Live Activities Not Working, Not Showing Up In iOS 16? Fix!

iPhone Tricks > How To

Posted in How To, TILs by Mike on October 25, 2022

Live Activities not working iOS 16

Live Activities not working on iPhone in iOS 16? Live scores not showing up on Lock Screen after updating to iOS 16.1? You’re using an app that supports this new feature but live tracking is not available on your device? Here is how to fix it!

Live Activities Not Working

This issue has been reported by Lucas:

“I just want to get live scores on my lock screen and have downloaded the apps you mention but I can get the soccer scores to display. can you help? iphone 13 pro”

We’ve also found several other complaints on Reddit.

How To Fix Live Activities Not Working

If you’ve installed a live activity compatible app, but are not able to get live tracking on Lock Screen or in the Dynamic Island proceed as follows:

1. Turn On Live Activities

iOS 16.1 includes a system-wide setting that allows Live Activities to show on Lock Screen. This is usually enabled by default, but a glitch or accidental usage could disable it:

• Open Settings and tap on Face ID & Passcode.
• Provide your passcode and scroll to the Allow Access When Locked section./li>
• Make sure that Live Activities are turned ON./li>

2. Enable Live Activities For The Specific App

Next you should know that you also have to turn ON this feature for every app in question. If you don’t get a popup that’s asking you to enable it you can do it manually in:
Settings -> scroll for [app name] -> Live Activities.

3. Start Live Activity For Specific Event

Last but not least, when dealing with third-party apps you might have to confirm that you want to track each specific event that you want to glance at from the Lock Screen.

For example, if you want to follow a sports event you have to open the app that covers it and use the in-app menu to start Live Activity tracking.

This is usually done by tapping on a star icon (favorite icon) or on the menu icon and selecting Live Activities from the list of options.

4. Reboot iPhone

If you reached this step and Live Activities are still not working you should restart your device. This might flush any glitches that could prevent this feature from working properly.

Tip: We recommend you to use the force restart combo for quick results.

Live Activities Not Showing In Apple TV App?

This feature is currently not available for the stock Apple TV app. Although, it worked during the early iOS 16.1 beta stages, Apple has decided to pull it from the public release.

Most likely, it required more fine tuning and has been delayed for iOS 16.2. You have to use the Live Activities with third-party apps for the time being.

Have you managed to fix Live Activities not working in iOS 16? Do you have a better solution or other problems to report? Share your feedback in the comments. We’re here to help!

Related: You might be also interested in checking out our collection of third-party apps updated with support for Live Activities!