Hello, I'm seeing an inconsistency in how HKAnchoredObjectQuery applies predicates between its initial results handler and its update handler. Specifically, predicates that filter quantity samples by correlation membership - using either HKQuery.predicateForObjectsWithNoCorrelation() or NSPredicate(format: "%K == nil", HKPredicateKeyPathCorrelation) - are respected in the resultsHandler but silently ignored in the updateHandler. Setup I have three long-running HKAnchoredObjectQuery instances: One for HKCorrelationType(.bloodPressure) - no predicate One for HKQuantityType(.bloodPressureSystolic) - predicate: HKQuery.predicateForObjectsWithNoCorrelation() One for HKQuantityType(.bloodPressureDiastolic) - predicate: HKQuery.predicateForObjectsWithNoCorrelation() The intent of the predicate on the systolic/diastolic queries is to capture only standalone quantity samples written directly by third-party apps - not the constituent sub-samples of an HKCorrelation. The correlation query handles correlated samples. Expected behavior When a BloodPressure correlation is saved to the store, only the correlation query's updateHandler should fire, with 1 new sample. The systolic and diastolic updateHandlers should not fire, since those samples have correlation != nil which is excluded by the predicate. Actual behavior After saving one BloodPressure correlation, all three updateHandlers fire with 1 new object each. The systolic and diastolic update handlers receive the correlated sub-samples despite the predicateForObjectsWithNoCorrelation() predicate. The same predicate correctly filters those kinds of samples out of the initial resultsHandler. Additionally, the same predicate applied in a one-shot HKSampleQuery for the systolic or diastolic type correctly returns 0 results when only correlated readings exist. The problem is only experienced in updateHandler of a long-running HKAnchoredObjectQuery. Tested iOS versions iOS 26.3 iOS 18.7.6 Workaround When an HKAnchoredObjectQuery updateHandler fires with systolic or diastolic samples, I fire a one-shot HKSampleQuery with a compound predicate using the sample UUIDs and predicateForObjectsWithNoCorrelation. Any samples that are part of a correlation are not returned in the HKSampleQuery resultsHandler.

Hi Team, We are implementing HealthKit data sync using HKObserverQuery along with enableBackgroundDelivery and BGTaskScheduler for fallback processing. However, we are observing inconsistent behavior and would like clarification on expected system behavior: For HKObserverQuery: When using enableBackgroundDelivery with frequency .immediate, we sometimes receive updates promptly, but other times we do not receive any trigger at all. Similarly, when using .hourly, our expectation was that updates would be delivered approximately once per hour, but in practice, triggers are delayed, batched, or skipped. For BGTaskScheduler: We are scheduling BGAppRefreshTask with earliestBeginDate set (e.g., 1 hour), but tasks are sometimes delayed by several hours or not triggered predictably. In some cases, tasks are not executed even after extended periods. We would like to understand: Are HKObserverQuery delivery frequencies (.immediate, .hourly, .daily) strictly best-effort hints rather than guaranteed intervals? Under what conditions can observer updates be skipped or significantly delayed? Is there any recommended approach to ensure more reliable periodic syncing of HealthKit data? For BGTaskScheduler, what factors most strongly influence scheduling delays or missed executions? Our goal is to design a reliable sync mechanism, but the lack of deterministic behavior is making it difficult to define expected system behavior. Any clarification or recommended best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm developing a watchOS nap app that detects when the user falls asleep by monitoring heart rate changes. == Technical Implementation == HKWorkoutSession (.mindAndBody) for background execution HKAnchoredObjectQuery for real-time heart rate data CoreMotion for movement detection == Battery Considerations == Heart rate monitoring ONLY active when user explicitly starts a session Monitoring continues until user is awakened OR 60-minute limit is reached If no sleep detected within 60 minutes, session auto-ends (user may have abandoned or forgotten to stop) App displays clear UI indicating monitoring is active Typical session: 15-30 minutes, keeping battery usage minimal == The Problem == HKWorkoutSession affects Activity Rings during the session. Users receive "Exercise goal reached" notifications while resting — confusing. == What I've Tried == Not using HKLiveWorkoutBuilder → Activity Rings still affected Using builder but not calling finishWorkout() (per https://aninterestingwebsite.com/forums/thread/780220) → Activity Rings still affected WKExtendedRuntimeSession (self-care type) (per https://aninterestingwebsite.com/forums/thread/721077) → Only ~10 min runtime, need up to 60 min HKObserverQuery + enableBackgroundDelivery (per https://aninterestingwebsite.com/forums/thread/779101) → ~4 updates/hour, too slow for real-time detection Audio background session for continuous processing (suggested in https://aninterestingwebsite.com/forums/thread/130287) → Concerned about App Store rejection for non-audio app; if official approves this technical route, I can implement in this direction Some online resources mention "Health Monitoring Entitlement" from WWDC 2019 Session 251, but I could not find any official documentation for this entitlement. Apple Developer Support also confirmed they cannot locate it? == My Question == Is there any supported way to: Monitor heart rate in background for up to 60 minutes WITHOUT affecting Activity Rings or creating workout records? If this requires a special entitlement or API access, please advise on the application process. Or allow me to submit a code-level support request. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Has anyone actually managed to read the free-text note/context from Apple Health State of Mind entries? I’m building an iOS app that reads HKStateOfMind data from HealthKit. I can get the expected stuff fine: valence labels associations But in the Health app, users can also add extra context text to a mood entry, like: Tasks, Weather - Great work-life balance From my app, I can read Tasks and Weather, but I can’t find the Great work-life balance part anywhere. I already checked: public HKStateOfMind properties metadata debug description / object description attachment-ish routes Nothing so far. So before I spend more time chasing this: is that text just not exposed to third-party apps? Or is there some weird HealthKit path I’m missing? If anyone has actually pulled this off, I’d love to know how.

I have a watchOS app with a connected iOS app using Swift and SwiftUI. The watchOS app should read heart rate date in the background using HKOberserQuery and enableBackgroundDelivery(), send the data to the iPhone app via WCSession. The iPhone app then sends the data to a Firebase project. The issue I am facing now it that the app with the HKObserverQuery works fine when the app is in the foreground, but when the app runs in the background, the observer query gets triggered for the first time (after one hour), but then always get terminated from the watchdog timeout with the following error message: CSLHandleBackgroundHealthKitQueryAction scene-create watchdog transgression: app<app.nanacare.nanacare.nanaCareHealthSync.watchkitapp((null))>:14451 exhausted real (wall clock) time allowance of 15.00 seconds I am using Xcode 16.3 on MacOS 15.4 The App is running on iOS 18.4 and watchOS 11.4 What is the reason for this this issue? I only do a simple SampleQuery to fetch the latest heart rate data inside the HKObserverQuery and then call the completionHandler. The query itself takes less than one second. Or is there a better approach to read continuously heart rate data from healthKit in the background on watchOS? I don't have an active workout session, and I don't need all heart rate data. Once every 15 minutes or so would be enough.

I'm building an app with a leaderboard based on users' step counts, so I need the data to sync in real time at minimum. The problem is that when the app is terminated, steps don't seem to be counted at all, so if a user hasn't opened the app in 5 days, the leaderboard ends up completely out of sync. Is it even possible to retrieve this data when the app has been terminated and hasn't been opened? I'm currently using Background Fetch, which works when the app is suspended, slowly, but it does work. However, it does not sync when the app is fully terminated.

Hi, I'm having the same issue described in https://aninterestingwebsite.com/forums/thread/690974?page=2. When connected to Xcode or when the app is in the foreground, HKObserverQuery fires correctly and my app processes step updates. But once disconnected from Xcode, background delivery stops completely and the observer callback is never called. My setup: com.apple.developer.healthkit.background-delivery entitlement is present and in the provisioning profile enableBackgroundDelivery(for: .stepCount, frequency: .immediate) returns success = true HKObserverQuery is registered on every launch including background launches I also have CMPedometer.startEventUpdates running as a supplemental trigger Background Modes includes "Background fetch" and "Background processing" Device: iPhone, iOS 17.4+ App type: App uses Screen Time / Family Controls (ManagedSettings) to block apps until a step goal is met Has anyone found a reliable fix? Any feedback from Apple engineers would be appreciated.

While attempting to read a user’s daily step history spanning backward to the last 7 days, a small but consistent subset of users encounter Error Code 3 with the underlying error description: Error Code 3 "Unable to invalidate interval: no data source available." When this error occurs, we are entirely unable to read their step history. We have received ~10 direct user reports of this within the last couple of weeks.

Any plans to be able to allow to store Uric Acid (UA) and Ketones readings in Apple Health with HealthKit? There are now many blood test strips in the market that allow to read Glucose, UA and Ketones and currently only Glucose seems to be supported by HealthKit. Thank you

I’m building a standalone Apple Watch metronome app for running. My goal is for these 3 apps to work at the same time: Runna owns the workout session Spotify plays music my app plays a metronome click in the background So far this is what I've found: Using HKWorkout​Session in my metronome app works well with Spotify, but conflicts with Runna and other workout apps, so I removed that. Using watchOS background audio with longFormAudio allows my app run in the background, and it can coexist with Runna. However, it seems to conflict with Spotify playback, and one app tends to stop the other. Is there any supported watchOS audio/background configuration that allows all 3 at once? More specifically this is what I need: another app owns HKWorkout​Session Spotify keeps playing my app keeps generating metronome clicks in the background Or is this simply not supported by current watchOS session/background rules? My metronome uses AVAudio​Engine / AVAudio​Player​Node with generated click audio. Thank you!

The second time i start a workout session, the beginCollection instance method on HKLiveWorkoutBuilder freezes. To recreate run the Apple Sample Project Building a multidevice workout app. It looks like a bug with the HealthKit SDK and not the code but i could be wrong. The only workaround i found was erasing the simulator and reinstalling the app.

I am trying to figure out why my app is not receiving background deliveries from Healthkit. I have a successfully implemented HKObserverQuery  which is being used to send data like step count to a server. I have a successful enableBackgroundDelivery (completes without errors). I have also checkmarked the HealthKit Background Delivery and Clinical Health Records options in my app's Signing and Capabilities configurations. I know the observer is functional because the health data gets sent to the server when the app is running. The problem is I haven't seen any evidence of the observer handler being triggered when the app is not running. What am I missing? And what is the best way to go about debugging what is going wrong?

Some users have switched to wearing smart rings instead of an Apple Watch, but they still want their rings to close throughout the day in Apple Fitness to keep their streaks going. I've noticed that the 3rd party smart ring apps do not affect the progress of the exercise and move rings unless the user puts on their Apple Watch and syncs with there iPhone throughout the day. Is there a way to make the progress rings update throughout the day without having to connect an Apple Watch periodically?

After upgrading to a new iPhone and restoring from an iCloud backup using the same Apple ID, I noticed an issue with Health app permissions. ■ What is happening On my previous iPhone, an app had permission to read step count data. After restoring to the new iPhone, the app still appears in the Health app under Sources. However, when I tap the app, the usual data type permission toggles (such as Steps) are not displayed at all. As a result, the app is unable to read step count data. ■ Additional details The app itself seems to be recognized as a Health data source. However, the data type permission screen is empty. No ON/OFF switches are shown. The backup was created on iOS 18, and the restore was performed on iOS 26. I have not yet confirmed whether this also happens with other iOS version combinations. ■ Questions Is it expected behavior that Health app permissions (per data type) are not restored via iCloud backup? Has anyone experienced a similar situation where the app appears under Sources but the permission options are missing? If so, how did you resolve it? Any information from users who have experienced the same issue would be greatly appreciated.

How to legally and compliantly upload users' fitness and health data to our own server—while adhering to Apple's strict privacy policies—for analysis by our AI large model to provide personalized feedback and recommendations to users.

1/ Issue Summary In our application, we use HKObserverQuery together with:HKHealthStore.enableBackgroundDelivery(for:frequency: .immediate) to enable HealthKit Background Delivery, allowing the system to wake our App Extension in the background to process health data updates. Under the same app build, identical HealthKit permission configuration, and the same watchOS version, we have observed significant differences in background delivery frequency across different devices. Specifically, on certain devices (e.g. Apple Watch Series 10, watchOS 26.2.1), the background delivery frequency is significantly reduced, behaving as if it is capped at approximately once per hour. On other control devices, under the same configuration, background delivery is triggered much more frequently and consistently, at approximately every 8–16 minutes. This behavior is consistently reproducible on the affected devices. **We would like to understand whether there are any officially recommended implementation patterns, best practices, or device-/system-level considerations when using HKObserverQuery and Background Delivery, in order to achieve more consistent and predictable background update behavior across different devices running the same system version. ** 2/ Detailed Device Comparison We conducted internal comparison testing across multiple devices with the following results: Device A (Affected / Abnormal) Model: Apple Watch Series 10 (46mm) OS: watchOS 26.2.1 Serial (partial): C*HY Background Delivery Frequency: ~ once every 60 minutes (significantly lower than expected) Device B (Normal) Model: Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm) OS: watchOS 26.2.1 Serial (partial): G*4R Background Delivery Frequency: ~ every 8–16 minutes Device C (Normal) Model: Apple Watch Series 8 (41mm) OS: watchOS 26.3 Serial (partial): C*J6 Background Delivery Frequency: ~ every 8–16 minutes Device D (Normal) Model: Apple Watch Series 5 (41mm) OS: watchOS 10.6.1 Serial (partial): G*TQ Background Delivery Frequency: ~ every 8–16 minutes All devices share the following conditions: HealthKit permissions: Full read/write permissions granted Background App Refresh: Enabled System state: Low Power Mode, Do Not Disturb, and all Focus modes disabled App build: Identical app build installed on all devices HealthKit configuration: Same data types and same frequency parameter used in enableBackgroundDelivery Implementation: Identical HKObserverQuery implementation logic 3/ Abnormal Behavior Observed On the affected device(s), we observe that: HealthKit background delivery appears to be heavily coalesced or throttled The system rarely attempts to wake the App Extension Behavior is clearly inconsistent with other devices using the same configuration The behavior does not match our expectations for HealthKit Background Delivery with .immediate frequency 4/ Troubleshooting Already Performed We have already attempted the following on the affected device(s): Restarted both Apple Watch and paired iPhone Re-paired the Apple Watch Uninstalled and reinstalled the app Revoked and re-granted HealthKit permissions Confirmed that Low Power Mode, Do Not Disturb, and Focus modes are all disabled The issue remains consistently reproducible. 5/ Assistance Requested We would appreciate guidance on: Whether there are any officially recommended implementation patterns, tuning options, or best practices for using HKObserverQuery and HealthKit Background Delivery Whether there are any known device-level or system-level factors that may cause significantly different background delivery behavior on different devices running the same watchOS version How to best achieve consistent and predictable background update delivery behavior across devices for apps that rely on this mechanism 6/ Additional Information We can provide sysdiagnose logs from both affected and unaffected devices for comparison We can also provide a minimal reproducible sample project if needed

Hi all, I'm developing fitness app and I use healthkit to track user's "STEPS" count and "Heart Rate" from their iphone devices. I have been receiving this rejection and can't seem to get past this: Guideline 2.5.1 - Performance - Software Requirements The app uses the HealthKit or CareKit APIs but does not clearly identify the HealthKit and CareKit functionality in the app's user interface. Apps using these APIs should be clearly indicated to provide transparency and valuable information to users. Next Steps To resolve this issue, it would appropriate to clearly identify the HealthKit and CareKit functionality in the app's user interface. Resources Learn more about software requirements in guideline 2.5.1. How I tried to Resolve the Issue I have modified my app: adding user permission prompt, adding healthkit notification, adding healthkit indicator in the UI **1. Added a "Permission Primer" Screen (Pre-Alert) ** When a user taps "Connect Apple Health," they are now shown a dedicated explanation screen before the system permission prompt appears. This screen clearly states: "[App] integrates with HealthKit to read your Heart Rate and Steps... to calculate physical exertion." (Please see the "Connect" flow in the Session Detail view). **2. Added Explicit Source Attribution ** I have added a permanent text label reading "Health data sourced from Apple Health" directly below the heart rate and steps statistics on the Session Detail dashboard. This ensures that users always identify the source of the displayed metrics. 3. Deployment Target Correction I identified a configuration error where the Deployment Target was set to a future OS version. I have corrected this to the currently shipping iOS 18 to ensure full compliance with software requirements. 4. App Description Update I have updated the App Store description to explicitly mention the HealthKit integration and its specific purpose (tracking match intensity). However doing the above, I still continue to receive the same review message. When I asked the reviewer what else could be done to satisfy the requirement, I only get boiler plate message above. Anyone know what they really looking for? Any insights is appreciated. Thanks!

Why can I use background delivery to realize background notifications when I run the app for the first time, but when I delete the app running in the background, and then reopen the app to run it in the background, there will be no background notification when the data changes?

We are developing a health app that relies on HKObserverQuery and BackgroundDelivery to monitor Heart Rate data. On watchOS 10.6 and 11.6 , these data updates are typically delivered reliably every 8–12 minutes, occasionally exceeding 12 minutes, but generally not longer than 15 minutes. This frequency has been sufficient for the real-time data requirements of our app. However, after adapting our app to watchOS 26, we noticed that HKObserverQuery triggers much less frequently, with longer and very inconsistent intervals. This issue has had a major impact on our product: data collection for essential features is unreliable, resulting in a greatly diminished user experience on watchOS 26 and making the app essentially useless from the user’s perspective. Observed Behavior: HKObserverQuery and BackgroundDelivery are extremely unstable, with trigger intervals frequently exceeding 15 minutes, and sometimes even 20 minutes. When the user is sedentary, intervals become even longer; there are cases where no heart rate or active energy updates are delivered for 30 minutes, or even over 1 hour. Request for Support and Guidance: Have there been any changes to the HKObserverQuery background delivery mechanism on watchOS 26, specifically for Heart Rate and Active Energy data? If these changes are intentional system optimizations, could you provide guidance or recommended practices to ensure our app can reliably retrieve updates and maintain a smooth experience for users? Thank you for your support.

HealthKit background delivery only triggers when charging. I have set step monitoring to hourly frequency. Despite step changes, callbacks fail to arrive after 3-4 hours on battery, but trigger immediately upon connecting power. Observed for 2 days: background updates are only received when charging. The device is not in Low Power Mode, and Background App Refresh is enabled for the app in Settings.