Apple Fitness+ disconnecting from device

It is definitely an AirPod / AppleTV issue.

I have a Series 6 Apple Watch (cellular), a Gen1 pair of AirPods, a pair of AirPod Pros and a 2021 AppleTV. Whenever I try to do any workout on Fitness+ while using the AppleTV, my Apple Watch, and my AirPods (I've tried both models) then the Apple Watch disconnects from the AppleTV multiple times during a 30 minute workout. It's not even worth the effort to try the bluetooth reset option because the Apple Watch will just disconnect again within a few minutes.

As soon as I stop using either pair of AirPods, the Apple Watch and AppleTV have no issues. I just have to listen to the audio directly from the TV. As others have mentioned, I work out at 5am every day when my family is sleeping. Having my TV blaring the enthusiastic positivity of the Fitness+ team (motivating and life-affirming as they might be) has not made me a popular person in my household.

I would add that I have an older iPad Pro and I can use either set of AirPods and my Apple Watch with my iPad (I've also used my iPhone too) and there are no disconnect issues.

The problem only occurs when the AirPods are used with the AppleTV.

I am super bummed because I bought the AppleTV for the sole purpose of using it for Fitness+. As of now, it is an expensive paper weight.

One would think that Apple would quickly solve this issue because it affects those customers willing to buy headphones, a watch, a TV device, AND pay $10/mo for the Fitness+ subscription. The whole point of buying Apple products is to have an amazing experience if you buy into their entire ecosystem. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In this case, however...... not so much. The first post in this thread was Dec 15, 2020. It is now Jan 13, 2022. This is really sad.

Hi, with the 14.5 issue and a full reset (unpaired, set up as a new watch, not from backup) of my Apple Watch, the issue is now gone for me. I set up my Apple Watch as a new watch and I deleted the old watch pairing from the Apple TV (https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/watch/apd619078d99/watchos). I’ve been able to complete a few workouts now using my AirPods without issue.

There was also an AirPods firmware update with the latest batch of updates, make sure you put them in your case, then plug in your case to a power cable and bring it close to your phone (https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/update-airpods).

Hope this helps.

I worked out;

for phone/TV/watch time outs:

1. turn off Bluetooth on phone
2. Start fitness + from aTV.
3. connect this to your watch, when prompted
4. (also I had a protective cover on my watch which I had to remove for some reason)
5. Then press play on watch.

basically only allow one Bluetooth item to “talk” to aTV. Switch everything off (only for the initial setup…after that…doesn’t matter)

I had the same problem again today. I suspected that having 2 Bluetooth devices (Apple Watch and air pod pros) connected to the Apple TV at the same time may be part of the issue. I disconnected my AirPod pros and restarted the workout with just the watch connected and was able to complete a 30 minute workout with no issues. I hope to be able to connect both in the future because I workout very early when my family is still sleeping.

I’m having the same issue, but I don’t have AirPods. However, I think you’re on the right track that it’s a dual Bluetooth issue: I have hearing aids connected to my iPhone via Bluetooth. I disconnected those and was able to complete a workout without dropping connection to my watch.

I have been experiencing this issue with Apple TV and AirPods as well.

I experimented a bit and it seems to occur when 3 Bluetooth devices are connected to Apple TV (remote, watch, and AirPods).

if I wouldn’t use AirPods, the workouts would complete fine. If I unpaired the remote (we use a universal remote), the workouts would also complete fine. However, if I had all 3 Bluetooth devices connected, I would get the random workout drops. I would think that you could also use the remote app on your phone in lieu of a universal remote, but I haven’t tested this.

I know this doesn’t help anyone who is having this problem outside of Apple TV, but I hope it is a helpful workaround for someone out there.

It used to disconnect all the time to me as well. I use ATV 4k and Watch S6. In my case, it was RF-noise-related. My ATV was securely attached on the back of the TV. Somehow, the TV was acting as a shield between my watch and the internal ATV bluetooth radio. I hence moved the ATV on top so that it was not shielded by the TV and this did the magic. Responsiveness of the watch did increase considerably: no longer spinning wheel searching for the watch, and the connection is now almost instantaneous. Most important, I have not experienced a single disconnection since moving the location of the ATV.

I've had success the last 4 workouts, 30 min each. Here's how it works for me. First, everything is at the latest. 14.5 on the Apple TV, 14.5.1 on my iPhone Xr, 7.4.1 on my Apple Watch SE, and AirPods at firmware 3E751. In all cases my AirPods are connected to the Apple TV.

If I start the workout from the Apple TV Fitness+ app, 90% of the time I get the dreaded "Device Connection Lost" error message.

But if I start the workout from my iPhone and then tap the AirPlay button and select the Apple TV, it works. The 4 times I tried it, at least. Worth trying!

I hope this helps others. And I'm pretty sure someone else on this thread suggested this but I couldn't find the post. There are so many!!

Nonetheless, Apple really should fix this.

I’m with you. Mine is like clockwork, about 10mins in and the screen stops updating from my watch. The best workaround I have found for me out of the good ones listed on this thread is to pause the workout when you notice the watch data not updating on the TV, turn Bluetooth off on the watch, wait a few seconds, turn it back on, and resume your workout. I can get to the end without it having a problem again. When I mirror the workout from my phone to the TV, I don’t get my watch data on the TV screen. Apple says they’re working on it and it’s a priority for them. Hope they have a lot of their engineers on this one and get us a fix soon or they may lose a lot of customers to another fitness app….like Peloton :-(

I FOUND A SOLUTION!

It seems that the bug is in the pairing process between the aTV and the Watch. The trick is to bypass the step when the Fitness+ app on the aTV asks you to choose which Apple Watch to connect with.

Here are the steps....

1. Turn on your aTV and pair your Airpods to the aTV (do not open the Fitness+ app on the aTV)
2. Open Fitness+ on your iPhone or iPad.
3. Select the workout you want to do and get it queued up to the screen where you can hit "play" on the screen or on your watch - but do not hit play yet
4. In the lower-right corner of the screen, tap the airplay icon (it's the rectangle with the little "up" arrow at the bottom of the rectangle)
5. In the airplay menu, select your aTV. Your i-device (iPhone, iPad) should now show a black AirPlay screen that says your workout is playing on your aTV. (Note: if you get a message that says "Unable to Connect to Apple TV" then you need to restart your Apple TV.
6. Hit the "play" button on your watch

That's it! The workout should start on your aTV and your Watch and you should hear the audio through your Airpods. The Watch data should continue to display on your aTV and it should not disconnect. I've done 3 workouts with this method (up to 45 minutes) and the Watch stayed connected the entire time.

If this worked for you, please click the "helpful" button below my post so it can be elevated to the front page so others can find this solution.

Here's what's working for me, about a dozen workouts now with no issues.

1. I don't change any settings on my phone, bluetooth remains on.
2. Just before the workout I connect my AirPods to the AppleTV: Settings -> Remotes and Devices -> Bluetooth -> My AirPods -> Connect Device
3. Then, from the Fitness app on the phone, I select the workout, AirPlay it to the AppleTV, and go.

I've had zero issues with this approach. I hope it helps.

I suspected the issue being two Bluetooth devices connect to the Apple TV as well and saw others comment to that on this thread.

Today I had my first successful 20 minute run without having a “Device Disconnected” error and having to start over. I did not connect my AirPods to my Apple TV and it worked!

A bug for sure, but least you can finish a workout without it dying in the middle.

Had the same thing happen yesterday too. Makes me think there may have been a quick/minor service outage.

That being said the Apple TV for sure has an issue with multiple bluetooth connections and Fitness +

I am now able to finish workouts reliably when not using AirPods with the AppleTV.

Me too ... i've been battling the same problem for the last week. I first used apple fitness with my iPad and AirPod pros, all worked great. Then I switched to my Apple TV and AirPod pros, and it failed every day for the next 5 days. Assuming it was a networking issue, I tried multiple things, switching WiFi networks (I have multiple in the house), turning off WiFi on my watch, using Ethernet on the Apple TV, and nothing fixed it. The suggestions from this thread solves the problem, i.e. don't use AirPods connected to AppleTV ... of course this is less than ideal and am hoping apple is working on a fix or a replacement program for Apple TVs.