How to Pause Activity Rings on Apple Watch and Keep Your Streaks Intact

One of the enduring features of the Apple Watch is its three activity rings: Move, Exercise, and Stand. Apple has made the Close Your Rings feature a central part of its Apple Watch marketing, and has even built many of its special activity badges around different series where you close the rings for a set amount of time each day.

Users have noticed the problem with the bands closing on the ring almost immediately. What if you get sick? What if you’re stuck on a trip where you can’t exercise? What if you get injured? Or you can’t wear your Apple Watch for a while?

For years we asked for the ability to pause our activity rings and with watchOS 11, Apple At last allowing it. Here’s how you can pause your Activity rings for up to a month so you don’t lose your streaks. This will only work if you update your Apple Watch to watchOS 11 or later (available September 16, 2024).

1. Open the Activity app on Apple Watch.
2. Click on your activity rings. You will be presented with two options: Change Goals or Pause Rings. Select the second option.
3. From here you can scroll down and pause your rings for different amounts of time: just for today, for a week, a month, or for a specific period of time.

There is a monthly limit to how long you can lock your rings, and of course you don’t get points for any streaks while they are paused. But you don’t lose any of your series.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to do this from the Watch app on your iPhone. So if you need to pause your rings because your Apple Watch has been damaged and is now unusable, you’re still out of luck.