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Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
5,375
4,170
Has anyone else experienced this issue? I've already tried unpairing and repairing my watch and that didn't work, so it seems to be an iPhone/iCloud data issue. The odd thing is I have always used iCloud (and the same account), and have data dating back to years ago, but June - September is missing for me. In the Health app, data such as steps are there, but activity/workout info is missing. I've tried turning Health data in iCloud off and on again, and that didn't work. Additionally, I don't think restoring from a backup would help, since as I understand it, Health data is synced to iCloud and not included in the backup.
 

EastHillWill

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2020
470
547
Boise, ID
Additionally, I don't think restoring from a backup would help, since as I understand it, Health data is synced to iCloud and not included in the backup.
Do you still have the old iPhone? I think restoring from an encrypted iTunes/Finder backup would grab the health data. Device to device transfer may also grab it.
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
5,375
4,170
Do you still have the old iPhone? I think restoring from an encrypted iTunes/Finder backup would grab the health data. Device to device transfer may also grab it.
Unfortunately I do not. I traded it in at Apple when I picked up the new phone.

Ultimately I'm just confused that if my phone is backing up, and the data that is synced to iCloud but not backed up (photos, messages, health), why wouldn't everything be there when getting a new device and restoring data from the same iCloud account? I could understand if I lost one day of data, but to lose months would mean that data was not backing up properly. I'm no novice to iCloud, so to be honest think this can only be chalked up as an iCloud or iOS issue.
 

EastHillWill

macrumors 6502
Dec 2, 2020
470
547
Boise, ID
Unfortunately I do not. I traded it in at Apple when I picked up the new phone.

Ultimately I'm just confused that if my phone is backing up, and the data that is synced to iCloud but not backed up (photos, messages, health), why wouldn't everything be there when getting a new device and restoring data from the same iCloud account? I could understand if I lost one day of data, but to lose months would mean that data was not backing up properly. I'm no novice to iCloud, so to be honest think this can only be chalked up as an iCloud or iOS issue.
Yeah, I’m not sure about that part. There’s a lot to like about iCloud, but as soon as ‘encryption’ enters the conversation things start to go off the rails a bit.
 
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TimFL1

macrumors 65816
Jul 6, 2017
1,489
1,609
Germany
It can take a very long time for health & fitness data to fully reappear due to the slow sync mechanism.

Took like 4 full days for me once.
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
5,375
4,170
It can take a very long time for health & fitness data to fully reappear due to the slow sync mechanism.

Took like 4 full days for me once.
It's been a few days at this point... I always leave it on the charger at night and have 300/300 WiFi. If all my messages and photos restored, which are significantly larger in terms of data, you'd think Health would have fully restored.
 

w5jck

Suspended
Nov 9, 2013
1,517
1,929
It probably has nothing to do with your WiFi speed, it is likely Apple's server that is being slow to get around to updating/populating the new iPhone. You can have the fastest internet service on the planet, but if the servers you go through are slow as Christmas, then you must wait until Christmas. The weakest/slowest link always slows down the process.

I would be very surprised if the fitness data was stored only on a backup for the old iPhone. That doesn't make any sense. That data should be stored in the cloud somewhere so that it could be accessed by multiple devices you own. But this is Apple in the 2020s, so who knows "what fresh hell" Apple has created now through their incompetence.
 
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