How to backup your Watch ?

[thedoc46]

Some of you may of seen my post about shattering my screen this morning. Anyway i just went out to buy another (Costco's are doing good deals atm)

So went to pair and restore from a backup, but the last backup was apparently in Oct 18. ??? I'm worried i'll delete all my health / steps. Thing is we're on this competition at work, where we'll get a decent bit of cash at the end of June, so it is imperative that i keep all this data.

How can i force a backup of my Apple Watch so i can restore from a backup as of today?

 

[RickGrimes]

There isn’t a way to force a backup. When unpaired from iPhone it should automatically back up.

 

[thedoc46]

There isn’t a way to force a backup. When unpaired from iPhone it should automatically back up.

ok cool. i'll unpair and hope the backup is a good one.

 

[ftaok]

Keep in mind that AW itself doesn't store your Health data, at least not all of it. Your Health data recorded by the AW gets stored on your iPhone, so things like steps, HR, workouts are only kept on the AW for the day (I think).

So as long as your iPhone is backed up, you won't lose your Health data.

Also - the un-pair/re-pair procedure will create a backup of your AW. Most things are preserved, but there are a few that don't (at least for me ... the main one being the walk and run calibration data).

ft

ADDED - if the shattered AW still works, you could keep it as a sleep tracker. Put a piece of packing tape over the screen to keep glass bits from shedding. You can pair your new AW to your iPhone and you'll be able to contribute Health data from both watches. No need to un-pair the old AW.

 

[Shirasaki]

There is one catch of Apple Watch backup. Unless you make any change to your watch, including installing/uninstalling apps, iOS won’t make a new backup. I have an old backup that dates back to oct 2018 as well, since I never change any setting on my watch from that date onwards.