So I have spent the past month going back and forth with Apple trying to solve this weird issue on my Apple Watch Series 6 cellular model, which started happening since I moved from NYC to the Bay Area:
As the screenshots show, my watch puts me about 8000 ft higher than what my phone tells me. I tried resetting the watch, which would initially fix it. However it does go back to reporting the wrong elevation after I do an outdoor workout. Relative elevation gain is correct, but the absolute value goes absolutely crazy. This is what happens when I do the first outdoor workout after resetting the watch:
1. I started calling Apple about a month ago, and the support advisors promised that he would have someone on the health support team call me but that never happened.
2. A week later and the third time I called Apple, I finally got to a health support specialist who has been helping me since then. She first collected diagnostics and logs and sent my situation over to "Apple engineers", who then determined that it is a hardware issue.
3. I sent the watch in for service, but they claimed not being able to reproduce the issue, hence sent my watch back unfixed.
4. So I reproduced the issue, called the same specialist again, who told me to send it in again, and she will attach a special note to it. Yet, Apple sent my watch back unfixed stating the same reason.
This frustrating process has taken three weeks and counting. So it looks like a hardware issue, until I decided to do some experiments myself since Apple isn't competent enough to figure out what is wrong.
1. Let's say my original watch is watch A. I bought an Apple Watch SE GPS (B), and another Apple Watch S6 cellular (C). I paired them to my iPhone and took them to outdoor workouts.
2. Interestingly watch B's altimeter remained accurate after a long hike, but after a brief outdoor walk watch C's altimeter also started to be off by 8000 ft.
3. Suspecting that it might somehow be related to the cellular functionality, I then reset watch A, and then did an outdoor walk without adding the cellular plan to it. No glitch.
4. Then I moved the plan over from C to A and then did another outdoor walk. Now it is glitched again.
So now I am much less sure that it is a hardware issue, since the chance that both watches A and C are faulty in the same way is probably low. But I also couldn't figure out why it started happening after I moved to the Bay Area, not can I accept an 8000 ft error on my Apple Watch, or just give up the cellular functionality. Any chance someone can give me advices on what is going on?
As the screenshots show, my watch puts me about 8000 ft higher than what my phone tells me. I tried resetting the watch, which would initially fix it. However it does go back to reporting the wrong elevation after I do an outdoor workout. Relative elevation gain is correct, but the absolute value goes absolutely crazy. This is what happens when I do the first outdoor workout after resetting the watch:
1. I started calling Apple about a month ago, and the support advisors promised that he would have someone on the health support team call me but that never happened.
2. A week later and the third time I called Apple, I finally got to a health support specialist who has been helping me since then. She first collected diagnostics and logs and sent my situation over to "Apple engineers", who then determined that it is a hardware issue.
3. I sent the watch in for service, but they claimed not being able to reproduce the issue, hence sent my watch back unfixed.
4. So I reproduced the issue, called the same specialist again, who told me to send it in again, and she will attach a special note to it. Yet, Apple sent my watch back unfixed stating the same reason.
This frustrating process has taken three weeks and counting. So it looks like a hardware issue, until I decided to do some experiments myself since Apple isn't competent enough to figure out what is wrong.
1. Let's say my original watch is watch A. I bought an Apple Watch SE GPS (B), and another Apple Watch S6 cellular (C). I paired them to my iPhone and took them to outdoor workouts.
2. Interestingly watch B's altimeter remained accurate after a long hike, but after a brief outdoor walk watch C's altimeter also started to be off by 8000 ft.
3. Suspecting that it might somehow be related to the cellular functionality, I then reset watch A, and then did an outdoor walk without adding the cellular plan to it. No glitch.
4. Then I moved the plan over from C to A and then did another outdoor walk. Now it is glitched again.
So now I am much less sure that it is a hardware issue, since the chance that both watches A and C are faulty in the same way is probably low. But I also couldn't figure out why it started happening after I moved to the Bay Area, not can I accept an 8000 ft error on my Apple Watch, or just give up the cellular functionality. Any chance someone can give me advices on what is going on?
