Do you own a Galaxy Watch? Are you getting inaccurate step tracking on your Galaxy Watch while driving? You see, smartwatches are tiny devices that can help you track your fitness and overall health by offering tons of smart and useful features. One such feature is step-tracking. It can be a very useful feature that can help you to keep track of your daily activity or cardio goals. Therefore, it can be annoying when your Galaxy Watch is counting steps when you are driving or even just sitting, sleeping, or charging it. But no need to worry because in this article I’m going to share some tips using which you can avoid inaccurate step tracking on Galaxy Watch 4, 5, or 6. So without any delay, let’s get to it.
Quick Navigation
- Quick Takeaway
- Why Is Your Galaxy Watch Counting Too Many Steps?
- How To Fix Galaxy Watch Counting Steps While Driving, Sitting, Sleeping, Or Charging?
- Final Verdict
- FAQs
Quick Takeaway
If your Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, 5, or 6 is counting steps while driving, then you can avoid this problem by disabling the step tracking by phone. If that does not fix your issue then you can turn off the auto-detect workout feature or you can just take your Watch off while driving.
Why Is Your Galaxy Watch Counting Too Many Steps?
If your Galaxy Watch is also doubling your steps or counting steps while driving or even sitting, then you are not alone. This is a very common issue that can be seen in many smartwatches including the Samsung Galaxy Watches as well. This is mainly because your watch is continuously tracking the signs of activity that indicate that you are walking. It calculates your step count using a bunch of sensors and algorithms. Quite often, these sensors can pick up signs of activities that can resemble walking which leads to the false counting of steps.
Another cause for the inaccurate step tracking on Galaxy Watch can be the Samsung Health app. While the Health app mostly tries to keep your step count accurate, sometimes it can cause tracking of false steps too. The Samsung Health app tracks your steps from your watch as well as your phone. Often while driving when your phone is placed on the dashboard or is just shaking, it can register those vibrations as steps and can add them to your step count.
How To Fix Galaxy Watch Counting Steps While Driving, Sitting, Sleeping, Or Charging?
Since your Galaxy Watch always detects your movements for accurate step tracking, it can sometimes register similar activities as steps. For example, the Galaxy Watch can detect vibrations while driving or your hand movements/gestures and can inadvertently count them as steps.
You cannot get rid of this issue totally, as that would require a more refined step-tracking algorithm or more accurate sensors. But fret not, there are some things that you can do to prevent inaccurate step tracking from ruining your activity goals.
Disable Step Tracking By Phone
As I’ve mentioned before, the Samsung Health app uses the data recorded from both your Galaxy Watch as well as your phone to keep track of your step count accurately. It merges the data and shows the cumulative step count. Though some times it may cause inaccuracy in the step data. You can avoid this issue by only tracking your steps on your Galaxy Watch and disabling tracking by phone.
To do this, you need to open the Health app on your phone and select the Steps data. Next, tap on the three horizontal dots and choose Select steps data to show.
Now select Mobile phone, go back to the Steps data, and tap on the three horizontal lines again. Now you will see an additional option there, select Pause step counting.
Go to Select steps data to show and choose All steps.
Now Samsung Health will only use your Galaxy Watch to track your step data.
Take Off Your Watch
The sensors that are responsible for tracking your steps by detecting your activity can also mistake similar hand movements or vibrations as walking. So if your Galaxy Watch is counting steps while driving then you can take it off while driving to avoid having steps added to your daily activity goal.
Similarly, if your hands move too much while sleeping then your Galaxy Watch might perceive it as walking which can lead to your increased step count. So, you are better off if you take it off your wrist while sleeping.
Turn Off Auto Detect
Since you can also receive important notifications on your Galaxy Watch, taking it off might not be practical for you. In that case, you can just turn off the auto-detect workout feature on your Galaxy Watch. Doing so will stop all the automatic step and activity tracking on your Samsung Watch. You will have to start an activity session manually and only then your Galaxy Watch will start to track it.
To turn off auto-detect, open Health on your Galaxy Watch and go to Settings. Now turn off the toggle button in front of Activities to detect.
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Final Verdict
Inaccurate step tracking or false step count is a common problem among many smartwatches and activity trackers. Your Samsung Galaxy Watch can count too many steps when sitting or driving due to hand movements/gestures or vibrations that are similar to that during walking. Although there is no fix for this issue, you can use the above-mentioned tips and tricks to avoid inaccurate and false step tracking on your Samsung Galaxy Watch.
FAQs
Why Does My Galaxy Watch Count Steps While Driving?
The sensors on your Galaxy Watch can detect the hand movements or vibrations while driving which might be similar to those while walking. Therefore, it can inadvertently register them as steps.
Why Is My Samsung Galaxy Watch Not Tracking Steps Accurately?
Most common causes of inaccurate step tracking are loose watch placement, outdated software, excessive and unusual vibrations in your environment.
How Accurate Is Samsung Health App Steps?
Samsung Health app can track steps with up to 95% accuracy, which can be deemed fairly accurate.
