I’ve said this time and again – I use my Apple Watch for tracking my workouts almost every day. It almost never fails. Yes, almost! Of late, I’ve come to find my watch paused halfway through my workout if I’m too zoned out to notice early on.
These unexpected pauses throw off my data and are also extremely frustrating. The good news? There are a few quick fixes that can get things back on track.
How to Prevent the Workout App from Pausing Your Workout on the Apple Watch
Fix 1: Clean your Apple Watch sensors and change your watch position
The most common reason for your Apple Watch pausing workouts automatically is that the position where you’re wearing your watch has tattoos, or it has a loose fit. Wearing it on the inner part of your wrist or a little higher and tighter, where the tattoo isn’t as prominent, could be an easy fix for preventing the Apple Watch from pausing the workout mid-way.
Dirt and grime from using your Apple Watch outdoors, especially for hiking and training for marathons, also collect around the sensors of the watch, preventing an accurate reading. Make sure to clean the sensors at the back of the watch with a soft cloth in order to prevent random pauses in your workouts.
Fix 2: Change your settings
Unless you’re training for a marathon, you would be someone who takes a little longer rest time in between sets of a workout, like a normal person. In such a case, when the Apple Watch detects inactivity, the workout pauses automatically.
Even when I slow down my pace, this automatic pause takes effect. While this feature is useful at times, for longer pauses in between workouts, it gets a little annoying. Another reason for an accidental pause is the Press to Pause setting. When enabled, the workouts are paused and resumed by simultaneously pressing the side button and the Digital Crown.
Because of the position of these buttons on my wrist, I tend to press them accidentally while lifting weights without realizing it. If you’re doing the same, there are two settings that can help you with this:
- Turn off Auto-Pause: To turn off this setting, head to Settings on your Apple Watch and tap Workout > Auto-Pause > Toggle Off Auto-Pause.
- Turn off Press to Pause: To turn off Press to Pause, head to Settings > Workout. Scroll down and toggle off ‘Press to Pause’.
- Restart your Apple Watch after enabling these settings.
Fix 3: Dismiss the ‘Finished your workout?’ message
The Apple Watch tends to send start and end workout reminders as and when it detects activity or inactivity. When the watch detects a little inactivity, this comes in the form of a ‘Finished your workout?’ reminder.
The easiest way is to bypass this reminder by scrolling down and tapping ‘Dismiss’. If, however, you accidentally tap Pause, the workout can be resumed right then.
To turn this setting off completely, head to Settings on your Apple Watch and scroll down to Workouts. Toggle Off Start Workout and End Workout.
Fix 4: Turn Off Wrist Detection
Now, this is a little tricky to turn off. If you don’t use a silicone band for your Apple Watch and it tends to get a little loose during a workout, turning off Wrist Detection is a good call. It will prevent the watch from pausing a workout automatically in such a case.
To turn off Wrist Detection, head to the Settings on the Apple Watch and tap Passcode. Scroll down and toggle off ‘Wrist Detection’. While this setting will take care of the accidental pausing of workouts, it affects other functionalities of the Apple Watch.
- The Apple Watch fails to make emergency calls with Fall and Crash detection.
- Not all activity measurements are available.
- Using Apple Pay without wrist detection prompts for a passcode each time.
- Heart rate tracking and notifications are unavailable.
Because the functionality of my Apple Watch is much more with the Wrist Detection on, I tend not to turn this feature off. But if nothing else is working for you, it is worth giving a shot.
Fix 5: Turn On Water Lock
The Water Lock feature on my Apple Watch is not used for its intended use. Mostly because I don’t know how to swim, but what it is used for is to prevent myself from accidentally touching the screen and pausing my workouts.
Simply press the side button to access the Control Center and tap on the Water Lock sign that looks like a water droplet. When activated, the water droplet sign turns blue, and any accidental taps on the screen do not affect your workout. This can only be deactivated by pressing and holding the Digital Crown.
Fix 6: Turn on Location Services
Turning on the location services lets the Apple Watch track outdoor activities better, resulting in a more accurate reading. Open the Settings app on the Apple Watch and tap Privacy & Security. Tap Location Services and toggle on Location Services.
Fix 7: Restart and Update your Apple Watch
A forever-favourite trick for anything that goes wrong in a device is to shut down and restart. The same goes for troubleshooting your Apple Watch that keeps pausing workouts. Restart your Apple Watch and check for any pending software updates that may be causing this issue.
Fix 8: Contact Apple Customer Support
If none of the fixes work for you, please get in touch with Apple’s customer support team. If your watch is under warranty, they will take it for repair or exchange. If the watch is out of warranty, they will guide you through troubleshooting steps and further repair options, which may include paid services.
Why Does My Apple Watch Pause During Workouts?
- The most common reason I’ve seen for the Apple Watch to pause a workout randomly is that the skin where the Apple Watch is on has tattoos, which prevent the sensors from getting an accurate reading.
- Since the watch has wrist detection, wearing the watch too loosely on your wrist is another reason why the Apple Watch may be pausing your workouts.
- A low battery might also be a cause since the Apple Watch wants to conserve energy.
- Outdated software could be causing this glitch.
- Certain settings, such as the Auto-Pause feature or accidentally pressing the buttons when the Press to Pause feature is on, could be another reason.
- Dirt and grime on the sensors of the watch, because of using it for outdoor activities, can also prevent the sensors from reading the activity correctly.
Wrap Up
There were certain settings on my Apple Watch that kept pausing my workouts in the middle. While this was obviously hampering my flow during a HIIT session, the fixes above were able to get this problem fixed. If you are also having such an issue, I’m sure you will find a solution in this article.
If there’s anything else that has worked for you, let me know in the comments! Happy sprinting.
