Flights climbed reading is odd

[Markakett]

Has anyone else noticed their flights climbed ready has gone up by large increments? I live in a one level house about 10 meters above sea level. I went for a run today on a route I’ve run for the past 5 years. For some reason it shows I climbed the equivalent of 99 flights. When I checked the data records on my phone it showed one section where I gained 29 flights in a 10 minute span. I compared the data input time to where I was on the route and according to the fitness app I went from 3 meters to 9 meters in a gradual rise. I’m not sure where the 29 flights came from but by my math that’s the equivalent of 87 meters. Looking back over my activity summary it appears to have started around March of this year. For reference I’m using a AWU with watchOS 9.5.1.

 

[arc of the universe]

hi,

interesting.

you are right. in that case, it didn't calculate the flights correctly.
i have had similar issues with my Watch as well (Series 8; aluminium), but in a slightly different way.

in the days before i bought my Watch, my iPhone would calculate a stretch of mountain road i would sometimes run up to be about 22 flights. the iPhone (carried in a side pocket) would come up with this number very regularly.

after i got my Watch, it took about 4 or 5 days for the Watch to calculate a consistent number of flights. the number of flights the Watch consistently calculated was about 14 flights, however. according to netbased and paper maps however, the actual elevation change was closer to the elevation calculated by the iPhone.
i thought two different devices therefore two different sensors, so i was going to just accept it.
but, the Watch also gives actual meters of elevation change as well as the equivalent in flights. and the number of meters of elevation change it reported was similar to the meter elevation change being reported by the iPhone.

apple tells us to calibrate the iPhone and the Watch (through the setting on the iPhone).
i flipped the setting to off and then back to on.
after about 2 weeks the Watch then began to calculate flights correctly (or, at least, closer to the data being reported by the iPhone.

i see you are using the Health app to view the flight data. for me there was also the problem that the data being reported in the iPhone Health app did not match the flights shown on the Watch. but that problem also got resolved.

in the end, it took several weeks for my data to be consistent. i haven't heard of anyone reporting that it takes so long to report more accurately, but in my case it did take that long. even to the point that the Watch reports the Move (calorie) number more aggressively for running that stretch.

i now can take only my Watch with me on my walks and runs, without carrying the iPhone.

 

[Markakett]

I tried your suggestion and recalibrated the watch before todays run. The good news the flights climbed was only 52, the bad news, the biggest gain was on a 2km section that was virtually flat. Who knows, maybe it take more than one run or walk to calibrate. At this point I haven’t noticed any other discrepancies in other data so I’ll just keep watching…

 

[assquatch]

I have this issue on my AWU since I got it. I’ve sent it in for service twice and it’s on its way back again with no resolution. They “could not reproduce”. I’m big mad.

Like you, it happens while on a running workout. I’m registering 50-150 flights a day when my real count was more like 20.

 

[Markakett]

Yup, nothings changed after latest updates. After a run I just delete the days flights climbed. I was going to send it in but as you say they can’t replicate the issue short of asking them to strap it on and go running…….

 

[assquatch]

I figure if they aren't going to strap it on and go running then they ought to just send me a replacement one or refund it. It's a fitness tracker. I explained the problem clearly. Maybe if I go to the Genius Bar I can have one of the geniuses tag along on my run.

 

[Markakett]

Here’s a screenshot of the flights climbed data from this morning’s run. It shows 16 flights climbed between 10:01 and 10:10. Crazy thing is I started my run at 10:05. The time from 10 to 10:05 was just standing around preparing to hit the road.

The total flights climbed was 60 after the run…..

I also figured out why the issue started in March, that’s when I purchased my AW….doh!

 

[Jackbequickly]

Just a change in weather pushes my floors climbed to inaccuracy. It uses barometric pressure.

 

[Markakett]

Yes, but why only during runs? I live pretty much at sea level and the elevation shows the same before and after. Not discounting the theory as sometimes the elevation reading is incorrect. (There’s a thread on that issue as well) Also it doesn’t affect my AW8, runs on that show 3-4 flights climbed.

 

[assquatch]

I'm sure we have the same issue. It only occurs on runs with my AWU1, not my AW series 6. I will let you know what happens when I get my watch back tomorrow (second service attempt).

 

[NoBoMac]

Just a change in weather pushes my floors climbed to inaccuracy. It uses barometric pressure.

This.

I've ignored flights since pretty much the beginning since I'll do anywhere from ~225'-370' elevation each day during my workouts and will not register any flights or like one or two (AW SE). Even hiking up a mountain where thousands of feet of elevation gained and will get way too low flight counts.

Elevation values seem rock solid for me so those have become the standard for me.

 

[assquatch]

So I just had a good result. Went for a 5 mile run and watch is correctly reporting only 4 flights climbed today. I have another run tonight so we shall see.

One thing I did differently this time is on set up: I did "set up as new watch" but also skipped the automatic loading of "other watch data" (or something to that effect). This is different from restoring from a backup or even "set up as new" and saying OK to restoring settings and data.

Even if you do this, it will try to load all possible companion "watch apps" from your phone, so I went and cancelled all of those and uninstalled ones that had completed.

It's actually kind of funny that all these "backup and restore" options exist when there is basically nothing of value worth restoring on these watches.

 

[assquatch]

On my second run of the day it also logged no flights of stairs. So far, seems fixed! (despite apple service doing nothing)

My steps were: Unpair the watch, then "set up as new watch", then when prompted about express setup, tap "set up as new". On iPhone, In watch>general turn off "automatic app install" to stop apps from being automatically loaded onto the watch. In my case this just loaded a ton of apps I don't use anyway, so I turned it off to remove those variables. Also make sure it isn't auto installing 3rd party apps already during setup. I believe yo

Let me know if that works.

 

[Markakett]

Thanks for the update and information. I’m going to wait a couple of days before re-pairing.

 

[Markakett]

I followed your instructions and went for a run this morning. The good news is it only recorded 21 flights climbed. That’s on track with what the AW8 was recording when I was using it. It’s still out of whack though. It recorded 7 flights climbed in a 2 minute span when I’m absolutely sure I just standing in the kitchen contemplating lunch…..

 

[assquatch]

So I went for a short run and got another few bad readings of 20 flights climbed. A few days later, more runs and no bad readings. I thought it was totally fixed but it may not be the case. Will keep the thread updated but I'm not Forrest Gump, so it may take a few more days. Will be interesting to see how apple handles if it is still happening.

 

[Markakett]

Same result here, 9 km run this am. AWU recorded 85 flights. Again curious data, I started the run at 10:10 and the first flights climbed was recorded at 10:27 to 10:36. This was one of the flattest sections….maybe 5m above sea level.

 

[assquatch]

Confirmed mine is still busted. Spoke with apple support for the 3rd time and they asked me to install a profile that will log health and sensor data while I go run. Will see what happens.

 

[Markakett]

I wonder if 10.1 might fix this? It says it includes a fix for elevation issues some users are experiencing.

 

[assquatch]

I wonder if 10.1 might fix this? It says it includes a fix for elevation issues some users are experiencing.

Nice, I'm updating now and running later. Will let you know. I also reproduced the issue and sent the log files to apple to debug with the engineers, and will speak with them tomorrow.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Imthought I read somewhere that the update would fix this.

 

[assquatch]

10.1 definitely did not fix it. It logged 88 flights climbed on a 6 mile run totally flat.

 

[Markakett]

10.1 definitely did not fix it. It logged 88 flights climbed on a 6 mile run totally flat.

Dang, well hopefully the tracker will pick up the issue.

 

[Markakett]

Pity there’s no banging head against wall emoticon. After updating to 10.1 went for a run this am, but even before that I knew the results were going to be the same or worse. I noticed that I logged 16 minutes of exercise before I even left. Taking the 10 minute warm up out that means I got exercise credits for just putting on my shoes and gear. I also saw 10 flights climbed in the same time frame. I guess I’m an aggressive dresser. BTW the run logged 47 flights. I’m not sure if it’s related but the AW did not record any heart activity until 12 minutes in. It just showed a greyed out reading of 150bpm.

I reset the Fitness Tracker in privacy. Hopefully that helps the over ambitious exercise minutes tracking.

 

[assquatch]

Engineering determined it to be a hardware issue and recommended sending it in. Im sending it in for the 3rd time. Support swore up and down that this time they would actually fix it, but I'm not holding my breath since thats pretty much what they said in going into the second service.