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Apple Watch Ultra Location for Open Water Swim Wrong

debsagos

debsagos

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 18, 2012
112
28
It seems my Ultra has trouble locating me appropriately during open water swimming.......I tend to swim on one particular beach, but the watch consistently places me where my car is parked 200m off the beach and nowhere near the water. I thought I had it sorted and enabled 'Precision Start' mode. Use this today, and it definitely locked on to the GPS before I started the swim.....but alas, when I finished the workout, I am a stationary dot on the road.

Presumably bacause of this it doesn't track all the other exercise data very well.

What am I missing? I am not going great distances as I usually swim alone.....but I'd expect it to be accurate. Since getting the ultra, it tracked my swim accurately ONCE (I can actually see my route in the sea)......other than that, nope, dot on the road. WHY?
 
debsagos said:
It seems my Ultra has trouble locating me appropriately during open water swimming.......I tend to swim on one particular beach, but the watch consistently places me where my car is parked 200m off the beach and nowhere near the water. I thought I had it sorted and enabled 'Precision Start' mode. Use this today, and it definitely locked on to the GPS before I started the swim.....but alas, when I finished the workout, I am a stationary dot on the road.

Presumably bacause of this it doesn't track all the other exercise data very well.

What am I missing? I am not going great distances as I usually swim alone.....but I'd expect it to be accurate. Since getting the ultra, it tracked my swim accurately ONCE (I can actually see my route in the sea)......other than that, nope, dot on the road. WHY?
Click to expand...
so are you saying that it doesn't locate you properly during an outdoor walk workout either?
I also assume you re leaving your phone in the car? try turning bluetooth off on the phone before going swimming
 
Yes as jz says, where is your phone? You need to give us more information. What have you done to try to sort it?

In the Find My app (Me) do you have it set as per the image?
eb0ff45c54f4034eddaf8bc71697841a.jpg
 
Nope, my phone is on the beach, not where my car is parked.

It tracks outdoor walks just fine.

I have not done anything, only turned on ‘precision start’ as I assumed this would sort the issue (though the ONE time my open water swim was tracked ‘precision start’ was NOT on). It did not sort it.

Yes, it is set as per above photo in ‘find my’.

I’m not sure what may need tweaking to sort this as I’m not particularly technically minded and Google is not helping.
 
Same thing today. Different location. Lake swimming. Location tracks as stationary dot on my home address. The lake is several miles away from my home. Phone is at the lakeside. Because of not tracking location is also is not tracking distance accurately. HELP?
 
On the phone that is paired to the watch, go to Settings, AppleID (at the top), Find My, then there is My Location. Does that say "This Device"?

If you have another device maybe you can switch My Location to that other device (an iPad for example) and then switch it back to the phone.
 
Howard2k said:
On the phone that is paired to the watch, go to Settings, AppleID (at the top), Find My, then there is My Location. Does that say "This Device"?

If you have another device maybe you can switch My Location to that other device (an iPad for example) and then switch it back to the phone.
Click to expand...
My Location says ‘this phone and cellular apple watches’.
 
I wonder of the issue is that my phone is still relatively close to the watch and therefore the workout doesn’t see it moving…..which is why outdoor walks when the phone is moving too are tracking just fine? So switching off Bluetooth should have worked?
 
What if you turn your phone off and try it again? I’m out of ideas other than that and the re-pairing of your watch.
 
debsagos said:
There doesn’t seem to be an option too?
Click to expand...

No, there isn't. If you had an iPad or other device you go to that device and tell it (iPad) that it is your location. Then you can switch it back to the phone.
 
debsagos said:
I wonder of the issue is that my phone is still relatively close to the watch and therefore the workout doesn’t see it moving…..which is why outdoor walks when the phone is moving too are tracking just fine? So switching off Bluetooth should have worked?
Click to expand...
ok, go to your health app on the phone, to workouts in the D (day) view go swipe to the last day you swam, scroll down to the bottom to "workout route data sources ...", click on that, in the list of dat sources click on your AWU, it'll show the date, click on that - what is listed there under "source"?
 
jz0309 said:
ok, go to your health app on the phone, to workouts in the D (day) view go swipe to the last day you swam, scroll down to the bottom to "workout route data sources ...", click on that, in the list of dat sources click on your AWU, it'll show the date, click on that - what is listed there under "source"?
Click to expand...
Huh. My phone and all my previous and the current Apple Watch were listed there. When I went to the data for my watch, the route I swam is ACTUALLY logged but not actually recorded in the workout itself? All my other swims are logged by route there too! My current Apple Watch was low down in the list, so maybe didn’t get used as a data source as priority? So I dragged it to the top, maybe that will make a difference?
 
debsagos said:
Huh. My phone and all my previous and the current Apple Watch were listed there. When I went to the data for my watch, the route I swam is ACTUALLY logged but not actually recorded in the workout itself? All my other swims are logged by route there too! My current Apple Watch was low down in the list, so maybe didn’t get used as a data source as priority? So I dragged it to the top, maybe that will make a difference?
Click to expand...
the health app is where all the data is kept ...
I seem to recall form the early AW days that order of data source mattered, way back then I think when you had your phone near the watch on an outdoor workout it used the phones GPS for tracking to preserve power, but that was at least 5 years ago ...
see if it makes a difference.
maybe to get another data point, take a walk around your house, leave the phone behind and make sure you are out of range of BT and wifi, using an outdoor walk, and look at the data again

and I would still contact Apple and ask them
 
Ok, so did a little test walk WITHOUT my phone and bluetooth off last night.....route recorded perfectly.

This morning, wild swim, same set up. Stationary dot in workout but proper route buries in data source listing for the watch specifically. I'm so confused. Calling Apple this morning.
 
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PROBLEM SOLVED (well, no......as it's unsolvable):

Spoke to Apple, and the problem is that Apple watches are unable to GPS track outdoor swims IF USING BREASTSTROKE. They ONLY track freestyle stroke.

I'm baffled. Especially as the route IS recording in the Workout Route Data Sources.
 
So, I have been unable to get AWU to GPS track my open water swims.......finally called Apple, and they say Open water swims can ONLY be GPS tracked if I'm swimming freestyle/front crawl. WHY? Has anyone been able to get around this?

P.S: the route of the swim is tracking beautifully in the data sources section of the Health app, but for some reason does not pull that data into the workout app.
 
Last edited:
Radio signals are lost below water. No gps watch can maintain connection under water. Use external heart rate sensor and wear the watch somewhere not submerged like e.g. a swim buoy.
 
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debsagos said:
So, I have been unable to get AWU to GPS track my open water swims.......finally called Apple, and they say Open water swims can ONLY be GPS tracked if I'm swimming freestyle/front crawl. WHY? Has anyone been able to get around this?

P.S: the route of the swim is tracking beautifully in the data sources section of the Health app, but for some reason does not pull that data into the workout app.
Click to expand...
If Apple already explained why you're watch isn't recording your swim workout and that there's no way around it, seems you already have your answer..
 
debsagos said:
PROBLEM SOLVED (well, no......as it's unsolvable):

Spoke to Apple, and the problem is that Apple watches are unable to GPS track outdoor swims IF USING BREASTSTROKE. They ONLY track freestyle stroke.

I'm baffled. Especially as the route IS recording in the Workout Route Data Sources.
Click to expand...
would have never thought of that
 
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