Samsung watch counting all arm movements as steps

[Stine 1]

I bought a Samsung galaxy watch 4 mainly to keep track of my activity and health, but ao far it's been pretty useless. It counts all arm movement as steps, on average about 3500 steps too many in a day. Which means it keeps telling me I've reacged my activity goals when I definitely haven't,  and it keeps giving me notifications like "great, you're active again" when I'm actually sitting down doing nothing. I contacted customer support, but only got random copy-paste answers like "make sure the watch is updated and try resetting it. I've done all that, and I've made sure it fits right on my wrist. Is there really no way to adjust the sensitivity of the step counter?

[GoanGeek]

Hi and Welcome.

Then maybe on average just minus 3500 steps of your full count.

There could be various reasons for this.

1. Watch too tight or too loose.
2. Since the watch is on your hands I believe that's how it counts the steps anyway.
3. If you keep your phone in the pocket it may be adding the steps from there via sync.

Also, I take all these metrics with a pinch of salt.

I would say you have kinda solved your issue yourself by identifying the issue 😉

Happy days.😊

[smiley]

I would agree with the other answer. This is a wrist based device, how did you think it would calculate your steps if it wasn't from wrist movements ?

The device technology can only be a certain amount of clever. It uses an algorithm of an arm and wrist movement constituting a step. If you sit still and make that same movement then the watch will inevitably think you have walked and count a step.

If you are in the habit of waving arms around 3500 times a day then perhaps a watch based device is not the best for you. I guess if you want to improve the accuracy in this instance then you could wear the watch around your ankle instead ?

A phone handset also works out the steps in the samsung health app. This uses a motion on the accelerometer of the device to estimate when you are walking or still. It is also unable to be 'super clever' if you decide to move the phone around frantically when you are sitting still.

Perhaps you can validate your steps from your watch each day, by checking against your phone. It is less likely you will wave your phone around.

Sorry this isn't the answer you are looking for. But watch devices will have a certain amount of error and especially if you have active arms when you are sitting still.

Smiley.

[Moiramon]

Whilst I agree that the watch uses arm movement to count steps. That doesn't really account for it to count 3500 extra steps. You'd have to wave your arms about quite vigorously for it to do that. It's not really possible to wave your arm enough for it to count steps whilst your sitting.

[smiley]

That is a good point and worthy of mention.

I guess there is a bit of context missing from the original post.

The OP states 'on average 3500 steps extra'. I guess the question is how often and how inaccurate over a week or more... and with some data to show genuine numbers against tracked numbers.

How does the owner know it is that inaccurate ? What known device is being used as the accuracy comparator ?

What job role does the OP do ? I mean if a plasterer or a physical job then there may be larger error margins, than the alternative of an office worker that is sitting down all day.

There are a lot of unknowns to this post. I have owned four watch devices, and don't have any real reason to question the data, but I do take the numbers without expecting 100% accuracy.

I guess just like the blood pressure, heart rate and other functions of a smart watch, they are not entirely fool proof and should be taken in an indicative way.

Smiley

[Moiramon]

That's what I was thinking. How do they know it's 3500 steps out.

[Wendy C]

My Galaxy 7 watch is also counting too many steps. I sit at a desk at work and use a computer. I have watched it count steps while I'm not walking. I'm also not making big arm gestures. It also counts steps while I'm working out on a stationary bike. Could this happen because the watch is too tight?

[Stine 1]

I of course didn't expect an 100 percent accurate account, but I've used different watches and this one is by far the worst. My old fitbit had a similar problem in the beginning, but then I found settings in the app to reduce the sensitivity to arm movements. For instance I could set my left arm as the dominant one when I'm actually right handed, and the watch stopped counting every tiny hand movement as a step. It's not that hard. The old fitbit broke and I chose this since it seemed to have more functions, very much regretting that. And no, I'm not :waving my arms around" I'm working at a computer, doing dishes, brushing my daughters hair, cooking and all the other things that I kind of need my arms for. 

[Stine 1]

I tried keeping my phone in my pocket all day for several days to compare, and also tried wearing an old fitbit that is WAY more accurate (but the glass on it is starting to break, which is why I replaced it). Plus, the numbers of steps the samsung watch says I have taken is just kind of absurd, it might be more than 3500 steps off or a bit less,  that's just my estimate. But definitely several thousand steps off. My old fitbit had simple settings in the app to reduce the sensitivity so it didn't count every small arm movement as a step, problem solved. Nothing is 100% accurate obviously, but the numbers were quite close to what I probably did walk, based on distance etc. Definitely going back to fitbit next time, but now I made the mistake of buying this one, so I'm stuck with it for a while. 

[smiley]

Apologies. Reading my response back now and part of my reply sounds very rude... apologies for that 😔. I guess i was having a bad day.

Perhaps there are some improvements that can be made. It is possible to change the wrist side in the settings and perhaps reduce the error count.

I guess i haven't really seen too much error with my Galaxy pro5 and newest galaxy ultra... hence my surprise that you see so much error.

Perhaps there may be some other tips from users to improve accuracy ... either here or on other communities such as reddit.

Smiley