Some Apple Watch Users Report Missing GPS Data in watchOS 7

[anyjungleinguy]

Also missing GPS data for new workouts. Heart rate data for new workout seems to there but past a certain point I’ve lost all historical heart rate data.

Trying to view historical data in health is all kinds of messed up. I’ll start scrolling from 2020 at the top and then what I’m looking at gets replaced with weeks worth of data from 2017 and can’t see anything else. 2018 and 2019 missing in action.

The data sources list that shows the watches - these keep going out of order and watches disappear and reappear.

Hearing data hasn’t been updated since the day I updated to iOS 14 despite using AirPod Pro’s - I click on all data and it shows no records even though it gives me a date in September when the last data existed... ?

All in all, a complete cluster****. Not even going to be bother trying to get in touch with support because it will just come to unpair and repair and when that inevitably fails - erase and set up as new without restoring a back up. An action they made do back when I had a Series 0 which resulted in over a years worth of data loss (before iCloud sync).

 

[eastwoodandy]

Happening for me with series 2 watch running 6.2.8 and iPhone 7 with iOS 14. Happens with or without my phone

 

[Hcy7102]

Yes, I have the same issue, no heart rate data, no gps tracking and calorie counting is all to pot. Battery life is terrible on iPhone XS Max. I workout first thing with 100% battery. After an hour it's now 68% where as I usually leave the gym with 90-92% battery.

This is the most garbage release Apple has ever done.

I had the same issues and returned 2 AW6 in a week... I finally restore my iphone, now everything is fixed. I think it is something to do with iCloud... somehow I turned my backup off and it does not store the data properly. Try it and good luck!

 

[Bossworld]

I've backed up, reset and restored both my 6S and watch series 3. It seems to be working again (based on a quick test on the school walk), but the two cycle rides I did while it wasn't working have not regained their GPS data, it appears lost forever.

 

[kitenski]

I did the full reset of both devices for my wife’s phone and watch about a week. All worked fine for under a week and the bug has reappeared today! She did a walk this morning with gps, then tonight did a run and no gps. Just the start shows. Very, very disappointing after all the effort of the full resets.

 

[Juantana]

I cam report that this happens even when I take my phone with on hikes/walks - I was also having really bad battery drain after iOS 14 update (as in phone is basically useless and has to be on the charger all day) so I followed *all* the exhaustive steps here, ie backup iPhone, wipe phone, restore, unpair watch and set it up brand new again, such a PITA and the battery issue seems better but still not GPS data from watch - WTF Crapple!! https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211865

A number of Apple Watch owners who have updated to watchOS 7 are reporting an issue involving missing GPS mapping data after recording exercise in Apple's wrist-based Workout app.

Several MacRumors readers have been in touch to highlight the problem, which was first noted in a thread on Apple's support communities by a user who upgraded their iPhone XS Max to iOS 14 and Apple Watch Series 4 to watchOS 7.
The thread currently runs 16 pages and includes multiple users reporting similar issues with tracking GPS data on Apple Watch Series 3, 4, and 5 models.

In the majority of cases, users record a workout on their watch while leaving their iPhone at home, but when they later look at the Activity app it only shows the workout's starting point on the GPS map, and nothing else. Some users are also reporting sync issues with Strava and problems with additional workout stats, including heart rate information.

It's not clear what's causing the problems, but Apple is apparently aware of them, so hopefully a solution is on the way in watchOS 7.1, the beta of which went out to developers last week.

Article Link: Some Apple Watch Users Report Missing GPS Data in watchOS 7

 

[burgman]

Apple posted a support document about this, old data is gone apparently. Thanks Apple

If you're missing Workout GPS routes or Health data after updating to iOS 14 and watchOS 7

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.

support.apple.com

 

[Daymon94]

i know this might come a bit late, but the issue is happening on my S4 with WatchOS 5. I just had the problem this morning when I tried to see the info of my cycle, it only appeared the start point. Not the route nor the stop point.

I have an iPhone 6, so I can not update (yet).. waiting till friday for iPhone12

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

So, iOS came out 4 weeks ago but I saw this issue and stayed on 13.7 all this time, despite buying an S6 LTE Apple Watch when it was released that requires iOS 14.x

With 14.1 out I need to know if it’s safe to update My 11 Pro Max already without losing my activity etc, so I can Finally use my new unused month old S6 Apple Watch (9/19/20) that doesn’t work with iOS 13.7?

I’m leaving for a trip on Saturday and I want to have enough time to be able to update my phone and my watch, And fix issues, versus going on the trip with my series 5 LTE watch and iOS 13.7 - seriously irritated with Apple lately

 

[DempaX]

So, iOS came out 4 weeks ago but I saw this issue and stayed on 13.7 all this time, despite buying an S6 LTE Apple Watch when it was released that requires iOS 14.x

With 14.1 out I need to know if it’s safe to update My 11 Pro Max already without losing my activity etc, so I can Finally use my new unused month old S6 Apple Watch (9/19/20) that doesn’t work with iOS 13.7?

I can only share my own experience having suffered from the broken health database with 14.0 iPhone XS Max and 7.0 Watch 5. (Could be verified on phone showing health database identified as 1.61TB large) It could no longer properly record heart rate during night and thus not measure sleep. iOS/Watch Updates did not solve it and the only way to make it work was according to Apple to unpair watch, backup phone, erase and restore and then add back the watch as new. I never got around to it so I was stuck with the issue until I bought a new Watch 6 last weekend which I set up as a new watch and voila all working again. The Watch 5 is now used by wifey who added it to her 14.0.1 iPhone X and all works fine.

Updated to 14.1 and still good.

 

[Zyqs]

I can only share my own experience having suffered from the broken health database with 14.0 iPhone XS Max and 7.0 Watch 5. (Could be verified on phone showing health database identified as 1.61TB large) It could no longer properly record heart rate during night and thus not measure sleep. iOS/Watch Updates did not solve it and the only way to make it work was according to Apple to unpair watch, backup phone, erase and restore and then add back the watch as new. I never got around to it so I was stuck with the issue until I bought a new Watch 6 last weekend which I set up as a new watch and voila all working again. The Watch 5 is now used by wifey who added it to her 14.0.1 iPhone X and all works fine.

Updated to 14.1 and still good.

I too have a 1.61 TB health database... very odd indeed.

 

[Buadhai]

I can only share my own experience having suffered from the broken health database with 14.0 iPhone XS Max and 7.0 Watch 5. (Could be verified on phone showing health database identified as 1.61TB large) It could no longer properly record heart rate during night and thus not measure sleep. iOS/Watch Updates did not solve it and the only way to make it work was according to Apple to unpair watch, backup phone, erase and restore and then add back the watch as new. I never got around to it so I was stuck with the issue until I bought a new Watch 6 last weekend which I set up as a new watch and voila all working again. The Watch 5 is now used by wifey who added it to her 14.0.1 iPhone X and all works fine.

Updated to 14.1 and still good.

Didn't work for me. I ordered a Watch 6 quite a while ago. While I was eating for the 6, my Watch 2 gave up. Wouldn't boot at all; very hot on the charger. So, I unpaired the Watch 2 and wiped my Xr and restored from an iMazing backup. I set up the Watch 6 yesterday. Went fine. But, I did a cycling workout this morning and there is no GPS data. No track map at all.

Later, I used the Apple Watch version of GPX Tracks to track a cycling jaunt to a coffee shop. It saved the GPS data to the iPhone and all the workout data appears in the Activity app on the watch and in the Fitness app on the phone.

More detail here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tremely-buggy-sync-maps.2254937/post-29120619

 

[DempaX]

Didn't work for me. I ordered a Watch 6 quite a while ago. While I was eating for the 6, my Watch 2 gave up. Wouldn't boot at all; very hot on the charger. So, I unpaired the Watch 2 and wiped my Xr and restored from an iMazing backup. I set up the Watch 6 yesterday. Went fine. But, I did a cycling workout this morning and there is no GPS data. No track map at all.

Later, I used the Apple Watch version of GPX Tracks to track a cycling jaunt to a coffee shop. It saved the GPS data to the iPhone and all the workout data appears in the Activity app on the watch and in the Fitness app on the phone.

More detail here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tremely-buggy-sync-maps.2254937/post-29120619

Hi,

only thought I’d add is that Apple said it should be an iCloud backup and restore of phone. Maybe that Apple-backup takes care of the broken health DB??

Just an idea...

I hope you find a resolution soon!

 

[ponytrekker]

I can only share my own experience having suffered from the broken health database with 14.0 iPhone XS Max and 7.0 Watch 5. (Could be verified on phone showing health database identified as 1.61TB large) It could no longer properly record heart rate during night and thus not measure sleep. iOS/Watch Updates did not solve it and the only way to make it work was according to Apple to unpair watch, backup phone, erase and restore and then add back the watch as new. I never got around to it so I was stuck with the issue until I bought a new Watch 6 last weekend which I set up as a new watch and voila all working again. The Watch 5 is now used by wifey who added it to her 14.0.1 iPhone X and all works fine.

Updated to 14.1 and still good.

Ahh, I realized this is why the HR on my runs has been totally out of whack when using Strava. Normally I run and HR is about 135-150, but AW6 has it at 180. Put on the Garmin and the AW6 today. Garmin was at 133, AW6 at 170.

 

[Buadhai]

only thought I’d add is that Apple said it should be an iCloud backup and restore of phone. Maybe that Apple-backup takes care of the broken health DB??

Yes, I had thought of that and you're probably right. My Health database is 1.27GB.

I just don't want to go through all that unpairing and restoring: The Wallet, Kindle Books, offline too maps, etc.

I've pretty much decided that if I really want a good track of a workout I'll just use an app on the iPhone.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Hi,

only thought I’d add is that Apple said it should be an iCloud backup and restore of phone. Maybe that Apple-backup takes care of the broken health DB??

Just an idea...

I hope you find a resolution soon!

FML, and why I haven't updated from 13.7 yet.

(1) My 11 Pro Max backup is to large to fit on the iMac 1TB internal HD with iTunes, as it wants to backup my iCloud photo library to the HD even though it's on the cloud too. And I have to use iMazing to backup to an external drive. IF I have to restore from an iCloud backup to FIX Apple's stupid GPS bug,
(2) It will use up over 450GB of my Xfinity data plan to re-download all of my iCloud photos, apps, movies, and music that can't be sync'd from my iMac with iMazing.
(3) In the 450GB above I will have to manually re-download all of my Tidal, Spotify, and YouTube playlist media for offline use, as well as my Kindle and nook eBook library. I like to carry most of what I need with me just in case.

WHY APPLE WHY??!?!

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Has anyone here updated directly from iOS 13.7 (with an Apple Watch series 5LTE on 6.2.8) into iOS 14.1, skipping the 14.0 update (and skipping 14.0.1), without seeing the AW GPS data loss?

I know this data loss occurs when going from 13.7 to 14.0, and updating to a higher version after that does not bring it back. But does installing 14.1 on top of 13.7 for the 1st time avoid this issue?

 

[Morrissey]

Has anyone here updated directly from iOS 13.7 (with an Apple Watch series 5LTE on 6.2.8) into iOS 14.1, skipping the 14.0 update (and skipping 14.0.1), without seeing the AW GPS data loss?

I know this data loss occurs when going from 13.7 to 14.0, and updating to a higher version after that does not bring it back. But does installing 14.1 on top of 13.7 for the 1st time avoid this issue?

Just update man, I can't think of buying a S6 and can't use it right away!

 

[Joemmello]

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/05/apple-releases-ios-14-2/

"- Workout GPS routes or Health data are prevented from syncing between Apple Watch and iPhone for some users"

let's see....

 

[Joemmello]

New workouts are fixed. But all old outdoor GPS workouts are still missing a map.
the top of the workout detail page has the location icon and the town label, but no map at the bottom of page.

ive kept a workout database in Runmeter since 2010, when I ran with a phone on my arm. Since getting an AW2 in 2015 I’ve imported the workouts to Runmeter. The last 18 months I’ve mostly run with a proper running watch and imported that as well to Runmeter, plus the watches native app and database. Thankfully those sources also have the history.

I feel bad for anyone who now has years worth of runs hosed.