The Apple Watch is a device that has shone since its inception for its functions when it comes to health. One of the most legendary features of the device is to measure the heart rate of any user through the rear sensor. Although this feature can also end up failing and in this article we will tell you the possible solutions that can be given to this problem.
How the correct measurement should look
Knowing whether the Apple Watch is taking a heart rate measurement or not requires you to know how this sensor works. In this way you can detect faults in the software or hardware much easier. In general, you have to know that the heart rate is the number of contractions that the heart makes in a minute. This is a measurement that is accompanied by the unit ‘bpm’ (beats per minute). It is considered one of the most important vital signs of the body along with blood pressure due to the information it can give, both on the presence of heart problems as well as different pathologies such as active bleeding. That is why the value to be taken from the keystrokes that are had at a given moment must always be taken into account, since an anomalous value can give rise to many doubts.
Beyond the medical aspect, the Apple Watch performs the measurement thanks to a system of sensors that use photoplethysmography technology. To be able to understand it easily, everyone knows that blood is red because it can emit the frequency of light in this spectrum by absorbing green light. That is why the watch sensor when it is turned on you will see a green light since it is what will end up absorbing the blood and the sensor will be able to measure the difference in energy frequencies. Between beats the intensity of the emitted signal is much lower, marking here each of the beats. That is why, thanks to the flashes per second of the rear LED light, the beats per minute of an organism can be calculated. This sensor is capable of measuring beats per minute between 30 and 220.
But the big question you may have here is how do you know if the measurement is correct? The truth is that it must be taken into account that a healthy heart has a heart rate lower than 120 bpm and a constant rate of contraction and expansion. That is why if extremely high values appear on the clock, it is time to be suspicious. Luckily we ourselves as users can know more or less the pulsations that we have when we put the indica and angular finger on the carotid and counting each of the beats for 15 seconds and multiplying by 4. If you have a sinus rhythm and the Apple Watch you It warns that you are at 200 bpm, something is wrong with the clock as it does not measure the pulsations correctly. The same can happen when there is a lot of variability in the values given by the clock.
The clearest example is that in the first moment it tells you that you are at 60 bpm and the second it gives you 140 bpm. Here is something that would not quite add up at all. And finally, the system can also end up detecting these failures and would notify you through a message on the clock’s own screen when you want to make this type of measurements.
Rule out that it is a bug produced by the software
The Apple Watch software, watchOS, is in charge of interpreting the information obtained from the sensors. This makes it one of the points that must be taken into account when solving these problems. The presence of a bug can be one of the main reasons that causes the heart rate cannot be measured correctly.
Reset the watch
One of the first steps you should take in order to solve the problem if it is in the software is to perform a reboot. With this operation you will stop all the processes that are started in watchOS to resume them again when the computer is turned on. If some of these are interfering with the interpretation of the data being taken by the sensors, this will end up solving it. In the end, although it is something quite simple, it can certainly be a great solution to any problem within any technological device.
The steps to follow to turn it off , if you don’t remember, are simple. You just have to press and hold the side button until the option to “Turn off device” appears on the screen. At that moment you should slide the shutdown icon with your finger (from left to right). Then wait several seconds for the watch to turn off completely and then press either button to proceed to turn it on again. Remember that you must put the security code of the Apple Watch to be able to access it once it is already turned on.
Check for a recent update
Whenever a new software update comes out, we recommend carrying out the corresponding installation. This becomes more important when you have a problem in any of the functions of a device since the solution may be in the update itself. In each of the versions that Apple releases in the final version, there are many bug fixes that are released as well as security patches. It is for all this that if your watch does not detect your pulse well or gives you some totally crazy figure you should check that it is correctly updated to the latest version. Otherwise, we recommend doing it in order to solve the problem.
If you don’t remember how to check that it is up to date , the steps are simple. From the Apple Watch itself you simply have to enter ‘Settings’ and access the ‘General’ section. Among the options that appear, you will see a section dedicated to updates on which you must click. It will begin to load a screen where the new update will appear if it exists and if not, it will be informed that it is in the latest version available. In the case of the iPhone it is very similar since you must enter the ‘Clock’ application and access the General> Updates route. As before, if there is an update, it will appear and to install it you will simply have to have the Apple Watch on the charger and with a battery that exceeds 50%.
Unlink and re-link to iPhone
When talking about other devices, very forceful options are always used, such as resetting the device. This makes it look brand new and fresh out of the box with a clean operating system. This on the Apple Watch cannot be done as such but it can be unlinked and re-linked to the iPhone . In this way all internal files and settings are erased practically starting from scratch. This unpairing can take several minutes and after this process you will simply have to reconfigure the Apple Watch as if it were totally new. To carry out this process you simply have to follow the following steps:
- Access the Apple Watch Settings.
- Scroll to the ‘General’ section and then at the end you will find ‘Reset’.
- In these options, click on ‘Delete content and settings’.
After confirming this procedure, the watch will begin to unlink from the iPhone along with all the information that it may have inside. After this process, you must follow the steps that are shown on both devices and check if the correct heart rate measurement is already being carried out.
What to do if it is the hardware that is failing
If you have completely ruled out that the problem is in the operating system itself, you definitely have to be suspicious of the hardware. It is quite likely that the sensor that is located on the back of the watch has some kind of defect that means that the light is not emitted at the correct frequency or that it cannot detect the emission of light by the blood. This is something that a priori cannot be solved in an easy way, although the sensor does not have to be solely responsible. There are many hardware components that intervene in the measurement of heart rate, such as the processor that is the main one in charge of interpreting all the data that comes from the sensors.
In the end, these are failures that can be common since in any electronic device there is a small probability that they have a manufacturing defect.It is important to note that this is something that can be included in the two-year warranty that any Apple has Watch sold in Spain. Although Apple does not make repairs to these sensors due to the complexity so it is always chosen to make a replacement with another Apple Watch model. You will not have to pay the price of this replacement watch if you have the active warranty and it is due to a manufacturing fault and not to a problem caused by misuse or internal manipulation.
That is why the diagnosis should always be carried out at Apple itself, since if you try to repair it by someone who does not have the necessary knowledge, nothing positive may be achieved. This makes it best to contact Apple support by phone or chat for the best custom solutions available.
