How to stop third party apps from adding workouts to iPhone Fitness app and Apple Watch Activity app
Many fitness apps available on the App Store sync and share your workout information with the Apple Health and Activity apps. Not a fan of those third party fitness apps that add exercise data to your iPhone fitness and health apps? You’re not alone.
There are many reasons why users don’t want this data in their fitness and health apps. A popular reason is to avoid the possibility of a workout being double counted. Some users like to record their activities through their Apple Watch alongside the third-party app.
However, Apple Health is fairly intelligent, so double counting is usually avoided – especially when it comes to concurrent activity data from multiple sources.
Removing the third-party data from the fitness app also makes it easier to view workouts from an Apple Watch. Also, depending on the app, some users find that third-party tracking is not accurate.
Regardless of your reason, if you don’t want your activity information to appear in your daily activity rings in the Apple Fitness app, there is a way to prevent it.
Read on to learn more about how to block third-party apps from adding workouts to the iPhone Fitness app and Apple Watch Activity app.
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How to prevent third-party apps from adding training data
The only way to prevent third-party workout apps from recording fitness data in your Apple apps is to do so Disconnect them from Apple Health.
Keep in mind that if you intend to keep the app on your iPhone or Apple Watch, some apps may require some categories to remain enabled for the app to function properly.
Concerned about the Health app’s activity data being counted twice?
If you’re looking to unlink your third-party app from Apple Health because you’re concerned that the Health app will double-count your workouts, fear not!
The Health app follows a priority list that automatically adjusts your activity reports to avoid double-counting the same type of data for the same time period when it receives that data from multiple sources, including third-party apps, an Apple Watch, or other connected devices, and all other sources.
By default, Apple’s Health app prioritizes data in this order:
- Health data that you enter manually.
- Data from your iPhone, iPod touch and Apple Watch.
- Data from third-party apps and other Bluetooth devices.
You can change this priority list at any time using these steps: How do I set device priority for calculating steps and other activities on iPhone and Apple Watch?
How to disconnect apps from Apple Health
- open that health app and make sure that Summary tab is open.
- Tap yours profile picture or icon in the upper right corner.
- Then under privacybeat applications.
- This will show you which apps you own are compatible and connected to the Health app.
- Select the app you want to unlink from Apple Health and Disable the health categories that this app should no longer track.
- If you want to turn everything off, you can do so by selecting Turn off all.
- If you don’t want to use the app, we recommend that you delete the app from your iPhone, which will remove it from the list of apps compatible and connected with the Health app.
Open the third-party app and adjust its settings to stop sharing data with the Health app
Once you’ve turned off all data reading and writing to the Health app, open the third-party app and make sure the app is no longer associated with this app.
For example, go to Strava Settings (gear icon) > Apps, Services & Devices > Health and verify that Send to health is no longer connected and has a check mark – there should be a plus sign (+.)
Remove app data from the Apple Health app
You can also delete health data here by changing access.
- To change access for an item, tap the app you want to edit.
- Then select data from “APP NAME” and select which data you want to remove or select Delete all data.
How to manage health data from apps on Apple Watch
Because Apple Watch apps can also read and write health data, you can also manage what they’re doing rather than tracking directly from your Apple Watch.
- To do this, open the Settings app on your Apple Watch and scroll down and tap Health.
- Scroll down to applications. You should see how many apps are currently active.
- Beat applications.
- From here you can manage the apps just like you would in the Health app on your iPhone.
things to consider
Third-party fitness apps come in handy; Many offer various services not available from Apple, but some apps work very similarly to Apple’s fitness services.
A great feature of the Apple Health app is that it lets you prioritize specific workout data. So if you have Apple Fitness tracking alongside a third-party app, you can prioritize what you prefer!
Additionally, the Health app should not double count the same data from different apps, connected devices, and other sources for the same time period.
Apple has a lot of great features, but sometimes third-party apps can perform a little better depending on the feature. We hope these tips help!