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Apple Watch counting too many flights

Since 3-4 days I noticed a sudden increase of flights. Tried to restart, but nothing helps. 84 flights in a day? I wish 😀

Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 4

Posted on Mar 29, 2020 8:40 AM

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Posted on Jun 4, 2020 1:18 PM

I tried your method: I was wearing my AW4 2 days, then left it uncharged overnight. After ~10h I charged it and it’s again counting flights that I didn’t climb. 103 flights today which obviously is false.

15 replies

May 4, 2020 2:58 PM in response to eralhar

I had this problem with my 4 one year ago and, after many conversations and attempted fixes, Apple replaced the watch. About two months ago I started having the same problem with the new watch. Calibration may make sense for two dimensions but it does not affect the altitude measurements. I walk the same trail every day and the watch shows elevations gains ranging from 600 feet to over 2000 feet. I have registered over 300 flights climbed several times.

Jun 2, 2020 11:46 AM in response to eralhar

I stumbled on an accidental fix. Try this: let your Apple Watch battery die. After that, wait 3 or more hours before charging it again and see if that resolves the Flights Climbed over-counting issue.


Below is the full story:

For about two months my AW4 was way over-counting Flights Climbed. Yesterday morning I noticed that Flights Climbed was 0 after I made my breakfast instead of the usual 10 or so. I have been monitoring since and I can confirm that the issue has been resolved. Story below and I would be interested to hear how it started (and hopefully ended) for you as well.




On April 4th I was working on a large yard project and decided to run continuous heart monitoring through the Cardiogram app. I ran it for 10-12 hours. Flight over-counting started precisely on that day, over 200 flights climbed (in reality it was probably less than 10). Watch continued over-counting till May 31st. 


On the morning of May 31st, I decided to do a 45 mile bike ride, which is more than any exercise activity I have recorded on the watch previously. The watch activity app ran for 4 hours, 3 of which I was active. Watch continued to over-count flights that day.


May 31st night, I decided to sleep with my watch on without realizing that the battery was critically low (due to the 4 hour activity). Watch died around 2:15AM, or at least that was when the last heart rate reading was taken. I put it to charge when I woke up at 5:00AM and left it till 8:00AM. Since then, over-counting has stopped. The only two special events that happened prior to this resolution were the extra long exercise and the battery death. I am leaning more to believe that the battery death is the culprit.

Jun 2, 2020 1:00 PM in response to eralhar

No problem. I think the trick was that the watch sat for a few hours between when the battery died and when I charged it. When the watch turns off the battery will still have some power left. Leaving it uncharged for a while will make sure it completely drains, at which point the whole watch will lose power, and I am guessing that the power loss is what resolved it.

Mar 30, 2020 2:10 AM in response to eralhar

This might be a problem with the barometric altimeter settings,and they need to be reset by unpairing and re-pairing the watch.

Apple Watch counting too many flights

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