Apple Watch Ultra Dive Log: Where Dives Go and How to Export Them

Where does the Apple Watch Ultra save your dives?

It depends on which app recorded the dive. Apple's Depth app and the Oceanic+ dive computer app keep separate logs, and Apple warns that diving apps may not share dive data with each other. This page covers what happens after the dive: where each log lives, what it holds and how to move it somewhere else. Whether the watch can replace a dive computer, its depth rating and the Oceanic+ plans are covered in Apple Watch Ultra for scuba diving.

The short version: Depth is a depth gauge, and its history sits in Apple's Fitness app. Oceanic+ keeps a proper logbook with GPS points, conditions and notes, and it is the only one of the two with an export that dive log software can read.

What the Depth app records and where to find it

Depth logs a dive by itself once it starts, whether that is from Auto-Launch (deeper than 1 m for more than 5 seconds), the Action button or the app. Each dive shows its start date and time, maximum depth and time underwater. On the watch, open Depth and tap View Recent Dives. Apple keeps that summary on the watch for 7 days, then deletes it.

The lasting copy is on the iPhone. Open Fitness, go to the Summary tab, tap Sessions, then Dives. Apple's App Store listing for Depth says each session there has a dive summary with time underwater, maximum depth and water temperature, a depth graph you can tap for a larger view, and a map with the GPS entry point and the weather at the time. The same Dives list also shows dives recorded by third-party dive apps.

Apple's support article for the Depth app adds that depth and water temperature are written to the Health app, but the other metrics are not. Health holds the raw readings. The summary with its map stays in Fitness.

Two rules shape what ends up in the log. A session ends 10 minutes after the watch leaves the water, and a descent within those 10 minutes is added to the same dive, so a short surface swim between two descents becomes one entry. Dive time starts and stops at 1 m (3 ft), and Apple gives the depth sensor an accuracy of ±1 m.

What Oceanic+ saves in its logbook

Oceanic+ saves every dive to its iPhone logbook without any input from you, one scuba dive per log. Oceanic says logs can be viewed on the iPhone and the watch once the dive ends, and that they are kept in the cloud as a backup. GPS works only at the surface, so the logbook takes its entry and exit points from fixes before and after the dive. If an iPhone in Oceanic's housing comes on the same dive, the watch's GPS and dive data take priority and sync to the phone afterwards.

If you allowed Oceanic+ access to Health during setup, the dive data also shows in Apple Health, and Fitness lists it with dives from other apps. Oceanic's release notes for version 4.1 say dives recorded on the watch, the iPhone and up to two dive computers are now merged into a single log.

The plan sets the size of the logbook. The free Basic plan includes GPS entry and exit points, sharing and gauge mode, but keeps only 12 logs: each new session overwrites the oldest. Paid subscribers get what Oceanic calls a technically endless logbook, and scuba mode itself needs the Scuba Diving plan.

Oceanic lists these fields and views in the logbook:

• Dive profile of depth and time, with optional overlays for temperature, ascent rate and no-decompression time.
• Average depth, saved once the dive ends.
• GPS entry and exit points on a map.
• Visibility, surface conditions and currents, which you add yourself.
• Dive Highlights: your buddy's name, notes on the dive and the fauna you saw.
• A gear locker for the equipment you used.
• Photos and videos taken with the iPhone in a housing, shown alongside the dive profile.

How do you edit a dive or add notes?

In Oceanic+, on the iPhone. For Depth dives, Apple's guide describes viewing a dive in Fitness and deleting it (swipe left, then Delete). It describes no editing and no notes field, so notes for a Depth dive have to be kept somewhere else.

What Oceanic documents for an Oceanic+ dive:

• Open the dive in the Oceanic+ logbook on the iPhone.
• Tap the location name to rename it. The change syncs back to the watch.
• To correct the entry or exit point, expand the map to full screen and drag each pin.
• Add visibility, surface conditions and currents, plus your buddy's name and notes through Dive Highlights.
• Record the equipment you used in the gear locker.

How to export Apple Watch dives to another logbook

From Oceanic+, export the dive from the logbook. Oceanic's FAQ says the file is UDDF (Universal Dive Data Format), which the Subsurface manual describes as a generic format for communication between dive computers and computer programs. The App Store listing also mentions dive log and media export and sharing logbooks with people you choose.

Two desktop logbooks document UDDF import. Subsurface, the free open-source log, imports UDDF files through Import, then Import log files, adds them to the current dive list and tries to merge duplicate records of the same dive. MacDive's release notes mention reading UDDF files. Check the first imported dive against the Oceanic+ log before you import a whole season.

Depth dives have no export of their own, so the route goes through Health. In the Health app, tap Summary, tap your picture or initials, then Export All Health Data. Apple describes the result as all of your health and fitness data in XML format, which means far more than your dives. A third-party app, AWU2UDDF, reads the depth and temperature data from Health and writes a UDDF file that its developer says MacDive or Subsurface can import. Expect depth and temperature only, since Apple says the other Depth metrics do not go to Health.

What the watch does not log, and how to get a dive signed

Tank pressure is the biggest gap. Oceanic's FAQ says a wireless transmitter cannot be connected, so neither app knows your start or end pressure, cylinder size or gas used. Write them down after each dive, in the Oceanic+ notes or a paper log, because the pressures are what our SAC calculator needs to work out your breathing rate. If you want pressure on the wrist, our air-integrated computer vs SPG comparison covers the options.

The second gap is a signature. PADI's guide to logging lists a buddy signature among the essential details and says dive logs must be signed to be valid. Neither Apple nor Oceanic documents a signing or verification feature, and the buddy name in Oceanic+ is a text field. Ways to get a watch dive signed:

• Paper logbook: copy depth, time, site and pressures from the watch log, add the other fields in our how to log a dive checklist, and ask your buddy or instructor to sign the page.
• PADI App: add the dive by hand in the Logbook. For training dives, verify it by scanning your instructor's QR code or by submitting it for email verification.
• MySSI: add the dive manually, then verify it by scanning the SSI centre's QR code.
• Subsurface: import the UDDF file, print the dives with File, then Print, and have the printout signed.