Frequently Asked Questions

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The first section called 'Top 10 Most Popular Questions' lists the most common questions we receive from users, all with steps to solve. Review this list of questions and answers first. For most people it just works 'straight out of the box'. But if you are having a problem or need a bit more info, then you'll find the answers below. 

Top 10 Most Popular HeartWatch Questions & Answers

Question #1: Not seeing any data?

Answer: This is due to either some iPhone/Watch settings, Apple's iPhone & Watch operating system or health permissions. We have documented out all the steps starting with the most common. Refer to the following link.

Click here to follow the steps to fix this issue


Question #2: Asking for my Date of Birth (DOB)?

Answer: Date of Birth is stored and maintained in the Apple Health app. This is an app that comes pre-installed on your iPhone and has a white icon with a red heart. To enter your data of birth in iOS 14+:

*Important: If after doing the above and it still doesn't work, then it will be due to missing permissions. Follow this link here to review your health permissions.


Question #3: My Watch App is Crashing or Not Working

The iPhone app is fine but the app on the Watch crashes when you try open it. This is usually due to an Apple bug that was in an iOS update that affected health permissions. You need to Reset Permissions to fix this. To reset HealthKit permissions for iOS and Watch health services and ensure everything works on the watch going forward, please perform these 7 steps. It is important to do all steps in this exact order especially steps 3 & 4 as this restarts the crashed system services on your iPhone and Watch. 


1. Remove the app from your Apple Watch by going into the Apple “Watch” app, on your iPhone scroll down until you find HeartWatch and then remove it. 

2. Go into the iPhone Settings, Privacy, Health. Press HeartWatch and then press all categories off.

3. Power the iPhone off as per this link.  (i.e. Shut the iPhone down completely so that it restarts with the  on screen). 

https://support.apple.com/HT201559

4. Power the Watch off and on as per this link. 

https://support.apple.com/HT204510

5. Now in iPhone Settings, Privacy, Health, HeartWatch press all categories on. Make sure that all the switches are turned on. 

6. Now go into HeartWatch iPhone app and this should restore all permissions

7. Wait 5 minutes and then Install the watch app (using the Apple “Watch” app.)


Question #4: Updated my iPhone iOS and Watch OS but my data disappeared?

Answer: This is due to some health permissions that have not been granted by Health during your update. Your data is still in Health. Click here to follow the steps to fix this issue


Question #5: Why are my heart rate alerts slow?

Answer: You might find you receive alerts 20 mins or later  after the reading. This all comes down to the Watch processing time. In short, because the Watch is capable of running lots of apps, Apple uses various strategies to decide whether an app is granted background time. However we can setup HeartWatch to get priority and super quick alerts with a couple easy steps. See the below link for instructions to get the best performance with alerts and notifications. Click here to follow the steps to fix this issue


Question #6: My Pulse Check Does Not Work

Answer: I open the Pulse check but it just hangs and does nothing. This is also due to some health permissions that have not been granted. Click here to follow the steps to fix this issue


Question #7: My Sleep Data Stopped Capturing

Answer: It was working for a period of time but suddenly stopped showing Sleep bpm and/or Sleep HRV. HeartWatch will only be able to report on data when it can read heart rate measurements. This could be one of a number of things, but the most common is forgetting to enable the Apple Watch Passcode at night, accidentally having Wrist Detection turned off or not having health permissions. Click here to check all the steps to see why the sleep data has gone missing.


Question #8: I use the Apple Sleep app and my sleep data looks incorrect?

Answer: There is a design flaw in Apple's Sleep app where it uses your iPhone for 'In Bed' and Watch for 'Asleep'. Consequently 'In Bed' is often wrong meaning your sleep metrics will be out and this will pull through into HeartWatch. You can fix this by changing some setup options. 

Click here to follow the steps to fix the issue


Question #9: Where is the Watch App?

Answer: If the Watch app isn’t showing in the Apple “Watch” settings app on your iPhone then here's what to do. You fix this by "turning it off and on". 

The Watch app should now appear in the “Watch” settings app on the iPhone so that you can install it to the Watch. 


Question #10: No Blood Oxygen (SpO2) and/or Sleep Respiration (BrPM) Data Showing

SpO2 Answer: Provided you have an Apple Watch Series 6 or greater, Oxygen Saturation in the health permissions needs to be on to see SpO2 in HeartWatch. To check:

You also need to ensure that background measurements are enabled to measure SpO2 while sleeping. Refer to the SpO2 Setup section on the Wellness page for instructions. Blood oxygen measurements only occur during sleep if the Track Sleep with Apple Watch setting is turned on. While in the Watch app, scroll down and tap into Sleep, you will see a switch to enable called 'Track Sleep with Apple Watch'

Respiration Answer: You require an Apple Watch Series 3 or greater with iOS 15  and WatchOS 8 installed. If you have this you need to do all these 3 steps: (1) allow health permissions, (2) allow Watch permissions and (3) enable the Sleep Focus mode at bedtime. Refer to the Respiration Rate Setup section on the Wellness page for instructions.

Note: Apple restricts measuring blood oxygen and respiration rate if the age in Health is under 18 years. This can sometimes catch out users who may have swapped iPhones with their children and have not updated their date of birth.

Recent iPhone and Watch Update Issues

Updated to iOS16/WatchOS 9 and No Longer Measuring Sleeping SpO2 or Respiration Rate?

Apple have added a new requirement for background measures of SpO2 and Respiration Rate while sleeping called 'Track Sleep with Apple Watch'. This needs to be on the Watch you wear to bed. Steps to check:

If still having issues, we recommend reviewing the full setup steps incase another permission has been changed on your iPhone during the iOS update:

Click here for SpO2 setup

 Click here for Respiration Rate setup

Low Power Mode on WatchOS 9

Please be aware that using low power mode on your Apple Watch will turn off background heart measures, heart rate notifications and blood oxygen readings among other things. So it makes tracking of little use as heart rate is the essential health metric! Try avoid low power mode where possible for accurate tracking. Here is the link to the official Apple site on low power mode and other limitations.

Watch App Crashing after Updating WatchOS

Some customers have discovered that after updating to WatchOS it causes some issues on the Watch app. 

If you haven't read the Quick Start Guide of HeartWatch's main features yet, we highly recommend this as a first step for beginners as it explains some of the common setup issues that catch out new Apple Watch owners. 

If looking for instructions on how to use specific HeartWatch functions, refer to the User Guide, as it contains a list with links to all the different parts of HeartWatch.

Learn about all the key words and terms that you will find in HeartWatch. Click here for more.

Popular Data Questions

Where Does My Health Data Live

All your health data used by HeartWatch is stored in the Apple Health app. HeartWatch will never be able to delete your health data, as this all managed in the Apple Health app. HeartWatch deliver total privacy on your health data, refer to our Privacy page for more information.


Not Seeing Any Data or Watch App not Working

There are two mains reasons for errors. Click here to see a dedicated page setup for this with steps to solve.


Not Seeing Any Data After Updating

This is due to some health permissions that have not been granted. This is more common in Watch OS6. Its an easy fix following these steps:

1. Go into the iPhone Settings app on your iPhone. Choose Privacy, Health. Press HeartWatch and then press all categories off.

2. Power the iPhone off and on as per this link.  (i.e. shut the iPhone down completely so that it restarts with the  on screen). https://support.apple.com/HT201559

3. Power the Watch off and on as per this link. https://support.apple.com/HT204510

4. Now in iPhone Settings, Privacy, Health, HeartWatch press all categories on. Make sure that all the switches are turned on

6. Now go into HeartWatch iPhone app

7. Press the little Settings Cog on the top row (image below)

8. Select Advanced Settings (image below)

9. Select Rebuild History (image below). A red heart will appear and days will start to pre-fill. Note this may take a few minutes as it loads up 12 months of data.


Watch data different to iPhone data

Your Watch communicates with your iPhone app during the day and night, so sometimes it may be a little behind and not exactly in sync. To refresh your iPhone app data, pull down on the HeartWatch Today view until you see the HeartWatch logo appear and it will refresh. All sections on the Today view also have a quick refresh icon you can tap, as shown in the Navigation section.


Not seeing Heart Rate, Energy or Sleep Data

This is normally due to HealthKit permissions. Heart Watch reads your heart rate data via your iPhone's Health Data Store. When you first launch the app it will ask for your permission. It's important that you provide your ok for all this information as it is required for all the required calculations. If you were accidentally a bit quick doing this and missed granting permissions, then you can do this at any time by going into iPhone Settings, Privacy, Health, selecting Heart Watch and turning the required permissions on.

If you are not seeing anything you have entered on the Watch, such as sleep or measurements then pay particular attention to the write permissions. 


News shows "you do not capture this useful metric..."

This is due to the information not being captured for that story. For example, you may not wear your Watch for sleep tracking so it cannot report on your sleep bpm, or perhaps you cannot see SpO2 data because it requires an Apple Watch Series 6 or above. Remember you can add/remove stories by scrolling to the bottom of the screen.


How do I show HeartWatch Data to my Doctor?

Some users open HeartWatch, go into Journal and show directly from their iPhone, viewing the list view and then drilling in where needed. Other options include using the Export feature found in settings, which can produce a report with all the key measurements over the time period you select. Its really up to whatever you feel comfortable with. But we are developing a new Health Report that will be exactly for this type of scenario.


Where is my Wrist Temperature History?

If you already have historical wrist temperature measures that show in the Health app but not in HeartWatch, run a rebuild in HeartWatch to show these values. In the HeartWatch iPhone app, go into Settings (little red cog top right corner), into Advanced Settings, then tap on Rebuild History. Wait a few minutes for the last 12 months to rebuild, which will include past wrist temperature values. Remember this will only load wrist temperature measures, do not confuse with body temperature as this is a different metric stored in Health.


Exporting CSV File Structure is Out

Refer here to the Exports page to see some hints for adjusting the separator

Popular Setup Questions

How do I enter my Date of Birth?

Date of Birth is stored and maintained in the Apple Health app. This is an app that comes pre-installed on your iPhone and has a white icon with a red heart. To enter your date of birth in iOS 14+:

1. Go into the Apple Health app. If you can't find it, swipe right on your home screen until you get to search and then type in "Health".

2. Tap the Summary tab at the bottom

3. Press your profile icon in the top right corner, then select Health Details.

3. Press the Edit button in the top right corner. 

4. You can now edit your details. 

*Important: If after doing the above and it still doesn't work, then it will be due to missing permissions. Follow this link here to review your health permissions.


The Tutorial Keeps Appearing

Please complete the tutorial until you see the done button. When you press the done button at the end then you will not see the tutorial again. 


How do I learn more about using HeartWatch?

Visit our Quick Start Guide as a first step to understand the basics. Over time you may like to refer to our User Guide which explains all the functionality in detail.
Click here for the Quick Start Guide
Click here for the Full User Guide


I've got a Shiny New iPhone! How do I keep my data?

Everything is stored in the Apple Health database. 

There are two ways to restore this on a new iPhone:

Using iTunes (my preferred method as it is faster and much more reliable)

Using iCloud

If you have previously enabled iCloud health synch then you can restore your health data by signing into your iCloud account on the new iPhone. Then go into the Apple Health app and you’ll start to see all the data appearing. It can take quite some time for everything to show up. Sometimes a whole day. 

If everything fails to show up in the app, then is sometimes due to permissions not being carried across. Usually deleting and re-installing the app solves this. But remember to press Keep on the second message that you get when you delete the app. 

Finally. Always unpair the Watch from your old iPhone and set up as a new Watch on your new iPhone. The automatic method Apple provides is not very reliable.


Family Sharing Not Working

Family Sharing is enabled with HeartWatch (and encouraged by us!). We have found this solves the issue for most users:


Family Sharing has Stopped Working

We have heard of the rare issue in iOS 13. Many folk have been able to solve via this method:

https://www.iphonejd.com/iphone_jd/2019/04/this-app-is-no-longer-shared-with-you.html

We have also heard of some solutions by users who have fixed it by hiding the app from purchased apps and then restore it from account page.

If not, then you will need to contact Apple Support as they run the App Store and set up and control family sharing (developers have no access or control over this, it's all handled by Apple). Here's the link to use to do this: Contact Apple Support

Popular Heart Rate Questions

How do I use the Watch app to take my pulse, start a workout or sleep, etc.

The Watch does lots of things. You can learn how it works and what it does here


Not seeing automatic Heart Rate readings

If you have disabled "Wrist Detection" in your Watch settings, General panel, or have set your watch to low power mode, this can result in your Apple Watch no longer taking automatic heart rate readings throughout the day. Check Wrist Detection by going into the Watch app, then Passcode.


What is my Resting Heart Rate?

Refer to your Waking Pulse for your resting heart rate (RHR), as this is the gold standard for taking the measure under controlled conditions. Do not confuse Sedentary heart rate as your resting heart rate, as it is not. If you do not wear your Watch to bed and do not record a waking pulse, then the best option to monitor your resting heart rate consistently is first thing in the morning when you wake, put your Watch on and perform a Pulse Check using the HeartWatch Watch app.


Delays in Seeing Heart Rate or Sleep Data in the iPhone app

Occasionally you will experience a minor delay while your Watch writes health data to your phone and the health store does its updates. These are generally minor. You can pull the Heart Watch summary screen down at any time to get the latest update, this is shown in our Navigation page. 


How do I turn off heart rate alerts

You may like to turn off the alerts if you have no need to be notified, you can do this easily from the Watch app, going into Settings and turning the Active switch off. This will stop the daily heart rate alerts.


What are the Daily Graph Icons

You will notice a little icon to the right of the screen against each measurement, this acts a quick reference to the following:

More information can be found in the Wellness page.


No Blood Oxygen SpO2 Data Showing

Provided you have an Apple Watch Series 6, Oxygen Saturation in the health permissions needs to be on to see SpO2 in HeartWatch. To check:

Blood oxygen measurements only occur during sleep if the Track Sleep with Apple Watch setting is turned on. While in the Watch app, scroll down and tap into Sleep, you will see a switch to enable called 'Track Sleep with Apple Watch'. You also need to ensure that background measurements are enabled to measure SpO2 while sleeping. Refer to the SpO2 Setup section on the Wellness page for instructions. 


What is Sleeping HRV and Waking HRV?

Have you used Morning Briefing in HeartWatch news? If you touch the story it will explain what it is and what it is use for. 

Sleeping HRV is the average of your HRV readings for the night. When compared against your trailing average it is a good indication of how stressed you were during sleep. If your days reading is higher than the average then you are less stressed. If it is lower then more stressed. 

Waking HRV is taken upon waking by using the Breathe app on your Apple Watch. On waking lie very still and do a 1 minute breathe session. Note that since WatchOS 8, the breathe app is now found in the Mindfulness app on your Apple Watch. When compared to your accumulated averages this can then let you see mental & physical stress. If higher, you are less stressed. If lower more stressed.

Refer to HRV in the Wellness page for more information.


How Does Blood Pressure Work

As up to the current Apple Watch Series 6, the Watch cannot measure your blood pressure, but you can speak measurements into HeartWatch or use a blood pressure device to do the measurements that integrates into Health on your iPhone. Unless you have an integrated device that sends your blood pressure readings directly into Apple Health, we recommend using the Speak option on the HeartWatch app, its super easy and it recognises your voice as a blood pressure measure and puts it directly into your Health app. More information can be found in the Watch Use section on recording measures and notes, but as a quick example, you just open the Watch app, select 'Speak' from the menu, tap the microphone icon and then speak the reading, for example "blood pressure 124 over 81", HeartWatch will do the rest by recognising it as a blood pressure reading and add it directly into HeartWatch.

More information on blood pressure can be found on the Wellness page.

Popular User Interface Questions

What are the tiles, badges and stuff?

They give you an at a glance view of your heart rate data. Refer to the Navigation and  Wellness page for more information on each of the tiles and images in HeartWatch


How do I enter Measurements like weight, blood pressure, temperature?

You can use your Watch to speak in measurements or you can use Journals in the iPhone. See links below for both to understand more:

Entering Measurements with Speak on your Watch

Entering Measurements with Journal on your iPhone


I Have Lost My HeartWatch Tiles?

You can enable or hide HeartWatch tiles within the app, so never fear if you accidentally turned one off. Refer 'Turning Tiles On and Off' in Navigation to see how to turn them back on.


I'm Stuck on the Welcome Screen After Installing

Just do a force close of the app and reload and you should be good to go from here on. Click here to see how to force close an app.


Viewing Details Graphs for a Previous Day

On the clock tab you can select any of the last 7 days and view the sleep session by selecting it below the clock. On the history you can force/long press any day to view the clock tab.

Popular Watch App Questions

How do I use the Watch app to start a workout or sleep, etc. 

The Watch does lots of things. You can learn how it works and what it does here


Im using the Apple Sleep app and my data looks incorrect

Apple's Sleep app where it uses your iPhone for 'In Bed' and Watch for 'Asleep' which can lead to issues. Refer to this page for using HeartWatch sleep tracking with the Apple Sleep app.


How do I see my live heart rate on my iPhone during Workouts 

HeartWatch allows you to broadcast your heart rate to your iPhone when running a workout, very handy for when exercising on a rower or stationary bike. Refer to Watch Use Workouts to see how to stream your heart rate.


My Watch Face Complications are not showing any data

New complications were rolled out in Version 4.2. If you are seeing a "- -" type symbol you just need to go and select one of the new complications. We have instructions on setting up your Watch face in the Watch Settings page here.


Not Seeing Data on Watch App

If you are seeing your heart rate data in the HeartWatch iPhone app, but not seeing any data on your HeartWatch Watch app, then this is likely a HealthKit permission problem. To fix, follow these five steps.

1. Remove the Watch app from your Watch.

2.  Reboot the Watch by simultaneously pressing the Crown & Side button until you see the Apple logo appear. 

3. Reboot the iPhone by simultaneously pressing the home button and the sleep wake button until the Apple logo appears.

4. Once both devices are back to life, wait a few minutes until they are both happy and communicating. 

5. Re-install the Watch app. 

This should fix most cases of not seeing data on the Watch.


The Watch app has become slow or unresponsive

A quick reboot of the Watch will get everything performing well again. They are fancy computers on your wrist so they can get a little tired after a week or so. You can do this by pressing the crown and side button simultaneously until you see the Apple logo. This will take about a minute. After that everything will be super fast again. It's good to do this once a week when you put the Watch on the charging dock. 


Pulse Not Working on Watch

This is due to some health permissions that have not been granted. Refer to the health permissions page for instructions to fix.


Where is the Watch App?

This is a lovely little bug that has become much more popular in iOS 13. If the Watch app isn’t showing in the Apple “Watch” settings app on your iPhone then here's what to do.

You fix this by "turning it off and on". 

The Watch app should now appear in the “Watch” settings app on the iPhone so that you can install it to the Watch. 


Cannot add Complications?

Sometimes the Watch setting app on iPhone doesn't get informed that there are shiny new complications. 

You can resolve by adding them directly on the Watch itself. Refer to the official Apple support page on setting up Complications here. For additional information on the Complications available in HeartWatch, refer to Complications on our Watch Use section. 


Complication on Watch Not Showing Data

This could be due to a few reasons:


Why is it draining my Watch battery?

Well, it isn't really. There's an Apple install bug that sometimes doesn't end gracefully and keeps the comms open between your Watch & iPhone and drains your battery. 

It’s very important to perform all these steps in the exact order. Especially 2 & 3 are these cause crashed OS services to restart. 

Popular Alerts & Notifications Questions

My background alerts are delayed/not working. 

Firstly, in order to get the background processing time in the Watch to be able to do alert monitoring, you need to have the HeartWatch complication on your watch face. It is also best practice to go into the app when you first put your Watch on. This tells the Watch that you use the app and that it is important to you and ensures that any background services are started.  

To add a complication to your Watch, press the clock face firmly until you feel it push back, then press customise. Swipe and you will be able to set up the complication. Refer to the official Apple support page on setting up Complications here

The complication should be updating every 10 minutes. This same process also does the alert processing natively on the watch. It will only alert for things that it knows you haven't seen though. The Apple Watch takes background readings every 2-10 minutes so this timing ties in well.

ALSO NOTE: If you put the Watch on the charger for even a single minute, then put it back on, this resets the processing budget for all complications and makes them much faster. This is useful to do in the morning if you have worn the Watch overnight. 

Refer to this page for a full explanation.


How do I control Alerts

Alerts are all configured directly from the Watch app under the Settings menu. Open your Watch app, scroll down to Settings and you will see a menu item for Alerts. Additional information please refer to the alerts section in Watch Use - Alerts on configuring alerts.


I want to set custom alerts for my workouts. 

Yes, your heart rate max percentage can be set to custom values. It is all setup in Settings under Heartbeat. Refer to our Settings page for setting HR zones alerts during workouts


I want to set custom daily zones for my heart rate. 

Yes, this is similar to the above workout zones. Your heart rate max percentage can be set to custom values. It is all setup in Settings under Heartbeat. Refer to our Settings page for setting HR zones for your daily heart beats.

Popular Workout Questions

Which Workouts Show GPS Maps

Outdoor Running, Outdoor Walking, Outdoor Cycling and Outdoor Hiking will all activate a GPS activation on your Watch and produce a map for viewing after the workout in your HeartWatch iPhone app. 

When you start one of the activities you need to wait for the GPS Activation to get a lock to ensure an accurate GPS map from the start. If you press 'Skip GPS' it will not record a map. Ensure you are outside so it can easily lock a GPS signal.


Note that for a GPS map to show you need some permissions enabled:

No location data leaves your device with the HeartWatch app.


Cannot Get a GPS Lock on Workouts Start

This is usually due to not having the precise location switch enabled. Just follow these steps:

Note - No location data leaves your device with the HeartWatch app.


How Do I Turn Off Workout Vibrations & Alerts

Just open Alerts from within the Watch app, turn off Zonal and then set the minimum and maximum to "OFF" by spinning the digital crown.


Not seeing Workouts

When you are active, by default your Apple Watch will not take automatic heart rate readings. When exercising, you need to tell your Watch that you are doing a workout. This changes the heart rate monitoring mode to the high sampling rate. 

The easiest way to do this is to start a workout directly in the HeartWatch app. You can also either use the inbuilt Apple Watch workout app or whatever your favourite workout is that writes workout data to the Apple Health database (HealthKit). 

Always remember to end and save the workout. This will write the workout information to the Apple Health database and allow it to show in the HeartWatch iPhone & Watch apps.


Remove/Delete/Edit a Workout

HeartWatch can only Edit/Remove workout entries that originated from HeartWatch, however there is a work around for removing 3rd party workout entries. We have listed the steps to Edit and Remove in the Workouts page here.


Walks and Runs Show in Health but not on HeartWatch

HeartWatch will only show workouts when a heart rate is recorded, and sometimes people accidentally turn on the power saving mode for the Watch which disables heart rate capture.


Move, Steps or Distance Different on Watch to iPhone

Sometimes there may be a delay from the data sync from your Watch to the iPhone. You can do a pull down refresh or press the refresh button in the section header. This will then sync with your Watch.


Why are my Steps slower to update

Sometimes there is a delay with steps. HeartWatch uses Apple's query for this that does an intelligent combo of iPhone and Watch steps, so any delay is likely not having all the data from the Watch at that point in time. So, every now it may lag a little. To help with this we built in a refresh option, just press the little refresh icon on the title section to sync everything.

Popular News, Fitness Habits & Activity Questions

How do I learn more about Fitness Habits?

We built an entire page about Fitness Habits explaining the concepts and how it works. Remember to wear your Watch during the day (and night if tracking sleep) to get the full benefits of News.


Why is my Morning Briefing mainly blank?

Sometimes you might see in News the text "You do not capture this useful metric..." This is due to the information not being captured for that story. For example, do you wear your Watch for sleep tracking? The Morning Briefing focuses on your sleep heart vitals and waking heart vitals, hence it needs you to wear your Watch overnight to capture the data with wrist detection and passcode enabled. Or perhaps you cannot see SpO2 data because it requires an Apple Watch Series 6. Remember you can add/remove stories by scrolling to the bottom of the screen. Refer to News for more information on how to do this. If you did wear your Watch to bed and its still blank, it may require health permissions to be allowed, as seen in this link.


Im Not Seeing Much Data in Fitness Habits?

Do you have at least 7 days of data? For Fitness Habits to work effectively it needs at least a weeks worth of data to analyse your data. The more you wear your Apple Watch the better the data will be. Refer to Fitness Habits for more information.


I'm Too Far Behind the White Line!

Firstly, thats ok and it happens to everyone. If your exercise is a bit all up and down, you can easily use the reset option. Refer to the Fitness Habits page and look up the Falling Behind section to see how you start a new fitness habit with a clean slate and not be chasing your tail.


My Recommended Goals Are Decreasing

Depending on your goal level this may well be the case. As your Habit Status is tracked over a longer period of time, you may have achieved well over your targets for consecutive days, so the app will start to reduce your targets. This is not a bug, but part of the smarts of the Habit Status tracker. Refer to Activity and Fitness Habits for more information.

External Heart Rate Monitors

You may not know this but you can connect external heart rate monitors such as the Polar H7 and the Wahoo TICKR wirelessly to your Apple Watch and leave your iPhone behind. 

Why Use Heart Rate Straps

These monitors record samples at one reading per second and measure your heart's electrical activity rather than measuring the result optically per your Apple Watch's inbuilt sensor. While the Apple Watch has a fantastic heart rate monitor (the best wrist based monitor we have tested), when your workout isn't rhythmic like walking and running, such as weights workouts or is very high intensity, the optical sensor will sometimes skip recording heart rate readings when it doesn't have complete confidence in the result. In these sort of cases, external monitors are not affected, and will continue to deliver constant readings. 


How to Setup with HeartWatch

There's a one time setup, then it is all automatic. 

Firstly, in HeartWatch iPhone app:

Note: You can also set this to 1 minute samples. This is useful if you want to wear the external monitor for all day use or very long periods of exercise. 

To connect the external monitor to your Apple Watch:

* If it doesn't appear, just exit the settings and go back in. It usually shows up the next time. 

Now, in the future whenever you click the press studs into the chest strep your Apple Watch will use the external monitor in place of the inbuilt optical sensor. 

The built in HeartWatch workout face will now update the workout gauge at one second intervals when the external HR monitor is connected.

Crashes

Got a new iPhone and iPhone app is crashing

If you restored the new iPhone via an iCloud backup instead of iTunes then this has a minor problem in that they forgot to apply heath permissions via this method. 

If you delete the app then re-download it will be fine. 


iPhone App crashing on start

If HeartWatch is crashing on start, this is caused by HealthKit permissions not being correctly updated when you upgraded your iOS. This can be fixed by deleting the HeartWatch iPhone app, rebooting both the iPhone and Apple Watch and then re-installing and going through the setup process in the HeartWatch iPhone app.

As above, if you delete the app (note it gives two prompts, say Yes to the first question and Keep to the second question to keep your data) then re-download and it should be fine. 


I just updated iOS on my iPhone / WatchOS on my Watch and things stopped working. 

The most common problems are updating Watch without updating iPhone, Updating iPhone without Watch, or doing automatic updates. Even doing things properly, there are some Apple Health synch bugs where system services are not correctly started after an update. Step 4 below usually fixes those. 

When updating iPhone or Watch, here's what's important. 

1. Never, ever do automatic updates. They break things. 

2. Always update your iPhone first. This is in iPhone Settings, General, Software Update. 

3. Then update your Watch. This is in "Watch" app (black icon with a picture of a Watch on it), General, Software Update. 

4. When the update has finished, power both devices off and back on again. 

    Power the iPhone and Watch off and on as per these links.

    i.e. Shut down completely and restart. 

    iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201559

    Watch: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204510

In most cases, everything should now be just fine. 

If not, then the update may have removed health permissions. Yes, honestly, they do this sometimes. You can resolve that problem by going to this health permissions page.

Finally, in extremely rare cases, the update can corrupt the Watch's pairing to iPhone. You can solve that problem by unpairing then re-pairing as a New Watch per this link: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT205025

Glossary of Terms

Refer to the Glossary page for a reference of terms used in HeartWatch, along with some information on what some of the key terms mean, such as daily heart rate, waking pulse, workout heart rates and sleep tracking.

Click here for the Glossary of Terms.

Questions?

If you are still having problems, please contact us via the Support page or directly from within the HeartWatch app (recommended). There is a very good chance we can help you with your Watch problems and get everything working. Unfortunately if you decide to post your problem as a review on the App Store, there is no way we can help you as it is not possible for us to contact you by this means (and we want to help you).

Should you have any other questions or suggestions for our FAQ, please refer to our Support page for details

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