I learned that this issue also prevents independent Watch apps from accessing CMAltimeter if their parent iPhone has been updated to 17.4-17.4.1, since iPhones manage privacy settings for their companion Watches. The workaround suggested above using "CMMotionActivityManager queryActivityStartingFromDate" works for Watch apps, with the caveat that I could not find any way for my Watch app to determine the iOS version of the parent iPhone, thus it's not possible to be selective about when to invoke the workaround. I have long thought it was somewhat disjointed the way an independent Watch app still depends on the parent iPhone to manage privacy settings -- for many reasons -- and this is one more example why it's a bad arrangement.

I have submitted feedback FB13680923 on this issue, as I see no correct way to solve the problem from the developer side (proposed workaround is not a universal fix since not all devices support sensor recording).

I filed report FB 12157657 in Feedback Assistant.

Thanks for the reply -- my apps are independent Watch apps (Watch only) not related to an iPhone app, so the Automatic App Install setting doesn't have any effect on them. The one that does is in the Watch app under "App Store", but unfortunately this seems to be turned off by default and nobody thinks to look there. I am glad to know that there is an alert directing customers to do a manual install if automatic install does not start, but it seems like customers are not paying attention to that or maybe they do not know what to do or to look on the App Store on the Watch itself. In fact, based on the contacts I get from customers, they do not understand the concept of independent Watch apps and they don't even know there is an App Store on the Watch. Three years ago I could understand this, since independent apps were new in watchOS 6, but I would have hoped customers would catch on by now.

This happens with one of my watches but not the other. On my laptop I can fiddle around with some of the steps mentioned above and eventually get that Watch to make Xcode happy, but when connected to my Mac Studio it never works. Says it's waiting for the first unlock when the Watch is clearly unlocked and usable.

Same issues in the Apple compass app. Those are rookie mistakes and I am surprised nobody caught this. I was also a bit mortified by the confusing UI workflow used to manage waypoints. Way too messy for a Watch app (would even be messy for an iPhone app but at least feasible).

Same problem here. I finally just turned the Watch off and stopped using it, since getting work done is more important to me than wearing a Watch. I never cease to be amazed at the ways Apple can waste my time with BS like this.