You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple ID, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

watchOS 11 is now available

Introducing sleep apnea notifications, the Vitals app, training load, additional customization for Activity rings, a more personalized Smart Stack, and more. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

This seems complicated— I want my watch to count steps. Will it count steps if I calibrate it? The distance numbers aren’t helpful, I just want the number of steps each day.

Is there a way to configure the watch to count steps? It’s frustrating that it only provides distance. I don’t want to have to carry my iPhone with me to have Apple Health count steps. This shouldn’t be this difficult.

Apple Watch SE

Posted on Jan 22, 2022 2:58 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 22, 2022 4:26 PM

Thanks! That was helpful. Is there a way to get the step count to show up in Apple Health? They are supposed to be synced, but the only steps that register are those I take while holding the iPhone

6 replies

Jan 22, 2022 4:29 PM in response to naniofeight

Here are images of what deggie is talking about. The Activity icon, scrolled down


Scrolling further down


Tapping on "Weekly Summary"


PS. And the Apple Watch actually counts "Arm" swings which for most people happens naturally while walking, but if you do not move your Apple Watch arm, you steps are going to be undercounted. If you move your Apple Watch arm a lot, such as chef chopping vegetables for hours on end, your steps might be over counted.

This seems complicated— I want my watch to count steps. Will it count steps if I calibrate it? The distance numbers aren’t helpful, I just want the number of steps each day.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.