Health and iCloud

[nattK]

Now that Health data can be synced to iCloud, does anyone know whether it's possible to pair an Apple Watch to a new phone running iOS 11 while retaining your activity data, streaks, achievements etc.? I usually prefer to set up my phone as new when I upgrade my iPhone, but thus far I've been forced to restore it from backup or lose all my Health data and activity achievements.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Now that Health data can be synced to iCloud, does anyone know whether it's possible to pair an Apple Watch to a new phone running iOS 11 while retaining your activity data, streaks, achievements etc.? I usually prefer to set up my phone as new when I upgrade my iPhone, but thus far I've been forced to restore it from backup or lose all my Health data and activity achievements.

There are a few threads on this already. So make sure you search before creating a new thread.

To answer your question, it's still not entirely known. Someone restored and got part of their health data back but did not state whether activity came back.

 

[lemimouth]

Yes activity comes back. I installed iOS 11 on top of iOS 10, enabled Health backup in iCloud settings, then a few days later I did a clean reinstall of iOS 11 without restoring anything except Health from iCloud. Activities are back :


[doublepost=1497124779][/doublepost]Also to note that Health backup, at least according to what iCloud tells me, is ridiculously small, like 8 Mb for a year

 

[Mlrollin91]

Yes activity comes back. I installed iOS 11 on top of iOS 10, enabled Health backup in iCloud settings, then a few days later I did a clean reinstall of iOS 11 without restoring anything except Health from iCloud. Activities are back :

View attachment 703344
[doublepost=1497124779][/doublepost]Also to note that Health backup, at least according to what iCloud tells me, is ridiculously small, like 8 Mb for a year

That's very interesting about the size because it's 200MB on my phone when you check usage for 9 months of data. iOS 11 may compress it.

Are all the workouts and achievements back as well?

 

[cclarke99]

I can also confirm this. Achievements also get backed up and restored.

This is awesome for someone like me that is somewhat obsessed with restoring my phone with a clean image and no data restore.

 

[lemimouth]

As cclarke99 said, achievements are restored. I can't tell about workouts because I don't use this feature, but I assume that if everything else is restored, workouts should be, too.

 

[Mlrollin91]

I can also confirm this. Achievements also get backed up and restored.

This is awesome for someone like me that is somewhat obsessed with restoring my phone with a clean image and no data restore.

As cclarke99 said, achievements are restored. I can't tell about workouts because I don't use this feature, but I assume that if everything else is restored, workouts should be, too.

Thank you both so much. I guess after harassing Apple's feedback website for 3 years worked.

 

[cclarke99]

As cclarke99 said, achievements are restored. I can't tell about workouts because I don't use this feature, but I assume that if everything else is restored, workouts should be, too.

Workouts are restored. Also, rings are restored. For example, if you have some activity and you restore mid-day with say 6 hours of standing credit, that restores along with activity from the other rings.

 

[checcobai_]

Workouts are restored. Also, rings are restored. For example, if you have some activity and you restore mid-day with say 6 hours of standing credit, that restores along with activity from the other rings.

So once "health" data has been synchronized on iCloud (from a fresh install of iOS11), can i proceed with a new pairing of my Apple Watch as new, keeping all my achievements and workout as before the ??? In practice I can do all without the Apple Watch backup ??? thank you

 

[Mlrollin91]

So once "health" data has been synchronized on iCloud (from a fresh install of iOS11), can i proceed with a new pairing of my Apple Watch as new, keeping all my achievements and workout as before the ??? In practice I can do all without the Apple Watch backup ??? thank you

I haven't tried it but theoretically yes. Even when you restore a backup to regain health and activity data, you don't have to restore the Apple Watch backup as well. All that information is stored on the phone and not the watch.

 

[checcobai_]

I haven't tried it but theoretically yes. Even when you restore a backup to regain health and activity data, you don't have to restore the Apple Watch backup as well. All that information is stored on the phone and not the watch.

Thank you for the reply. I'd like to try the beta versions of ios 11 but I'm too afraid to lose the progress made until this afternoon. I'm close to 700 days of row activity and is perhaps better to wait for the final version of ios 11 and learn more. If you try to do it, let me know please

 

[symphony]

I have a feeling if you restore your Apple Watch then it will create a new device listed in Health. You’ll have like a duplicate in the devices tab of Health, where your previous one will say “this watch is no longer paired...”, this is what I experienced throughout iOS 11, except for beta 6. If that’s changed let me know. Cuz I hate having duplicate devices listed in health.

 

[boston04and07]

This is interesting. I know this is really niche, but does anyone know - if you're signed into the same iCloud account on more than one iPhone, does health/activity data sync between the two? I have a work and personal iPhone and it'd be really cool if the data synced back and forth.

Slightly off topic but I hope this means that we'll see health/activity apps on the iPad someday. I feel like my iPhone is always on the charger whenever I want to look at my data at the end of the day.

 

[profets]

I’ve been aware during the beta period how with iOS 11 Health data can now sync to iCloud. I’ve been hoping for this feature for a while as well so that backups, restores or even clean starts are much simpler and don’t always need to worry about something happening to the phone and all the activity data.

On my primary iPhone, I installed the beta for the first time yesterday, and enabled Health within iCloud settings. I then turned on an older iPhone that has been on the beta all summer, opened Activity, and suddenly all the rings were filled! So nice. Data in the health app seems to all be there as well (which should be more obvious since iCloud settings show it as ‘Health’ that’s syncing).

However, I noticed that while Activity data and achievements all synced, Workouts did not. I hope it’s just a bug at the moment. Has anyone else seen this? If it’s intended behaviour, then it would be a show stopper for me; I really don’t want to lose all my workout history if needing to setup a phone as new one day.

This is interesting. I know this is really niche, but does anyone know - if you're signed into the same iCloud account on more than one iPhone, does health/activity data sync between the two? I have a work and personal iPhone and it'd be really cool if the data synced back and forth.

Slightly off topic but I hope this means that we'll see health/activity apps on the iPad someday. I feel like my iPhone is always on the charger whenever I want to look at my data at the end of the day.

I agree. I feel like almost everything is synced across devices, really wish we could have an Activity app on iPad that would make use of the larger screen, see more workout data, etc.
[doublepost=1503573838][/doublepost]

Workouts are restored. Also, rings are restored. For example, if you have some activity and you restore mid-day with say 6 hours of standing credit, that restores along with activity from the other rings.

Missed your post earlier when reading this thread. You had workouts restored as well when setting up another phone or the same phone as new?

 

[ck2875]

On my primary iPhone, I installed the beta for the first time yesterday, and enabled Health within iCloud settings. I then turned on an older iPhone that has been on the beta all summer, opened Activity, and suddenly all the rings were filled! So nice. Data in the health app seems to all be there as well (which should be more obvious since iCloud settings show it as ‘Health’ that’s syncing).

Does it recreate the list of iPhone / Apple Watch "Device Sources" on the new device when it pulls in the iCloud data?

I have like 10 Apple Watches listed as sources due to it creating a new Apple Watch 'source' every time I re-pair the Watch to the Phone, and have hoped for a way to merge those for such a long time. Deleting the 'no longer paired' watches from the source list currently deletes all the health data / rings :-(

 

[profets]

Does it recreate the list of iPhone / Apple Watch "Device Sources" on the new device when it pulls in the iCloud data?

I have like 10 Apple Watches listed as sources due to it creating a new Apple Watch 'source' every time I re-pair the Watch to the Phone, and have hoped for a way to merge those for such a long time. Deleting the 'no longer paired' watches from the source list currently deletes all the health data / rings :-(

I didn't repair the watch this time - but I have repaired it many times in the past when changing watches and phones. And yes, looking now there's like a dozen Apple Watches listed under sources. Damn, too bad that can't be cleaned up.

 

[Grayburn]

How long has Health been able to be synced to iCloud now?

I'm asking as after iOS 11 beta 2 (or was it beta 3) I downgraded back to 10.3.3 and sent my watch back to Apple to have that downgraded too. I'm wondering if I could install an old back up and that my Achievements that I lost return?

 

[Mlrollin91]

How long has Health been able to be synced to iCloud now?

I'm asking as after iOS 11 beta 2 (or was it beta 3) I downgraded back to 10.3.3 and sent my watch back to Apple to have that downgraded too. I'm wondering if I could install an old back up and that my Achievements that I lost return?

Well health has always been in iCloud backups or iTunes encrypted backups. Health began to sync separate of backups with beta 1. So if you restored an old backup, it would restore up till that backup date.

 

[Grayburn]

Well health has always been in iCloud backups or iTunes encrypted backups. Health began to sync separate of backups with beta 1. So if you restored an old backup, it would restore up till that backup date.

I do have encrypted back ups. Will check dates of when I sent back my watch and then check dates of any iOS 11 back ups before then.

 

[Grayburn]

Well health has always been in iCloud backups or iTunes encrypted backups. Health began to sync separate of backups with beta 1. So if you restored an old backup, it would restore up till that backup date.

What will happen with my history/workouts since then though?

 

[Mlrollin91]

What will happen with my history/workouts since then though?

Anything contained in the backup will be returned. Health, workouts, activity, achievements. But anything since then will be lost. As you are restoring the previous backup. I'm fairly certain you cannot stack health libraries.

 

[Grayburn]

Anything contained in the backup will be returned. Health, workouts, activity, achievements. But anything since then will be lost. As you are restoring the previous backup. I'm fairly certain you cannot stack health libraries.

Hhhhmmm not sure what to do then....sorry, yes I was going to.
[doublepost=1503607049][/doublepost]I suppose losing just over a months worth is better then losing months & months worth.

 

[Grayburn]

Anything contained in the backup will be returned. Health, workouts, activity, achievements. But anything since then will be lost. As you are restoring the previous backup. I'm fairly certain you cannot stack health libraries.

Did it, I now have all my achievements and months of workouts/activity back.

Just lost the last month and a bit and gained a load of old iMessages/texts.

 

[TwoBytes]

Now the GM is out, is health data in iCloud working?

 

[Mlrollin91]

Now the GM is out, is health data in iCloud working?

I will find out Friday. Will have an iTunes backup just incase, but want to set the device up as new and only retain health.