Apple Watch Activity Rings Disappeared From Watch Face (watchOS 8)
Last updated on October 16th, 2021 at 03:55 am
Posted in Bug Fixes by Mike on September 30, 2021
Activity Rings disappeared in watchOS 8?
Have the Apple Watch Activity Rings disappeared from your Watch Face? Is this happening daily, or several times a day since you updated to watchOS 8? The good news is that activity tracking continues normally, in the background, and the Rings are available in the Fitness app!
Apple Watch Activity Rings Disappeared ?
You’re not the only one. This bug has been mentioned by several iPhoneTricks.org readers including:
Anita:
“Exercise rings periodically disappear on Watch Face. The numbers remain… It just started since WatchOS 8 update!”
“This is happening to me as well. At first it seemed that the rings would disappear immediately after completing a workout. But they disappeared on me 3 times yesterday. Happens on both the Activity Analog and Digital.”
How To Bring Back Apple Watch Activity Rings
Users affected by this watchOS 8 glitch have confirmed that only rebooting the Apple Watch will bring back the Activity Rings on the respective Watch Face.
Trick: You can apply the force restart combo described here, which requires you to simultaneously press and hold the Digital Crown and the Side Button until the Apple logo is displayed on the screen!
Fact: Some have tried to switch between Watch Faces without any success. Restarting is the only way, but it can become annoying if the issue starts occurring several times a day.
Workaround For Missing Activity Rings
David S. informs that the Fitness rings work normally with the Meridian Watch Face.
So, if you’re tried of continuously troubleshooting this glitch, you could switch for it until Apple issues a software update with a fix!
Workaround To Check Activity Rings
When the rings are not displaying on the Watch Face, the numbers are still there. More, you can review the rings by opening Settings -> Activity on the Apple Watch, or by browsing the Fitness app on the paired iPhone!
Activity Rings Disappearing Causes
The exercise Rings tend to disappear after completing a workout, but they can also vanish out of the blue. We couldn’t determine an obvious triggering factor.
This is why we rely on your reports. If you’re also affected by the disappearing Activity Rings bug in watchOS 8, don’t hesitate to share your feedback using the comments section to provide more details. Do you have a better workaround?
Related: Apple Watch not updating in Always-On mode is another common watchOS 8 issue!
I have exactly the same issue. Each day the numbers are there but the rings do not show on my watch face. The only way I’ve found to get them back is to force a restart, this becomes quite annoying when you have to keep doing it each day.
Thanks for confirming. A reader also suggested to just change between Watch Faces and return to your current one in order to bring back the Activity Rings. Does this work without a reboot?
Changing between faces didn’t work for me. This just showed up today (Jan. 5 ’21). Restarting the watch just now fixed it, although it took a good minute or so to turn the rings back on; for a while it looked like the watch had clobbered all my data for the day.
Thanks for sharing your feedback and confirming the the force restart efforts helps you out.
Same here! It’s annoying and I don’t know what else to do to fix this
Have you tried to unpair and re-pair Apple Watch?
Yes, my watch is doing the same thing after the iOS UPDATE. I’ve Tried changing watch faces, uninstalling my watch from my phone and wiping it, then restoring it from a backup. The only way is to restart the watch, it is so annoying.
Thanks for confirming Richard. Yes, it’s annoying. What Apple Watch model are you owning?
This is happening to mine since the update too.
It’s really starting to annoy me as it’s almost daily now. I’m fed up of turning it off or restarting or uploading a different face.
I have also had the entire watch face completely change to a different one without doing a single thing. Which is even more annoying than missing activity rings! I hope they get this sorted soon. Not what you expect from an update.
Thanks for the feedback Sue. Changing watch faces can easily happen accidentally, thanks to an unwanted swipe. The activity rings are annoying indeed!
This is happening to me too. OS8 is really glitchy, I’m getting all the bugs.
The dismiss button has been since the update but the activity ring and the always on lag started today.
I know it’ll fix eventually but it is very annoying.
Thanks for confirming Stuart. Yes, hopping to get a fix in watchOS 8.1. I do have my question marks regarding time lagging on Always-On. Apple, has changed the way AOD works in watchOS 8. Not sure if this is just a minor bug, or the have to do some important OS changes to fix it.
Keep in touch. Don’t hesitate to share followups in case you notice something new.
The rings show on my face but when I press it all I get are badges. I can’t find my steps or other activity I for anywhere. Help! .
It seems that the Awards screen is displayed when you tap the Activity Rings. You have to swipe from left to right to get back. You have to pass the Sharing screen until you finally reach the Activity stats.
Also happening to me multiple times a day and especially after logging an activity. Switching watch faces doesn’t fix it only a restart brings it back. Really frustrating and haven’t seen anything to suggest the new update will remedy it.
Thanks for reporting. Yes, we’re still waiting for a confirmations. We couldn’t replicate the issue.
I still have this problem, even after the 8.1 update :-/
Sorry to hear this. Let’s hope they will address it soon.
My rings disappeared for first time today (although not on the watch face, just the watch app) – rebooted as suggested and they’ve come back. Was already updated to 8.1.
Thanks for reporting this Jane. Let us know if the situation re-occurs.
I just bought my watch series 7 and still have the rings disappear. Also I climb my stairs 6 to 12 times a day and nothing is recorded for that.
Thanks for reporting Sherrie. Have you updated to watchOS 8.3?
Installed watchOS 8.5. Hopefully that may fix it
It’s January 2022 and this only started happening last week. I followed everything here and I cannot get the rings back at all. I even switched to Meridian watch face and not only do the rings not appear but if I tap the rings icon it takes me to a black screen.
Okay, have it a couple of minutes and now all the rings show and I get the full rings by tapping the icon. Thanks, Apple, for giving me options but also for not letting me use some of those options lol
Thanks for the feedback Wendi. Let us know if the problem reoccurs.
My watch series 6 has been missing rings since ios8 first released. Very frustrating and have contacted Apple on numerous occasions and they haven’t a clue why’d I am talking about
Apple support in Texas are following this up gorbme
Exercise rings have disappeared on my Apple Watch
Have you tried the reboot solution?