green to show an active apple workout so it has to be a third party app using the heart rate monitor in the background.

All apps have been closed and the watch and phone restarted multiple times. Removing HRA app seems to have fixed it for now.

 

[Sterne]

I am also having this problem - it is really messing with the sleep analysis, which is my main reason for having an apple watch. I will remove HRA if that’s what is needed to fix it. I have already messaged the developer of that app and have not gotten a response.

Definitely no workout running, the icon would be green to show an active apple workout so it has to be a third party app using the heart rate monitor in the background.

All apps have been closed and the watch and phone restarted multiple times. Removing HRA app seems to have fixed it for now.

 

[MEJHarrison]

As I'm getting ready to go work on my 1880 minutes of exercise for the month, I find myself wishing I had your problems!

Before trying to track down third party apps (which is a great idea), I'd first make sure you've rebooted the watch and probably phone, just to be safe. Maybe something's just running out of control.

 

[oeagleo]

I noticed this also this morning. I have been switching off between my Fenix 5+ and the AW so I can get the badges for February on the AW. This morning, I was wearing the AW to get the initial morning "stand" ring started, got it for the hour, put the watch in my pocket and 30 minutes later, took it out and noticed that I had 6 minutes of exercise going on, and quite a bit more "active energy", with the watch in my pocket. I also noticed the white activity icon, but it went away somehow, didn't notice. Just thought, mmmm that's weird, and let it go. I too, updated my phone this morning to 12.1.4, but I don't remember if it was before or after I put the watch in my pocket.

 

[Inked]

I am also having this problem - it is really messing with the sleep analysis, which is my main reason for having an apple watch. I will remove HRA if that’s what is needed to fix it. I have already messaged the developer of that app and have not gotten a response.

I’ve had no further anomalous spikes in exercise since removing it. Here’s hoping

As I'm getting ready to go work on my 1880 minutes of exercise for the month, I find myself wishing I had your problems!

Before trying to track down third party apps (which is a great idea), I'd first make sure you've rebooted the watch and probably phone, just to be safe. Maybe something's just running out of control.

Watch and phone had been rebooted numerous times to no avail before removing HRA (which I notice has had an update today, though my problem started yesterday so the update wasn’t the cause)

 

[SDColorado]

As I'm getting ready to go work on my 1880 minutes of exercise for the month, I find myself wishing I had your problems!

Before trying to track down third party apps (which is a great idea), I'd first make sure you've rebooted the watch and probably phone, just to be safe. Maybe something's just running out of control.

I wish mine had that problem sometimes as well. I find if I forget to start a workout, I only get credit for a couple of minutes. I certainly haven't gotten credit for eating lunch or watching TV yet

 

[Sterne]

I wish mine had that problem sometimes as well.

Yes, be very jealous! I have 281 minutes of exercise so far today, almost entirely from when I was asleep in bed. Of course, it also screws up the sleep monitor, so it shows I only slept for 2 hours and 23 minutes.

Turning of Heart Analyzer seems to have corrected the issue.

 

[oeagleo]

I have no idea what's going on, but I just got a stand goal for the hour, and a couple minutes of exercise for changing from Heart Analyzer to Cardiogram. The little white icon is STILL at the top of the screen. I changed because when I checked the watch, it stated that I just received a new workout record, something like 111 minutes. This comes from the watch being in MY POCKET!
So much for blaming Heart Analyzer.

 

[oeagleo]

Well, thanks to this BS, my records are shot to hell! Over 2500 active calories, and a couple hundred exercise minutes, all while reading my kindle. Thanks to Apple, heart Analyzer, or whoever forgot to carry the 1 on their code! Thank God I have the fenix as a backup!

 

[SDColorado]

Yes, be very jealous! I have 281 minutes of exercise so far today, almost entirely from when I was asleep in bed. Of course, it also screws up the sleep monitor, so it shows I only slept for 2 hours and 23 minutes.

Turning of Heart Analyzer seems to have corrected the issue.

How weird. Obviously, something isn't right. I am guessing you have already done a reboot of the watch and it still behaves that way?

 

[BonsaiBuddha]

I have the same problem. When I woke up this morning my watch had me at 2000+ active calories on the Move ring and 300+ active minutes on the Exercise ring. I’m running IOS public beta 12.2 on iPhone and Watch OS 5.1.3 with Heart Analyzer installed. Removing Heart Analyzer now.

 

[Significant1]

I had the same problem tonight. It was Under Armour Record which caused. Also with white exersize icon and continuing after restart.

So I had to do some cleaning in Health app this morning, to restore values to normal values.

 

[gymratjudy]

Same problem for me this morning. I still haven't been able to fix it.

 

[Significant1]

Same problem for me this morning. I still haven't been able to fix it.

If you have a workout notification icon on top of your watch face, it should open the app counting. If I am not mistaken or press side-button to activate task-switcher and what workout app's might be running.

After that, you drill down the data en Health app. It does take some drilling.

Only thing I didn't manage was roll back the rewards for 3x and 4x times activity, even though the activity level no longer qualify for them :-(

 

[gymratjudy]

If you have a workout notification icon on top of your watch face, it should open the app counting. If I am not mistaken or press side-button to activate task-switcher and what workout app's might be running.

After that, you drill down the data en Health app. It does take some drilling.

Only thing I didn't manage was roll back the rewards for 3x and 4x times activity, even though the activity level no longer qualify for them :-(

[doublepost=1550326058][/doublepost]What do you mean by “drill down the data"?

 

[dalericg]

Over the last couple of days my Apple Watch activity rings have started to fill randomly when I’m doing nothing. It’s started happening since updating my iPhone to 12.1.4 and is even happening when the watch isn’t on my wrist.


The only app I can think that would have been activating the sensor would be Heart Rate Analyzer so I’ve removed it from the watch for now.

Anyone else had the same issue?

I have removed "Heart Rate Analyzer" from my watch and activity monitor rings are back to normal.
Sent an email to the app developer to inform him of this.

Any of the above members have Heart Rate Analyzer installed on your watch?

 

[gymratjudy]

I have removed "Heart Rate Analyzer" from my watch and activity monitor rings are back to normal.
Sent an email to the app developer to inform him of this.

Any of the above members have Heart Rate Analyzer installed on your watch?

I do. I just removed it following your post. I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of all those unearned exercise minutes, any suggestions? I already did the unpair and re-pair after removing the heart analyzer app and that didn't work.

 

[Significant1]

[doublepost=1550326058][/doublepost]
What do you mean by “drilling”?

Go down see the data, which makes up the totals displayed. E.g. it shows how many minutes you have been doing workout, by pressing it, you can select to see all data, which will show you each work. Here you can delete workouts. However, I don't think workouts show up until, they are done. So if something is still running on the watch, you must stop it. But in general Health is like a database administrator app, where you can "drill" down and see each entry making up the totals. They are not all that easy to handle as workouts.

 

[gymratjudy]

Go down see the data, which makes up the totals displayed. E.g. it shows how many minutes you have been doing workout, by pressing it, you can select to see all data, which will show you each work. Here you can delete workouts. However, I don't think workouts show up until, they are done. So if something is still running on the watch, you must stop it. But in general Health is like a database administrator app, where you can "drill" down and see each entry making up the totals. They are not all that easy to handle as workouts.

Thank you, I was able to take it off my data but my rings still reflect the previous excess exercise. Going to unpair and re=pair again and see if that helps.

 

[Significant1]

Thank you, I was able to take it off my data but my rings still reflect the previous excess exercise. Going to unpair and re=pair again and see if that helps.

That will not help, the data are still there. What I did, was to select (in Health) Energy from activity. There you can either choose show all data or data sources with access (I am direct translating so correct wording might be slightly different). In data sources with access, you will at the button find each source and under each source you will find the amount they have added and you select edit in upper right corner to delete that. In my case, I discovered it first thing in the morning and just decided to go with show all data->select the current day->edit->delete all (upper left corner).

 

[gymratjudy]

That will not help, the data are still there. What I did, was to select (in Health) Energy from activity. There you can either choose show all data or data sources with access (I am direct translating so correct wording might be slightly different). In data sources with access, you will at the button find each source and under each source you will find the amount they have added and you select edit in upper right corner to delete that. In my case, I discovered it first thing in the morning and just decided to go with show all data->select the current day->edit->delete all (upper left corner).

I think the fact that I deleted Health Analyzer app first before deleting the data messed it up for me. The data health app is now correct but my rings remain totally messed up. I'm going to leave it alone for now and see if tomorrow's rings go back to normal. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Inked]

Heart Analyzer has had an update to address the issue

 

[oeagleo]

I think the update to Heart Analyzer is only a "work around", as you can still see the white icon when you close the app. I honestly think this is a iOS problem, as a) it only started after the upgrade to version 12.1.4 a couple of days ago. Also, the same thing happens with other heart rate programs, Cardiogram, and even HealthView if you set the complication to read your Heart Rate. The icon is persistent, and the only way I've got it to remove is remove the app from the watch, remove it from the phone, shut the watch down, restart the watch, and it was even still there. Only when I started another activity, and ended it did the icon (and the subsequent data) stop. This definitely points to a phone OS problem, at least it does with my years in Tech Support. It would be nice if someone who hasn't upgraded the OS on the phone could try it to prove my theory.