Do iPhone and Apple Watch steps sync at any time or in any app?

Hello.

I've been bothered by this for a while and I see others have posted similar question is, but could find no solution and some of the links posted to help are broken.


On my watch I have my watch face with 'Steps & Distance' os one of the Complications. I am trying to keep track of my steps for health reasons but notice that rarely does my watch match the health app. I understand they may work slightly differently (usually no GPS for Phone), but I I thought at some point the two numbers would sync. Does anyone know if this is supposed to occur? My phone is on my person about 95% of the time I am active except in the evening when if may rest on my chair side table.


For example, last night at 22:01 my watch registered 13,124 steps. My iPhone registered 11,264. This AM the watch of course has gone back done to zero, while my health app records 11,315 steps for the previous day. Eighteen hundred steps is a big discrepancy.


Anybody have any new insight? (iOS 14.5.1)


Thanks!



Apple Watch

Posted on Jun 11, 2021 1:39 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 11, 2021 1:55 PM

I am not surprised that there is some delay, but I would expect them to eventually sync up. The first (and simplest) thing to try if something isn’t working right is to restart your Apple Watch and its paired iPhone. If necessary (device not responding), try a forced restart. Both methods can be found here:

How to restart your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support


If that doesn't help, the next steps would be to unpair and pair your watch again and restore from the backup just created. This should result in no loss of data. It deletes all temp and corrupted files and re-indexes the file system.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support


See the "Make sure that you earn Move and Exercise credit" section in:

Get the most accurate measurements using your Apple Watch - Apple Support


You should also make sure your watch is calibrated:

Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support


Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 11, 2021 1:55 PM in response to EMH_OK

I am not surprised that there is some delay, but I would expect them to eventually sync up. The first (and simplest) thing to try if something isn’t working right is to restart your Apple Watch and its paired iPhone. If necessary (device not responding), try a forced restart. Both methods can be found here:

How to restart your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Restart your iPhone - Apple Support


If that doesn't help, the next steps would be to unpair and pair your watch again and restore from the backup just created. This should result in no loss of data. It deletes all temp and corrupted files and re-indexes the file system.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support


See the "Make sure that you earn Move and Exercise credit" section in:

Get the most accurate measurements using your Apple Watch - Apple Support


You should also make sure your watch is calibrated:

Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support


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Do iPhone and Apple Watch steps sync at any time or in any app?

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