Here's Why Your Apple Watch May Not Be Registering Your Exercise

While your Apple Watch is generally reliable when it comes to reminders, app notifications, and music control, the device isn't without fault. Sometimes, it won't charge, connect to your Wi-Fi, or pair with your Bluetooth accessories. Other times, the smartwatch becomes unresponsive and even crashes on you at the worst possible times. 

But probably one of the most frustrating Apple Watch issues you'll encounter is the device not registering your exercise. Imagine spending two hours fighting to finish your workout routine only to find out it wasn't even logged on your Apple Watch. Talk about disappointing. 

There are two possible reasons why this could happen. One, the Apple Watch doesn't consider your movement level to be a brisk activity and thus doesn't record it towards your Exercise ring, or two, your Apple Watch might be inaccurately measuring your movements even if they're at brisk intensity. To fix these issues, here's what you need to do. 

Exercise credits on Apple Watch are earned when your movement for an entire minute reaches at least the intensity of a brisk walk. The definition of a brisk walk, however, isn't a fixed figure that Apple sets for every user. It varies per individual and largely depends on one of the Apple Watch heart health features: cardio fitness level. This cardio fitness level, in turn, is calculated from your body profile information, such as sex, age, height, and weight. Yes, while your personal information might not seem like an important part of your workout, Apple Watch actually relies on this data to accurately register your exercise.

That said, if you're going slower than your personal brisk intensity, Apple Watch may not count it towards your Exercise ring. The activity will be added to your Move goal, though. If you are, in fact, doing a brisk activity, don't keep the arm with the Apple Watch still. Swing it naturally, as this is how the Activity app tracks your exercise. If you can't, you need to have the Workout app open instead. The Workout app can count your exercise just based on data like heart rate, location, and overall activity from the accelerometer sensor.

Besides moving briskly, it's also important to keep your personal information updated. This way, your cardio fitness level is measured more precisely. Here's how you can update your personal information:

1. On your iPhone, launch the Watch app.
2. Go to My Watch.
3. Select Health.
4. Open Health Details.
5. Hit Edit in the upper right corner.
6. Tap on each piece of information that needs updating.

Once you get an estimate of your cardio fitness after an entire day of wear and several workouts, check whether the Apple Watch can now register your exercise.

So you're sure that you have updated personal info and are doing an intense workout, but your Apple Watch still isn't registering your exercise. If your device is no longer accurate, it might be time for a recalibration. Calibration is one of the best ways to optimize your Apple Watch to accurately count calories and the Exercise data for the Activity app. A calibrated Apple Watch can assess your movements better too. Follow these steps to recalibrate your Apple Watch:

1. Go to the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Select Watch on the bottom.
3. Click on Privacy.
4. Tap Reset Fitness Calibration Data to delete your previous calibration data and history.
5. Press Reset Fitness Calibration Data on the popup to proceed.
6. Still on your iPhone, head over to the Settings app.
7. Navigate to Privacy & Security > Location Services.
8. Enable Location Services at the top.
9. Open System Services.
10. Toggle on Motion Calibration & Distance if it isn't already enabled.
11. Go outdoors where GPS reception is good.
12. Launch the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
13. Select Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run to start the exercise.
14. Do the workout at the same pace for at least 20 minutes.

From here, keep doing multiple workouts at new speeds to help Apple Watch learn more about you. This will generate more data for the calibration, so the watch can register your exercise moving forward.