Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Xand&Roby

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 13, 2020
534
486
A few months ago an S3 with WOS 8 started doing absurd readings on Activity, Movement ring, reading 1,000,000 calories per day consumed.
With Apple we tried everything, nothing worked, I took it to service at the Apple Store and they encountered hardware issues. Okay, I thought, it was an old device, it can happen.
This morning, S4 (it is a 2019 one replaced by Apple in warranty) updated to WOS 9 a week ago, same problem: absurd readings. I contact Apple and spend the day doing the tests indicated, in the evening I turn it off.
I take my S2 (purchased new from Apple Reseller in October 2021 and replaced by Apple, then new batteries, rarely worn) connected with an iPhone SE with iOS 15 (iOS 16 is not compatible with WOS 8 and earlier), and I use them, and I also find on one of the two all the high parameters inherited from the Fitness account on iCloud.
After the battery of the S2 Edition I take the S2 SS, which in the meantime had been unpaired by an Apple Genius this morning. I paired it with iPhone SE before midnight.
I wear it after midnight.
In 5 minutes this also begins to score absurd parameters on movement while I am lying down.
So the problem is not the Watch S2, S3, S4, it is those incompetent Apple who have messed up iCloud and the management of Fitness parameters that are loaded on the watches from iCloud servers, even at devices (including iPhones) stationary, motionless.
Or perhaps it is the most blatant case of programmed obsolescence ever seen: motionless devices or turned off that read non-existent movements.
I will try to contact the Geniuses but I'm sure they will find excuses, but they won't be able to explain how off devices can take readings with unpowered sensors.
The next step will be to file a scam lawsuit.
 
Last edited:
I have no idea how this is happening with so many different AW models. I have the Ultra running WOS 9.3.1. I have had several other versions of the Apple Watch in the past. Never had any of the issues you describe. My ultra tracks my work outs, sleep, steps, etc. All readings look very accurate.

No idea what to suggest either but it will be an uphill battle to convince apple it is their OS.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xand&Roby
From yesterday also one Apple Watch S2 Ceramic started to sign wrong activity data, both "in movement" than "on sleep", 6 weeks after the S4. It's not a bug on Apple Watch hw, it’s programmed obsolescence.
 
Last edited:
Sounds to me that there is something in your account that is causing it (not blaming you). It is unique to you as not seen any other reports of this so it has to be account specific. I don’t think it is badly written software (or we’d all get it), but some corruption in the data in your account. Still their issue, but you really need to get it past 1st and 2nd line and escalated IMO.
 
Sounds to me that there is something in your account that is causing it (not blaming you). It is unique to you as not seen any other reports of this so it has to be account specific. I don’t think it is badly written software (or we’d all get it), but some corruption in the data in your account. Still their issue, but you really need to get it past 1st and 2nd line and escalated IMO.
Not only my account, a family member's S3 has the same problem. Initially I thought it was a battery problem that, inflating because it is old, creates problems on sensors, for example the S3 has an Apple diagnosis of this type.
The S4 is from 2019 (replaced under warranty after the first year of use), had the battery at ~90% in February, I thought it had degraded with the watchOS 9 update I did in February.
The S2 is new: bought new in October 2021, replaced 3 times in 3 weeks, what I'm wearing is from November/December 2021, used very little, the battery is still new (I don't know how much the remaining battery is for wOS 6.3 doesn't have that function).
To me it seems like a bug on data in iCloud that propagates “at convenience”: I am convinced that if I buy a new watch, SE2, 8 or Ultra, the problem will not arise for some time, as happened on the S2, and then it will begin to show up there too. Among other things, it is singular because it is a problem about 'suptime calorie spending' and 'moving calories': there are 5 or 6 copies of the same data repeated. S2 with wOS 6.3 is pairing on an iPhone SE16 with iOS 15.5, S4 with wOS 9.4 is pairing on an iPhone 13 mini with iOS 16.4.1.a, all with the same iCloud account.
 
Just asking myself: Why on earth isn’t this broadly known and all over the web, if it would be a widespread thing?

From my experience: I have had S2s paired to my iPhone 13 and also an S0, no problems with them. Same goes for my S5 Edition and all others I own(ed).

So think about it the other way round maybe: If the Watches don‘t seem to be the problem, maybe it‘s really something else linked to your devices?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BillGates1969
Just asking myself: Why on earth isn’t this broadly known and all over the web, if it would be a widespread thing?

From my experience: I have had S2s paired to my iPhone 13 and also an S0, no problems with them. Same goes for my S5 Edition and all others I own(ed).

So think about it the other way round maybe: If the Watches don‘t seem to be the problem, maybe it‘s really something else linked to your devices?
What device?

The iPhone 13 to which the S4 is connected, the iPhone SE to which the S2 is connected, or the iPhone 8 to which a family member's S3 is connected, with the same behaviour.
I have 2 other S2 connected to the iPhone SE, I can wear them and see how long the same problem arises on them too.
My iPhones don't have any particular configuration, they don't have jailbreaks or other exotic solutions, nor is my iCloud account particularly complex.
Why is there no trace on the web? I know the Apple Geniuses well enough to know that anyone who presents himself with a similar problem on a Watch with more than 2 years will say that it is a problem hw of the Watch and out of warranty it is not convenient to repair it but replace it, to anyone who presents themselves with a similar problem on a Watch that is less than two years old, but coincidentally it will be unlikely, they will replace the Watch under warranty.
The problem eventually is that I have the S2s all in AppleCare+ active, since I bought them new 18 months ago.
I'm ready to bet that if I buy an SE2, only on SE2 and despite being connected to the iPhone 13, the problem will not arise.
 
Last edited:
I deleted a few devices that had access to Health, trying to fix, on iPhone 13 connected to AW S4.
On AW S2 Edition connected to iPhone SE I haven't changed anything.

Yesterday I changed the weekly goal: from 600 to 10 calories a day, thinking of avoiding medals at 200%, 300%, 400%.
It was wrong, the medals increased, but the daily calorie consumption stopped at around 3,000/4,000 calories per day.

Today I changed the weekly goal: from 10 to 10,000 calories a day, thinking of avoiding medals at 200%, 300%, 400%.
It was correct, but the daily consumption of calories has increased, now it is at 39,000/40,000 calories per day.

Isn't there a bug? It's as big as Apple Park the bug, it's about the order of size of calories.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.