How to Turn Off Heart Rate Recording and Fitness Tracking on the Apple Watch

There are a lot of problems with Apple Watches and their heart rate sensors. I’ve written about my experiences, and many websites are reporting this too.

A reader asked if it’s possible to turn off the heart rate recording; the reader doesn’t care about using it, and wants to save battery power.

Watch motion fitness settingsIf I recall from the setup, you are asked at one point if you want to turn it on. But finding the setting later isn’t easy. You’d think it would be in the Apple Watch app under Health or Activity, but it’s not.

To change this setting, open the Apple Watch app, choose Privacy > Motion & Fitness. You’ll see an option to turn on or off Heart Rate, along with another for Fitness Tracking. If you don’t plan to use your Apple Watch for tracking fitness, it’s a good idea to turn both of these off; your battery will last longer.

4 thoughts on “How to Turn Off Heart Rate Recording and Fitness Tracking on the Apple Watch

  1. Just want to say thank you for the info on the apple watch. It was draining my watch battery,but not anymore thanks to you and this sight. A friend of mine found this web link and sent it to me. I did as it said but when I got to the motion activity part I never seen the arrow to open that part and shut off the heart rate I do believe it was and the activity. Soooo when I did I shut off both and now my watch battery does not drain half as fast. I won the apple watch through a drawing at work and I love it. Still learning how to use it but all in time. ?? again thank you for this info. Keep up the good work.
    Just a new Apple watch owner.

  2. Just want to say thank you for the info on the apple watch. It was draining my watch battery,but not anymore thanks to you and this sight. A friend of mine found this web link and sent it to me. I did as it said but when I got to the motion activity part I never seen the arrow to open that part and shut off the heart rate I do believe it was and the activity. Soooo when I did I shut off both and now my watch battery does not drain half as fast. I won the apple watch through a drawing at work and I love it. Still learning how to use it but all in time. ?? again thank you for this info. Keep up the good work.
    Just a new Apple watch owner.

  3. Disabling these features completely disables the workout activities. Still n solution. It wouldn’t be a difficult task to make these features optional, instead turning of one thing shuts off the whole watch, for which purpose it was made. Apple Watch itself presents nothing without the health activities. Why can’t I have the option to set it up in a way that it will not alert me about that pathetic exercise ring closing? Is is a difficult task for the programmers to make these features purely optional? Or Apple has to manage the consumers ‘ preferences even in that sphere?

  4. Disabling these features completely disables the workout activities. Still n solution. It wouldn’t be a difficult task to make these features optional, instead turning of one thing shuts off the whole watch, for which purpose it was made. Apple Watch itself presents nothing without the health activities. Why can’t I have the option to set it up in a way that it will not alert me about that pathetic exercise ring closing? Is is a difficult task for the programmers to make these features purely optional? Or Apple has to manage the consumers ‘ preferences even in that sphere?

What do you think?

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