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ApeBot

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2015
107
203
Sydney
Same problem with me - 'Device lost connection' comes up randomly during workouts with AW3, ATV and AirPod Pros. Have spoken to Apple (they didn't seem to think this was a recognised issue) who suggested unpairing and re-pairing my watch with my phone. I'm not convinced this will work so will try workouts with iPad first to narrow down the issue.
Unpaired and repaired Apple Watch (s4), reset Apple TV.. 15 minutes into run I got the dreaded disconnect. I was using AirPods Pro at the time but I can’t have the trainer screaming down the house. I’m at my wits end on this one.
 

TheBlackLabEdge

macrumors member
Aug 4, 2013
42
2
Happened the first few minutes on treadmill, then worked for remainder of session, but when doing intervals, watch HR reported 168 bpm while on phone display only went to 155. Overall, I'm kinda worried after my daughter bought a new apple watch & we are on a 6 month trial, I'll just might be hooked, lol.
 

dodghyhair

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2020
3
3
Same problem with me - 'Device lost connection' comes up randomly during workouts with AW3, ATV and AirPod Pros. Have spoken to Apple (they didn't seem to think this was a recognised issue) who suggested unpairing and re-pairing my watch with my phone. I'm not convinced this will work so will try workouts with iPad first to narrow down the issue.
So, tried with my iPhone (no disconnects) and then with ATV but no AirPods (no disconnects). Looks like it is the ATV + Airpod combo which is at the heart of the problem.
 
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tekchic

macrumors 68020
Apr 19, 2010
2,056
1,763
Phoenix, AZ
I've had two disconnects in the last minute of a 30 minute workout, another one today with 30 seconds to go in a 30 minute yoga workout. I never use AirPods since I have the TV audio on, and I am plugging USB-C iPad Pro --> HDMI to play on my TV. It's pretty frustrating, because you see the calories/heart rate go somewhat static even though the countdown clock continues, and it never syncs back up.

It's pretty annoying. I hope they figure it out soon. I'm literally 5 feet away with AW series 4 and 2018 iPad Pro 11".
 
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Cheesehead Dave

macrumors regular
Sep 14, 2020
143
440
Happened to me twice in a row while using Powerbeats Pro. Same issue: heart rate stops updating, then a few minutes later the workout stops. (Series 6 and Apple TV HD)

Restarted the workout without the Powerbeats and it worked without any issues.
 

jakespeed

macrumors member
Jul 22, 2002
90
71
I’m curious. Has anyone had the issue with the 4K AppleTV? My workout room has a previous gen so perhaps an upgrade will fix it? New ones have faster processor so maybe can keep up better?
 

lambo13

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
31
4
I’m curious. Has anyone had the issue with the 4K AppleTV? My workout room has a previous gen so perhaps an upgrade will fix it? New ones have faster processor so maybe can keep up better?
A few previous posters have indicated similar issues w/ their 4K models, so I don't think an upgrade will solve the problem. I'm hoping it's not a hardware issue at all and just some sort of software fix that will allow for brief disconnects or time syncing disconnects.
 

MuskokaBrian

macrumors newbie
Jan 2, 2021
1
0
I’m curious. Has anyone had the issue with the 4K AppleTV? My workout room has a previous gen so perhaps an upgrade will fix it? New ones have faster processor so maybe can keep up better?
It just happened to me twice, 15 min into a 20 minute workout. Apple TV 4, AirPod pros, AW series 4... grrrrr
 

bljw57

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2021
2
0
AW Series 6 and either iPad 8th or iPhone 11, no air pods. Videos have frozen at various points in HIIT 30, Yoga, Spinning, and Strength.
 

Aussieuk

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2020
14
29
Wales, United Kingdom
This is getting to be a habit with Apple lately! And it’s really frustrating!

as much as we would love things to work flawlessly from the get go with any company or product, it’s never really does, it has a few tiny bugs which most of us don’t notice, but with Apple these bugs are everywhere and really annoying!

so I was excited for fitness plus but then the no airplay brought my hopes crashing down as I only had a 3rd gen Apple TV and was not going to spend £150 on a new one, so i was going to carry on with peloton. But then luckily one of my brothers had an Apple TV HD which he no longer uses so he gave it to me. Tried the two quick 10min strength & HIIT workouts last week to see if I like it and had no problems.

today was my first day doing fitness plus. Started a 30min strength workout, lost connection with a few mins, no a big deal, restarted and same thing happened! Annoying but restarted and got half way through and lost connection! not being able to restart from where you left off is really annoying!

have reported and will try again tomorrow
 
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zed

macrumors 6502
Feb 4, 2002
393
24
Atlanta, GA
Just happened to me 20 min in to a 30 min Yoga session. AW series 3 and Apple TV 4K. No AirPods or any other bluetooth devices connected. Really wish there was a way to resume b/c abruptly ending Yoga is not a great experience.
 
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LeeW

macrumors 601
Feb 5, 2017
4,342
9,446
Over here
I am using a S5 watch and Apple TV 4K, no issues so far and have been using AF daily. Not great though if it does happen and you can't just pick up from where you left off.
 

dodghyhair

macrumors newbie
Dec 23, 2020
3
3
Same problem with me - 'Device lost connection' comes up randomly during workouts with AW3, ATV and AirPod Pros. Have spoken to Apple (they didn't seem to think this was a recognised issue) who suggested unpairing and re-pairing my watch with my phone. I'm not convinced this will work so will try workouts with iPad first to narrow down the issue.
Have not been using Airpods for over a week now, and have had no disconnects.
 

TJovian

macrumors newbie
Mar 13, 2011
14
22
This only happens when I’m using my powerbeats or my AirPods. If I’m using airplay to my HomePod or the built-in tv speakers, I never experience disconnects. I can normally get about 5-10 minutes into a workout before my metrics stop syncing to my AppleTV completely any time I use my bluetooth headphones. I’ve tried moving the AppleTV so it is less than 6 feet of me and it still disconnects.
 

ApeBot

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2015
107
203
Sydney
Appears from the more recent comments (seriously, this community is awesome) that it’s a problem with AirPods / AirPods Pro + watch + Apple TV. If someone has that combination working please let me know .. personally, I have given up on Fitness+ and decided to get fat instead.
 

ApeBot

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2015
107
203
Sydney
That is what I use, never had a disconnection. Airpods Pro, Watch S5 and ATV 4K
Interesting.. only difference is my ATV isn’t 4K, it’s 4th gen. Trawling through the comments here there are too many combinations of set up and not all the info needed to work out if that’s the problem specifically, but my ATV is a Bluetooth 4.0 device and everyone that appears to have it working usually have all BT5.0 devices. This should not be a problem though and I’m not buying a new ATV.
 

CRMFYI

macrumors newbie
Oct 10, 2019
2
1
My hardware = Apple Watch Series 4, Apple TV HD, AirPods Pro, and Apple Fitness+. I experienced the "Device Connection Lost" message early on and so I figured I'd wait for the next OS releases (14.4, and 7.3) to hopefully resolve the issue. Unfortunately, that didn't resolve it.

Last night I was 13 minutes into a 45 minute treadmill workout when I saw that my calories and distance were not updating on the TV. I checked my watch and saw that it reported different stats. I immediately took out my AirPods Pro and put them in the case. This paused the workout and I put on wired headphones and I hit the Play/Pause button on the Apple TV remote. This continued the video of the workout and within about 10 seconds, the Apple Watch data and the TV display were again in sync. This prevented me from getting the dreaded "Device Connection Lost" message and confirmed to me that it's probably an issue between the Apple TV and AirPods Pro.

I just got off the phone with Apple Support and though it got escalated to Tier 2 support, there are no known answers yet. I believe I've given them some pretty solid steps to reproduce the issue. As noted by others, one possibility is the fact that the Apple TV HD uses the Bluetooth 4.0 spec vs everything else being Bluetooth 5.0, though it appears some people are still having the issue even with an Apple TV 4K.

The one thing I can ask is if you're having this issue, please call Apple and tell them you're having this issue. I know it's a pain, but as my support rep said, unfortunately not many people are apparently logging the issue with Apple. We need to let them know so they can reproduce it and get it fixed.

Hope that helps and please post anything else you figure out.
 
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mcmara

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2018
12
12
My Hardware: Apple Watch 6 and ATV 4k. Nothing else besides the TV remote. Yet, once a week, I still get disconnected in the middle of a workout. Just got off the chat with the Apple Support and the only suggestion was to reboot everything, including the phone. They recommended to keep the phone in proximity while working out.
 
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mcmara

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2018
12
12
My Hardware: Apple Watch 6 and ATV 4k. Nothing else besides the TV remote. Yet, once a week, I still get disconnected in the middle of a workout. Just got off the chat with the Apple Support and the only suggestion was to reboot everything, including the phone. They recommended to keep the phone in proximity while working out.
And, of course, nothing of the above worked. Got another disconnection in the middle of this morning’s workout. Fitness+ is pretty unusable to me at this rate of disconnections.
 

mcmara

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2018
12
12
And, of course, nothing of the above worked. Got another disconnection in the middle of this morning’s workout. Fitness+ is pretty unusable to me at this rate of disconnections.
I think I found the cause (at least in my case). It looked, to me, RF-noise-related. My ATV was securely attached on the back of the TV. Somehow, the TV was acting as a shield between my watch and the internal ATV bluetooth radio. I hence moved the ATV on top so that it was not shielded by the TV and this did the magic. Responsiveness of the watch did increase considerably: no longer spinning wheel searching for the watch, and the connection is now almost instantaneous. Most important, I have not experienced a single disconnection since moving the location of the ATV.
 
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fstevens

macrumors member
Dec 2, 2008
98
40
I think I found the cause (at least in my case). It looked, to me, RF-noise-related. My ATV was securely attached on the back of the TV. Somehow, the TV was acting as a shield between my watch and the internal ATV bluetooth radio. I hence moved the ATV on top so that it was not shielded by the TV and this did the magic. Responsiveness of the watch did increase considerably: no longer spinning wheel searching for the watch, and the connection is now almost instantaneous. Most important, I have not experienced a single disconnection since moving the location of the ATV.
I have wondered about this. I have never had a disconnect during strength training, HIIT, mindful cool down, or yoga sessions, but have at least one during every treadmill session. I speculated that there was some kind of interference from the treadmill itself. I moved the ATV and went from multiple disconnects to just one per 30-minute treatment workout. I'll see if there is another location that works better, although there's only so many ways to position the TV, ATV, and treadmill.

BTW, if I notice that a complete disconnect is imminent, with heart rate and calories no longer updating, I have been able to reconnect by pausing the workout from my watch and/or on the ATV, waiting a couple seconds, and resuming the workout. I say "and/or" as I haven't figured out if there is a specific combination and order of pausing/resuming on the watch and the TV. And I usually have to do this more than once. It's still frustrating, but at least I have been able to complete the workout rather than having it end prematurely.
 

mcmara

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2018
12
12
I have wondered about this. I have never had a disconnect during strength training, HIIT, mindful cool down, or yoga sessions, but have at least one during every treadmill session. I speculated that there was some kind of interference from the treadmill itself. I moved the ATV and went from multiple disconnects to just one per 30-minute treatment workout. I'll see if there is another location that works better, although there's only so many ways to position the TV, ATV, and treadmill.

BTW, if I notice that a complete disconnect is imminent, with heart rate and calories no longer updating, I have been able to reconnect by pausing the workout from my watch and/or on the ATV, waiting a couple seconds, and resuming the workout. I say "and/or" as I haven't figured out if there is a specific combination and order of pausing/resuming on the watch and the TV. And I usually have to do this more than once. It's still frustrating, but at least I have been able to complete the workout rather than having it end prematurely.
Interesting that the action of pausing the workout may "cure" the imminent disconnection. I bet that the problem is the watch, since it is the weakest link in the RF Bluetooth connection, and during a workout it is being moved around and covered a lot. Pausing the workout may simply bring the watch closer to the TV.
Regarding my case, after my post above I have done several 45min yoga sessions every other day and, since then, I had zero disconnections and zero "spinning wheels". It is hence confirmed that obstructing the RF path by putting the ATV on the back of the TV, attached on the VESA mount, was indeed the cause of my continuous loss of connection (again, ATV 4k and Watch S6).
 

fstevens

macrumors member
Dec 2, 2008
98
40
Interesting that the action of pausing the workout may "cure" the imminent disconnection. I bet that the problem is the watch, since it is the weakest link in the RF Bluetooth connection, and during a workout it is being moved around and covered a lot. Pausing the workout may simply bring the watch closer to the TV.
Regarding my case, after my post above I have done several 45min yoga sessions every other day and, since then, I had zero disconnections and zero "spinning wheels". It is hence confirmed that obstructing the RF path by putting the ATV on the back of the TV, attached on the VESA mount, was indeed the cause of my continuous loss of connection (again, ATV 4k and Watch S6).
I realize I am a sample size of one, but I tried moving the Apple TV, just a foot or so to the right, and did a 30-minute treadmill workout, no disconnects at all, for the first time since a couple when I first signed up with Fitness+. I’ve also done a HIIT workout with the Apple TV in this position, and didn’t have any problems. Hopefully this solves the problem permanently.
 

bljw57

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2021
2
0
Hardware: AW 6 with either iPad 8th or iPhone 11, no air pods and no ATV. Videos have frozen at various points in HIIT, Yoga, Spinning, and Strength. "Device connection lost" messages have appeared most frequently in Cycling workouts however. I have had some success downloading the workouts prior to using them although I did experience one disconnect even using this method.
 
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