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Pewpewpew

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 4, 2012
110
32
Only works accurately when phone is in my pocket. If I'm holding it in my hand it doesn't register.

What's that all about?
 
All the devices that use motion sensors to try to count your steps aren't totally accurate. They need to try to detect the motion that your body makes when you take a step and count that, but they also need to ignore other movement, such as when you're driving along a bumpy road or shaking your leg when your phone is in your pocket. It's likely that when your holding your phone in your hand that you're also moving it around a bit and that extra motion is enough to make the phone think that you're not actually taking steps. Since it only counts flights of stairs if you take steps as you go up (or maybe down) and it doesn't think you're taking any steps then it won't count those flights either.

You could try to walk up some stairs with your phone in your hand and make an effort to hold your phone perfectly still relative to your body. My guess would be that it would count flights of stairs as accurately as it does with the phone in your pocket.
 
All the devices that use motion sensors to try to count your steps aren't totally accurate. They need to try to detect the motion that your body makes when you take a step and count that, but they also need to ignore other movement, such as when you're driving along a bumpy road or shaking your leg when your phone is in your pocket. It's likely that when your holding your phone in your hand that you're also moving it around a bit and that extra motion is enough to make the phone think that you're not actually taking steps. Since it only counts flights of stairs if you take steps as you go up (or maybe down) and it doesn't think you're taking any steps then it won't count those flights either.

You could try to walk up some stairs with your phone in your hand and make an effort to hold your phone perfectly still relative to your body. My guess would be that it would count flights of stairs as accurately as it does with the phone in your pocket.

"Flights climbed" uses the barometer, not the accelerometer, which is used for step counting.
 
"Flights climbed" uses the barometer, not the accelerometer, which is used for step counting.


It uses the barometer to get height information, but it uses it in conjunction with the accelerometer so that it doesn't give you credit if you go up in an elevator or take an escalator. The phone still needs to detect steps with the accelerometer in conjunction with a height change from the barometer to get credit for flights climbed.
 
I have had large "flights climbed" readings when climbing steep hills on my bike.
 
Flights climbed has been a hit/miss for my 6+ since day one.
I live 1.5 floors up from ground level and descend/climb these at least 3x day. Most days my iPhone reads 0 or 1. It is seldom correct.
Usually in my pack or pocket.
 
Last edited:
Flights climbed has been a hit/miss for my 6+ since day one.
I live 1.5 floors up from ground level and descend/climb these at least 3x day. Most days my iPhone reads 0 or 1. It is seldom correct.
Usually in my pack or pocket.

Same here. I gave up on the health app after quickly realising how woefully inaccurate it is.
 
Same here. I gave up on the health app after quickly realising how woefully inaccurate it is.

The health app is not accurate...it's just a collection point for data. The hardware that collects this information is not accurate, which underscores how difficult it is to determine these types of metrics on the dot. I bought a fitbit surge so I could, hopefully, get more accurate metrics.
 
Only works accurately when phone is in my pocket. If I'm holding it in my hand it doesn't register.

What's that all about?

Tried restarting the phone? In general, the barometer/accelerometer has worked surprisingly well for me. There have been times where I've noticed some strange data, where I just ended up deleting it for registrering climbs that I simply didn't make, but that's honestly a rarity. But the only reason I recognise that is simply because I launch the health app several times a day to get a feel for how much I've walked etc.
 
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