How to enable step counting only on Watch but not on iPhone?

[timidhermit]

I am confused by how Apple Watch and iPhone keep step counter data. I am aware that iPhone itself can use the motion co-processor to act as a pedometer to send data to the Health app. Won't this interfere with the pedometer data collected by the Apple Watch (independent from the phone) which are ALSO synced to the Health app? Is this interference also true for all other similar health data collected separately by both the watch and the phone?

How do I disable the health data collected exclusively by the iPhone's hardware so that the health data shown in the Health app are exclusively those collected by the Watch only?

 

[michaelb5000]

pedometer+ claims it intelligently syncs the data between the sources and doesn't double count. other apps may do the same thing. P+ does seem to work for this. It is possible you could delete the iphone as a source or turn it off, but I am not sure about that or if that would really work.

 

[CobraPA]

I don’t believe you can disable a source presently. But apps themselves decide how to handle data and how to display it. The Apple Health app seems to use a fairly simple algorithm (at least this is my guess) that compares steps and the time period they were generated. It then picks either the watch or phone to use for each period.

If you use another app, other than health, it will use its own technique to pick the data source. It can display just watch steps, or just iPhone steps, or any combination it chooses.

 

[NoBoMac]

You can't disable the phone, from what I recall. However, you can prioritize which device has priority. Health > Steps > Data Sources. Tap Edit and drag the watch to the top to prioritize it over other sources.

 

[sclawis300]

I am confused by how Apple Watch and iPhone keep step counter data. I am aware that iPhone itself can use the motion co-processor to act as a pedometer to send data to the Health app. Won't this interfere with the pedometer data collected by the Apple Watch (independent from the phone) which are ALSO synced to the Health app? Is this interference also true for all other similar health data collected separately by both the watch and the phone?

How do I disable the health data collected exclusively by the iPhone's hardware so that the health data shown in the Health app are exclusively those collected by the Watch only?

What makes you think your steps are getting counted twice? I would imagine one of the first things Apple did when they developed the watch was make sure that the phone doesn’t count the same steps as the watch.

 

[Suunto]

What makes you think your steps are getting counted twice? I would imagine one of the first things Apple did when they developed the watch was make sure that the phone doesn’t count the same steps as the watch.

Lol exactly. Millions of people would be having this issue as well.

 

[Julien]

I am confused by how Apple Watch and iPhone keep step counter data....

Read this.

 

[timidhermit]

Thanks to all. I just saw the priority settings and was able to choose the Apple Watch over iPhone as source.