It’s frustrating to walk for miles with your Samsung Galaxy watch wrapped on your wrist only to realize later that the device was not counting your steps the entire time.
But why does this happen and what can you do to fix it?
In most cases, Samsung Galaxy Watch won’t track your steps because you haven’t configured it for activity tracking. Other common reasons for this Galaxy Watch problem include loose connection on your wrist, false movement detection, immobile wrist, and outdated wear OS.
9 Quick Fixes for Samsung Galaxy Watch Not Counting Steps
Updating wearOS, adjusting the bands, configuring the watch for step tracking, allowing Samsung Health to access the watch’s sensors, and keeping yourself in motion should get the watch to track your steps accurately.
You shouldn’t stop an exercise to look at the watch. And keep in mind that Samsung Galaxy Watch can’t record any step if you’re pushing a stroller.
Sometimes restarting your Galaxy Watch is all you have to do to fix the problem. But, a full reset could be the only viable solution if everything else fails.
1. Update Wear OS
Google releases wearOS updates from time to time to fix reported bugs, upgrade security, and improve user experience.
So update wearOS to fix bugs that may be keeping your Galaxy Watch from tracking, counting, and logging your steps.
2. Adjust Your Galaxy Watch Bands
Your Galaxy Watch has optical heart rate and accelerometer sensors that must make contact with your skin to detect pulse and movement. So you have to get the wrist placement right to get the smartwatch to track every step you take.
Wear your Galaxy Watch on your non-dominant wrist and adjust the bands accordingly.
The adjustment of your Galaxy Watch bands shouldn’t be too tight or you risk hurting your wrist, and it should be too loose, or the watch will keep dancing on your wrist and miss some steps. The bands should fit to a snug instead.
3. Configure Galaxy Watch for Step Tracking
There’s a high chance you haven’t set up your Galaxy Watch to count steps, particularly after a reset or if it’s a new model. To fix this:
- Press the Home/Power button to launch the app screen.
- Tap Samsung Health.
- Select the Steps Widget.
- Tap Add Steps.
This widget will show on your home screen, and tapping it will automatically open your step count in Samsung Health.
4. Allow Samsung Health to Access the Watch’s Sensors
Your Galaxy Watch only tracks, counts, and logs your steps if you give Samsung Health the permission to access the sensors.
- Open Samsung Health on your Galaxy Watch.
- Go to Settings.
- Tap “Share Data with Devices and Service”.
- Tap Health Platform.
- Select Allow All.
- Tap Done.
5. Keep Your Hands and Feet in Motion
Do you love pocketing as you walk down the street? Or maybe you’re someone who carries her purse whenever you’re out running personal errands?
That’s fine if you wear a smartwatch as part of your outfit.
However, if you intend to use your Galaxy Watch for health and fitness tracking, you had better keep the right body parts in motion. In this case, your hands and feet have to be in constant movement.
If you have your dominant wrist still but your feet in motion, the Galaxy Watch sensors interpret this as false movement and ignores your steps altogether.
To do away with false movements and get the watch track your steps accurately, ensure that both your hands and feet are in constant motion simultaneously.
6. Don’t Look At the Watch All the Time
At the health and fitness tracking level, Samsung built its smartwatch models to work based on feet and arms movements.
Every time you stop to look at the watch, the device stops tracking your steps. And if you make checking the watch more frequently a habit, you’ll end up with completely inaccurate results.
First, complete your workout. You can turn on to the watch to check your stats after your exercise session is complete.
7. Don’t Worry If Your Hands Are Not In Motion
So don’t panic if you’ve carried something on your dominant hand, if you’re working out on a treadmill, or if you’re pushing a stroller in a mall and you notice that the watch is not accounting for the steps you take.
The watch will resume counting your steps automatically once it detects that you’re swinging your hands again.
Keep in mind that while your Galaxy Watch assumes you aren’t moving when pushing a stroller, you’re actually losing some steps.
Since it’s important to account for every step you take, I highly recommend you keep your dominant wrist active. That means not carrying anything that could potentially keep your arm still, and not pushing a stroller with the wrist on which you have the watch worn.
8. Restart Your Galaxy Watch
Restart your Galaxy Watch if it’s ignoring, underestimating, or overestimating your steps.
By restarting the smartwatch, you fix potential errors such as freezing and Wear OS glitches that could be causing the watch to malfunction.
9. Reset Your Samsung Galaxy Watch
Open Settings, navigate to General and tap Reset. Follow the on-screen instructions to reset your Galaxy Watch.
Wait a few minutes for the watch to reset. Then, follow the Galaxy Watch set up guide to connect the watch to your Android smartphone.
How Does Samsung Galaxy Watch Count Steps?
The Galaxy Watch counts steps using a combination of an accelerometer and a gyroscope sensors and proprietary algorithms.
The built-in accelerometer detects patterns of motion whenever you move your arm and identifies repetitive movements of walking. The gyroscope differentiates between steps and other motions such as waving. And the proprietary algorithms filter out non-step movements for reliable step tracking.
Are Galaxy Watches Accurate for Steps?
Yes, Samsung Galaxy smartwatches are among the most accurate watches when it comes to counting steps. These watches automatically monitor your steps as soon as they detect that your hands and feet are in motion.
Your Galaxy Watch must be in synchronization with the health app for the step count results to be accurate.
