Fall detection failed

[batman75]

Earlier this week I briefly fainted in the office and fell to the floor. I instantly got up after falling however i noticed my Apple Watch Series 4 SBSS did not detect the fall.

Any thoughts?

 

[Disneymom2003]

I think it is automatically enabled if you are over 65. If you are not 65 I think you need to turn that feature on.

 

[batman75]

I think it is automatically enabled if you are over 65. If you are not 65 I think you need to turn that feature on.

Just checked. It was enabled even though I am 42

 

[Banglazed]

How?

On iPhone>Watch app>Emergency SOS>Fall Detection

 

[jpn]

i thought that after a fall, your body needed to be totally inactive for a few seconds before it confirms that it was a fall.
many YouTubers showed this after they tried to get the watch to detect a fake fall, but were getting up or moving their arm too quickly after the fake fall, so it didnt register as a fall.

 

[Lsmachado]

Earlier this week I briefly fainted in the office and fell to the floor. I instantly got up after falling however i noticed my Apple Watch Series 4 SBSS did not detect the fall.

Any thoughts?

Strange. You suffer a fall and nothing happens. I, on the other hand, was coming out of the bathroom a couple of days ago and lightly bumped my elbow on the door frame. I immediately got the vibration alert saying something like “it looks like you’ve had a hard fall”. I had to cancel the emergency call and tell the watch that I didn’t fall.

 

[hologram]

Maybe you just didn’t fall hard enough. I slipped and fell on the ice yesterday and it worked just fine.

 

[staggerlee41]

It looks like there are a couple of different scenarios which trigger Fall Detection once the setting has been enabled on Series 4 watches.

1. Significant/Hard Fall
2. Fall with period of inactivity (about a minute)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

 

[Newtons Apple]

If the arm wearing the watch does not "land" hard enough, the watch has no idea if you fell or not.

Mine has gone off several times, but each was when I was loading or unloading something and hit my arm. It also went off when I banged my arm on a door casing.

 

[Volusia]

I had mine register a fall while I was removing it from the charging stand. I had picked it up and turned to put in on, but it slipped out of my hand. I caught it just before it hit the floor and the fall alert came on. So, fall detection still works even with the watch is locked.

 

[enduro0125]

I did have it on when I recently went mountain biking.
I did take a tumble,and sure enough the fall detection worked perfectly.

Luckily it wasn’t a big crash and I quickly disabled the sos call.

I’m impressed.

 

[tromboneaholic]

I did have it on when I recently went mountain biking.
I did take a tumble,and sure enough the fall detection worked perfectly.

Luckily it wasn’t a big crash and I quickly disabled the sos call.

I’m impressed.

Glad it worked out and wasn't too serious.

My 80-year-old mom bought Series 4 specifically because it has fall detection. She went on a cruise last week and tripped getting into an elevator. She didn't fall, but she lost her balance and had to brace herself against the elevator door. When she got to a port and had wifi, she was excited to text me and let me know the fall detection works and it was easy for her to cancel the EMS alert when it triggered in the elevator.