I got the watch back from its third trip in for service, again with a "could not reproduce", even after providing sysdiagnose logs and being told it was a hardware issue. Frustrating, but I have done 2 runs without the issue appearing. If it pops up again I am told that the support rep will need to petition to the device to be replaced.
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Flights climbed reading is odd
- Thread starter Markakett
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That’s disappointing, even though they had the data logs they still couldn’t figure out the issue.
Weirdly enough on today’s run on my usual route the flights climbed was only 5. I haven’t seen a count that low in a long time. Even stranger, yesterday the watch showed 25 flights climbed in the afternoon. I checked to see when the data was logged and what activity I was doing at the time, it was vacuuming!! I’m still trying to figure out what movement or other factors determine flights climbed. It seems to me moving your arm in a fore and aft movement may be a factor. That could explain why when I walk my run route only a few flights climbed are recorded.
Weirdly enough on today’s run on my usual route the flights climbed was only 5. I haven’t seen a count that low in a long time. Even stranger, yesterday the watch showed 25 flights climbed in the afternoon. I checked to see when the data was logged and what activity I was doing at the time, it was vacuuming!! I’m still trying to figure out what movement or other factors determine flights climbed. It seems to me moving your arm in a fore and aft movement may be a factor. That could explain why when I walk my run route only a few flights climbed are recorded.
After my run yesterday It counted ~70 flights climbed. I still have no idea what, if any, factor is causing this since it can be fine one day and bad the next. Support just told me they're going to contact engineering but I was a lot more clear and direct that I am looking for a replacement or a refund at this point and not another mail-in service because that obviously is not working here.
Digging deeper into yesterday’s run. Flights climbed was 60. In the “show all data” section I saw this one recorded.
6 floors in 34 seconds!! That works out to 18 meters or 60 feet. Looking at the run map and times I believe I was running on a fairly flat section of road around 10 meters above sea level at the time the data was recorded.
6 floors in 34 seconds!! That works out to 18 meters or 60 feet. Looking at the run map and times I believe I was running on a fairly flat section of road around 10 meters above sea level at the time the data was recorded.
Right around WatchOS 10 drop I was doing some yard work, weeding. For most of it I was in a chair scooting along as I weeded...occasionally I would get up and stretch or move my chair. I think it logged 20-30 flights in that 3 hour timespan.
This was a v1 Ultra.
I have a v2 now but haven't noticed any extreme Flights data.
This was a v1 Ultra.
I have a v2 now but haven't noticed any extreme Flights data.
I got the replacement AWU and just ran a half marathon. It logged about 100 flights of stairs. Support is asking for another round of debug logs for engineering to look at. In the meantime I think I will just go back to the store where I bought to explain and see if they can do a refund.
Well heck that sucks to hear. I was hoping for a resolution.
In a weird and totally unscientific test I have placed a small piece of electricians black tape over the hole above the crown before a run. It’s my belief this where the barometric sensor is located. Anyway for the past three runs my flights climbed has shown 10-12 flights over an 8km run.
In a weird and totally unscientific test I have placed a small piece of electricians black tape over the hole above the crown before a run. It’s my belief this where the barometric sensor is located. Anyway for the past three runs my flights climbed has shown 10-12 flights over an 8km run.
Just updating that even on iOS beta 4, my problem persists. I did a 12 mile run yesterday in a totally new location and logged 322 flights climbed. During some runs, it will log many batches of 10-40 flights, and other runs it logs each flight one at a time. The latter makes deleting them impractical.
The only things left that I can think of are something about my phone's software or the way that I run confusing the sensor. I have not hard-reset my phone. I've never perceived or been told that I run differently. I'm an advanced runner and think that would be apparent.
- I have done many rounds of reset/recalibrate on my watch.
- I had sent my AWU back to apple 3x, culminating with them sending me a new one (probably refurb) which still has the same problem.
- It's happened with different major versions of iOS and WatchOS
- I've had two different phones during the time I've had this watch (14 pro max/15pro).
The only things left that I can think of are something about my phone's software or the way that I run confusing the sensor. I have not hard-reset my phone. I've never perceived or been told that I run differently. I'm an advanced runner and think that would be apparent.
I’m still having this issue. Currently on 17.6 & 10.6. I have noticed what I believe to be a common factor. It’s out there, but over the last few months it’s been consistent. I live along the east coast of Vancouver Island. This area can get quite windy. Somedays it feels like the gusts are pushing me backwards. Anyway, what I’ve noticed is the windier the day the higher the flights climbed is. Could it be the barometer is getting confused by air moving over the sensor hole? I’ve even had a few loud noise notifications while running in hard gusts. Like I said it’s a weird occurrence and it could be coincidental but I thought I’d mention it.
That’s a good theory that it’s a barometer error, but the elevation climbed doesn’t get recorded abnormally which I would think would be directly linked to barometer or accelerometer data about flights climbed. In some way these sensors must disagree on data that should be the same.
I will test your theory but mine miscounts flights climbed with such regularity that I doubt it is anything strange about the wind conditions. I’ve run into the issue in almost all locations I run, where the wind is not a unique feature of the area.
I do run in the city along busy roads so maybe it has something to do with pressure waves (or sound) from passing vehicles.
Perhaps the most perplexing to me is how this isn’t a more common/documented issue.
Oh boy, is this the thread for me.
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for years. Here’s what I’ve got:
-happened on every watch in recent history, I believe series 4, 6, and ultra
-on the older watches it took longer to start
-I have had multiple watches replaced for this issue
-always comes back
-I live in one of the flattest places arojns
-we also get hurricanes here and the changing pressures don’t have an effect on the issue
-I can always expect the issue to happen if I sweat
-the issue usually happens when the watch encounters sweat
-maintenance cleaning to Apple’s standards doesn’t resolve
-once issue starts I can almost always resolve it temporarily by submerging the watch in water and activating the moisture expelling feature a few times
-it usually doesn’t happen when I’m in salt water… I do enable water lock when this is the case
-it never happens in fresh water without soap
-it happens when my watch is in a case and when it isn’t
-you can play with covering the various sensor openings with the compass open to see if each changes the altitude
-there’s another sensor in the band channel
I have stopped wearing my watch in the shower or while washing my hands… feels ridiculous when this watch can act as a dive watch. It makes it useless for fitness tracking because the imaginary stairs inflate my calories burned and exercise minutes. I am 85% sure it has to do with salt or other substances in the sensors and that those substances remain after water evaporates but I haven’t figured out a way to prevent it. I also think it may have something to do with individual sweat composition.
Would love to work this out.
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for years. Here’s what I’ve got:
-happened on every watch in recent history, I believe series 4, 6, and ultra
-on the older watches it took longer to start
-I have had multiple watches replaced for this issue
-always comes back
-I live in one of the flattest places arojns
-we also get hurricanes here and the changing pressures don’t have an effect on the issue
-I can always expect the issue to happen if I sweat
-the issue usually happens when the watch encounters sweat
-maintenance cleaning to Apple’s standards doesn’t resolve
-once issue starts I can almost always resolve it temporarily by submerging the watch in water and activating the moisture expelling feature a few times
-it usually doesn’t happen when I’m in salt water… I do enable water lock when this is the case
-it never happens in fresh water without soap
-it happens when my watch is in a case and when it isn’t
-you can play with covering the various sensor openings with the compass open to see if each changes the altitude
-there’s another sensor in the band channel
I have stopped wearing my watch in the shower or while washing my hands… feels ridiculous when this watch can act as a dive watch. It makes it useless for fitness tracking because the imaginary stairs inflate my calories burned and exercise minutes. I am 85% sure it has to do with salt or other substances in the sensors and that those substances remain after water evaporates but I haven’t figured out a way to prevent it. I also think it may have something to do with individual sweat composition.
Would love to work this out.
I think I had a slight change in mines behavior since iOS 18 went GA. I have been running just as much, if not more, and had far, far fewer (but still some) misreads. I can't be sure if it's iOS 18, WatchOS 11, or something else entirely. It used to happen on 90% of runs, now it seems like 10%.
Safe to say the problem is not solved, but for whatever reason is cropping up less for me.
It does seem more likely on longer/harder runs, so sweat in the sensors could be a factor. I don't sweat a ton, like never dripping sweat or soaking my watch band even, but it has been cooling off in my area making the sweating even less.
@24yhtomik are you sure this inflates calories? As a test, I went to a prior day with too many stairs, and deleted those from health, and saw that calories burned did not change. I did a long run that day of 20 miles, and had around 3100 cals burned. The run accounts for 2,344 cals. If I had actually climbed up the recorded 200 flights of stairs, my calorie count would likely be 2-3x as much. That's an insane amount of stairs. Like you would need to be fit as ****, and spend hours climbing. It doesn't seem to me that the stairs impacts the cals. Calories is probably some function of HR * time. I haven't seen anything the flights climbed would impact. More of an annoyance.
Safe to say the problem is not solved, but for whatever reason is cropping up less for me.
It does seem more likely on longer/harder runs, so sweat in the sensors could be a factor. I don't sweat a ton, like never dripping sweat or soaking my watch band even, but it has been cooling off in my area making the sweating even less.
@24yhtomik are you sure this inflates calories? As a test, I went to a prior day with too many stairs, and deleted those from health, and saw that calories burned did not change. I did a long run that day of 20 miles, and had around 3100 cals burned. The run accounts for 2,344 cals. If I had actually climbed up the recorded 200 flights of stairs, my calorie count would likely be 2-3x as much. That's an insane amount of stairs. Like you would need to be fit as ****, and spend hours climbing. It doesn't seem to me that the stairs impacts the cals. Calories is probably some function of HR * time. I haven't seen anything the flights climbed would impact. More of an annoyance.
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I have also noticed the flights climbed is lower, in the 20-30 range, on my last few runs. I had one that showed zero! I can’t remember where I read it but I also believe flights climbed does not affect calories. I also have deleted very high counts (100+) and have not seen a change. I would think there would be a message like in activities when you delete a workout. Purely unscientific but I wear my watch in the shower, while doing the dishes and wet activities in the yard and never noticed an effect on flights climbed.