How to delete cycle history from Apple Health (and Health Connect)

You deleted the period app. You may even have deleted the account. But the cycle data it wrote into Apple Health or Health Connect is still sitting there — because that is a separate store, owned by the platform rather than the app. This post covers how to find that data, how to see which app put it there, and how to remove it properly on both iPhone and Android.

#Why this data survives deleting the app

Apple Health and Health Connect are shared stores. Apps ask permission to write into them, and the platform keeps the record. So uninstalling an app takes away its access — it does not take back what it already deposited. Apple makes the same point about its own app: deleting the Health app leaves your Health data on the iPhone.

Google is even more direct about the consequence. Its Health Connect documentation states plainly that when you remove data permissions, you do not remove the stored data. Permissions govern the future; the existing records stay put until you delete them.

Worth saying: this is not a bug. It is the whole point of a shared health store — your history survives switching apps, so a new tracker can pick up where the old one left off. That is genuinely useful. It just means a clean exit has two parts instead of one.

#Apple Health: deleting cycle data on iPhone

Every step below comes from Apple's own support documentation, linked at the end of the section.

#Find what is there

Open Health, tap Search, then tap Cycle Tracking. That is where menstruation, symptoms, basal body temperature, spotting and related entries live. On iPad you open the sidebar instead of tapping Search.

Before you delete anything, it is worth knowing Apple gives you an export: in Cycle Tracking, scroll to Your Cycles, tap Cycle History, then Export PDF. Apple documents this as producing a PDF of the last twelve months, or of a single selected cycle. It is not structured data you can import elsewhere, but it is a record.

#See which app wrote it

This is the part most people miss. Tap a category, then a subcategory, scroll down and tap Data Sources & Access. Apple's documentation notes that only the sources actually contributing to that data type appear in the list — which is how you tell your own manual entries apart from what an app wrote.

The same screen controls priority. Apple's default order puts data you entered manually first, then data from your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, then data from apps and Bluetooth devices. Tap Edit and you can drag sources, or tap the checkmark next to a third-party source to turn it off.

#Delete entries, or everything in a category

Tap a category, then a subcategory, scroll down to Options, and tap Show All Data. Tap Edit in the upper corner. From there you can tap the delete button next to an individual record, or tap Delete All to remove every record in that data type. Tap Done when you are finished.

Note that this is per data type. Cycle Tracking covers several — period days, symptoms, temperature and so on — so if you want the category genuinely empty, work through the subcategories rather than assuming one Delete All clears the lot.

#Stop the app putting it back

Deleting without revoking is how people end up doing this twice. Tap your profile picture in the upper corner, and under Privacy, tap Apps. Tap the app, and turn off the health categories you no longer want it writing to.

One more thing specific to Apple: iCloud. Apple states that if your Health data syncs over iCloud, deleting data on one device removes it from all synced devices on the same iCloud account — so you do not have to repeat this on every device. If you want Health out of iCloud altogether, that is a separate path: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → next to Saved to iCloud tap See All → Health, turn off Sync this iPhone, then Manage Storage → Delete Data From iCloud → Disable and Delete.

Sources: Manage Health data on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch · Track your period with Cycle Tracking

#Apple Watch: removing cycle tracking from your wrist

If you wear an Apple Watch, this is usually the part that still feels unfinished — the data is gone from the iPhone, but Cycle Tracking is still sitting on the watch face.

#The data is not a second copy

Start here, because it saves you work. Apple documents that the observations you log on the Watch appear in the Cycle log on iPhone. It is one record you can reach from either device, not two that need clearing separately — so the deletion you did in the section above already covers what the Watch logged. There is no separate "delete cycle data on Apple Watch" step to find.

What is left is the Watch's presence: the app, the complication, and the notifications. Those are interface, not data.

#Take it off the watch face

With the watch face showing, touch and hold the display, tap Edit, then swipe left to the end — Apple notes that if a face offers complications, they are on the last screen. Tap the Cycle Tracking complication and turn the Digital Crown to pick something else. Press the Digital Crown to save.

Apple's current guide documents changing a complication rather than an explicit off switch, so the reliable move is to swap it for something neutral. Removing a complication changes nothing about your data — it only stops the reminder appearing every time you check the time, which for a lot of people is the actual goal.

#Hide or remove the app

Press the Digital Crown to reach the Home Screen, touch and hold until the apps jiggle, then tap the delete button on the app and confirm. Apple is explicit that not all built-in apps can be removed, and the ones you cannot delete simply do not show a delete button.

If Cycle Tracking is one of those, there is a documented alternative: open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, scroll to Installed on Apple Watch, tap the app, and turn off Show App on Apple Watch. Either way, this removes the app from the watch, not the entries from Health.

#Turn the notifications off

This one catches people out, because you cannot do it on the Watch. Apple documents that you receive cycle notifications on Apple Watch if Period Notifications and Fertility Notifications are turned on in the Health app on iPhone — the switches live on the phone.

So: on iPhone, open Health, tap Search, tap Cycle Tracking, scroll down and tap Options. That screen holds Period Predictions, Period Notifications, Cycle Deviation Detection, Fertile Window Estimates and Fertility Notifications. Turning them off there stops them on both devices.

#One thing the wrist adds

If you have an Apple Watch Series 8 or later, or any Ultra, and you wear it to sleep, Cycle Tracking can use wrist temperature to improve predictions and give retrospective ovulation estimates.

Worth knowing when you are cleaning up: wrist temperature is its own Health category, not part of Cycle Tracking. Apple documents viewing it at Health → Body Measurements → Wrist Temperature. Emptying Cycle Tracking does not touch it, so if you want that gone too, clear it there using the same Show All Data → Edit → Delete All route from the previous section.

Sources: Use Cycle Tracking on Apple Watch · Delete apps from your Apple Watch · Add complications to the watch face · Retrospective ovulation estimates

#Android: deleting cycle data from Health Connect

Where you find Health Connect depends on your Android version, and this genuinely differs — it is not one path.

• Android 14 and later, it is part of the system: Settings → Security and privacy → Privacy Controls → Health Connect. Google notes that upgrading to Android 14 moves your data from the standalone app into the built-in version, after which the old app can be uninstalled without losing anything.
• Android 13 and earlier, it is a separate app from the Play Store, reached via Settings → Apps → All apps → Health Connect → Open.

Cycle tracking is one of Health Connect's standard categories, covering menstruation, ovulation, cervical mucus and related types.

To delete, go to Permissions and data → Data and access, then pick Cycle tracking. From there Google documents several options: delete a whole category with Delete [category] data, delete one data type with Delete this data, or open a subcategory and remove a single row via the More menu → Delete entry. Each deletion asks you to choose a time period first, then confirm. There is also Delete all data at the bottom of Data and access, which covers everything Health Connect holds, not just cycle data.

For permissions: Permissions and data → App permissions, tap the app, and turn Allow all off — or use Remove access for all apps at the bottom. There is also a per-app Delete app data option on that screen. Remember Google's caveat here: revoking permission does not delete what the app already wrote.

Google's own documentation adds the warning that closes the loop on this whole topic: other apps or devices might still hold a copy of your data, so you may need to delete it in those apps too.

One aside, since it comes up: Google Fit is being wound down for developers. Google says the Fit APIs will be supported until the end of 2026, closed to new sign-ups since May 2024, and points developers to Health Connect instead. If you are on Android today, Health Connect is where cycle data lives.

Sources: Delete your data from Health Connect · Manage connected apps in Health Connect · Learn about Health Connect · Health Connect in Android 14 · Google Fit migration guide

#The order to do this in

Sequence matters more than you would think, because an app with live write access can repopulate what you just cleared:

1. Export anything you want to keep — from the app, and from Health if the cycle PDF is useful to you.
2. Revoke the app's write permission first, on the platform side, so nothing gets re-added mid-cleanup.
3. Delete the Health or Health Connect entries, category by category.
4. Then delete the app's own account, which is a separate copy on the company's servers — the previous post walks through that per app.
5. Verify: reopen Health or Health Connect and confirm the cycle category is actually empty.

#Before you install the next tracker

One decision worth making deliberately rather than by default: do you want the next app writing to Health at all?

There is a real case for yes. Sync means your Apple Watch, your other health apps and your cycle history live in one place, and it means leaving an app later does not cost you your history. There is also a real case for no: every sync creates a second copy that you will have to manage separately, exactly as this post describes.

Neither is the right answer universally. The mistake is only ever making the choice by accident — tapping "Allow" during onboarding and finding out two years later. If you are picking a new app, the five-minute checklist from the first post covers what else to look at.

#A note on the app I build

#Frequently asked questions

The short version: the app's copy and the platform's copy are two different things, sitting in two different places, deleted two different ways. Handle only one and you have done half the job. Handle both — in the right order — and you have actually left.