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Inaccurate step count

ScanWatch 2 / Nova
Answered
Written by allanjsaul

32 comments

I recently purchased a Scanwatch 2. I really like the watch BUT like a lot of other posts on this forum, my watch is seriously undercounting steps.  Compared to a Fitbit (calibrated by manually counting steps so I know it is accurate), or a pedometer app on my phone,  over distances of about 4 km on three different days, the Scanwatch is only counting ~60% of the steps.  (Today’s walk was 5008 steps on the Fitbit; 4960 steps on phone, 3154 on Scanwatch).

I’ve tried all the issues recommended by Withing – tight strap, swing arm etc. Energetic walk with no stops.                                                                                                                                                          I’ve tried suggestions on this Forum – calibrating time.  Factory reset…

So far nothing has worked.

So any other suggestions welcome

How may people have watches that DO accurately count steps?

Is this a problem with just my watch (albeit apparently a fairly common problem) I'll ask for a replacement.  If this is this a problem that impacts ALL Withing watches I'll be looking for my money back.

 

By way of background: 

I know of an old YouTube video that tests accuracy and finds it good.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQU0Db401io

I’ve been in touch with Wirthing via their chat and “Alda” tells me:

“The Withings algorithm that is built into our step and activity trackers is capable of doing this with great accuracy.”

She contradicted herself by also saying that despite the great accuracy:

“… our development team is working to improve the step algorithm used by the watch so the step tracking should improve as future firmware updates are released. We do not have an ETA but you will be notified once the update has been deployed.”

(Something I see other forum users have been posting for at least 3 years)

And concludes with:

“I can confirm that we do not have a known issue with the accuracy of the step tracking of the ScanWatch 2 but our developers are doing their best to resolve this case as soon as possible.

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Comments

Date Votes
  • Matthijs J
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    I got the Scanwatch 2 as a present from my wife. I love the design, and the build quality. But I also stumled on the fact that the step counter is inaccurate.

    I noticed that the way you hold your arm limits the step count. If you carry a bag with your arm, or you hold your arm up high, it misses steps. So I assume that it aggressivly filters unintended step counts. And that is a good idea of course, but in this case it throws the baby out with the bathwater.

    If it essentially is a software related problem, it should be fairly easy to fix, especially these days where we have things like claude code.

    I hope that the dev. team will put some effort in to this, because tracking steps is one of the most basic and important things it should do.

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  • Dwayne W
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    At this point, it is clear that someone in the Withings product team vehemently believes their counting method is more accurate and is willing to die on that hill. From the support responses and articles, they believe they are superior and we're just fat morons advocating for them to 'lie to us'. There's clearly an aggressive "noise reduction" going on to prevent false steps from being counted, and Withings product team are hell-bent certain this is the right way and everyone else is just wrong.

    Ironic that the best word that comes to mind is... pedantic.

    I think everyone just needs to face the ugly reality is that some person(s) at Withings will have to get fired before this ever changes. They won't release a patch. It's been over two years. It's not a question of ability, it's willingness - and they flat out just refuse to do so.

    If they wanted to, they would. They don't want to and clearly look down on all of us that raise the issue.

    At this point, unless you're a major investor willing to chase down an executive and demand they fire the PM for this product or find the product management lead at CES and berate them from on-stage shaming them in front of their peers for being obstinate... we're not ever getting a fix for this.

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