When your fitness app won’t sync your health data

First: is it permission, or is it data?

Open the Health app and look at the data itself (steps, for example). If it is empty there too, the problem is not permission — the data was never recorded: the phone wasn’t on you, the watch was charging, or the source device hasn’t written yet.

If Health has the data but your app doesn’t, then it is a permission question or a matter of when the app reads.

Granting access on iPhone

• Health app → profile icon (top right) → Apps → the app in question. Turn on the rows that are off.
• Alternative route: Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → the app. (Exact wording shifts between iOS versions; both lead to the same list.)
• For step tracking, “Steps” alone is often not enough — “Walking + Running Distance” usually has to be on as well.
• After granting access, fully close and reopen the app; most apps read permissions at launch.

“Turn On All” is the fastest option but not a requirement: switching on the rows the app actually uses is enough. Health data is sensitive, and you are not obliged to hand over more than necessary.

On Android (Health Connect)

• Settings → Health Connect (on some devices it is installed as its own app) → App permissions.
• Select the app and enable the read permissions it needs — steps, exercise, sleep.
• Step data comes from a source: your phone’s own counter or your wearable’s app. If the source app does not WRITE to Health Connect, no other app can read it.
• Battery optimisation can cut off background syncing; if the problem persists, exclude the app from optimisation.

Apple Watch specifics

• A workout on the watch may not be written to the phone until the ring closes or the workout is saved.
• A delay between watch and phone is normal; waiting a few minutes resolves most cases.
• If the same activity is written from both watch and phone, some apps count it twice. Leaving a single source is the cleanest fix.

If it still won’t work

• Close and reopen the app; then revoke and re-grant the permissions (re-granting clears most stuck states).
• Restart the phone — the Health service does get stuck occasionally.
• Before deleting and reinstalling, be careful: in some apps local history is lost. Make sure your account is backed up to the cloud first.

What this looks like in Testoman

Testoman reads your step and cardio data as long as you allow it, and never writes to Health. If you decline, the rest of the app works normally — those cards simply stay empty.

If permission is granted but there is no data for the day, we do NOT show a “grant access” prompt. That is a deliberate distinction: asking someone who has already granted access to grant it again does not fix anything and hides the real reason.