Apple Watch only records a stand hour if I wildly wave my arms around while moving

As Idris says, it is not standing.

It is moving your Apple Watch in a motion that the Apple Watch accelerator thinks is the swing of your arm while walking.

And it must swing a continuous 30-60 full cycles (forward and back) in a brief period of time, such as a minute.

If you break the cycle for a long enough interval, the count resets. So 10 cycles, then holding vegetables with the Apple Watch arm while chopping, or carrying a pan to the stove, do not invoke Apple Watch arm swinging, and can easily result in resetting the counter.

People sitting in a chair knitting got outstanding Stand and step counts. Professional Chefs on their feet all day, miss many Stand hours.

You could try moving your Apple Watch to your dominant arm, and see if things improve. Or just make sure you actually swing your Apple Watch arm 30-60 time in a 1 minute interval.

This happens to me several times a month. My work around is:

As soon as you notice that it did not record the stand hour…

-open Health app

-scroll down and tap Workouts

-tap ‘add data’

-select ‘Other’ for the exercise

-select the ‘start time’ to be the hour plus one minute. For example: 7:01 am

-select ‘end time’ to be the exact same time as start time. For example: 7:01 am

* by selecting the same start and end times you are not adding anything to your exercise/movement rings.

— when finished tap ‘add’,

exit the app, then reopen, it should be there however there may be a slight delay. Just check back a minute later. Hope this helps, works for me every time. Wish it wasn’t necessary, but I’m not going to lose out on a stand minute because the watch has a glitch! Lol

You can turn it off and given your frustration level with this feature, it might be good if you did turn it off.

I believe the term "Stand Hour Goal" is what is frustrating you. It does NOT, nor was it EVER designed to track the number of hours you stand. It was designed as we've explained, but that doesn't seem to be what you want.

This link (not from Apple) tells you how you can turn it off if you want to turn it off --> https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-turn-off-time-to-stand-notifications-apple-watch/

Personally, I find the stand goal very helpful. I have a desk job and often don't move for long periods of time. The stand goal, reminds me I need to get up and at least walk for a minute. That's all it's designed to do. Expecting more, when there isn't more is just frustrating you.

In addition to lobsterghost1's excellent explanation, I would add that "Stand" is a bit misleading. What it really records is whether you've been active. Standing comparatively still in one place, as you could be when cooking might not register as active. You really need to move around. Generally, though you don't need to wave your arms wildly (though I've been known to do that just for fun). Walking from one from one room to the next once or twice should do it.

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

You should not have to look like a lunatic. Simply swing you hand as though you were casually walking for a continuous minute.

You have already figure out the secret to getting "Stand" credit.

Apple Watch only records a stand hour if I wildly wave my arms around while moving

Namely, moving your Apple Watch arm. And it does not need to be "wildly", just moving the Apple Watch arm for a long enough period of time is sufficient.

Just because you are on your feet, playing with the dog, etc... does not mean you are actually moving your Apple Watch arm to match your "Apple Watch only records a stand hour if I wildly wave my arms around while moving" discovery.

And knitters get credit BECAUSE they are actually moving their Apple Watch arm. They move both arms lots and lots for hours on end, so they get credit, because the Apple Watch accelerometer cannot tell the position of their body, just the motion of the Apple Watch.

Apple has not reproduced the Star Trek Tricorder. The technology is not there yet.

You're not understanding what we're telling you. Your watch will NOT report how long you've been on your feet. Stand is exactly as I explained above. Nothing more. It only tells you to stand if you haven't been active for the first 50 minutes of an hour and you ONLY need to be active for 1 minute. You can be active longer, but stand won't track that at all.

Stand is really a misnomer. It should be called something like "Move." That would let you know it's time to be active. But again, all you have to do is be active and move for 1 minute.

If this still isn't making sense please let us know what part you don't understand.

Are you using Stand Notifications? If you are, you can't actually record stand time in hours. A stand notification recognizes when you haven't moved once per hour at 50 minutes. To record a stand, you need to move for a full minute (like a one minute walk) and that's it. You'll then get a notification that you did it. It's designed to help you avoid being sedentary for extended periods of time. Like sitting at your work desk and not moving about. If you sit at your desk for the first 50 minutes of an hour, you'll get a Time to Stand notification, which is really an invitation to become active for at least 60 seconds.

You're expecting stand to do not what it's not designed to do. If you find it annoying, turn it off. You are not going to get what you think you should get. No one gets it. It is EXACTLY as we've tried to explain to you.

This is a user to user only forum. No one from Apple is here and as users, we didn't design the health features on Apple Watch. Expressing your dissatisfaction with other users, none of whom have any way to give you what you want is not going to help you at all. Do feel free to give your thoughts on this to Apple via this link --> Feedback - Watch - Apple

Apple will not respond to you by providing feedback, but someone at Apple will read your comments.

alicja8 wrote:

That is incorrect, in my experience at least. My job requires me to move constantly and while walking non stop for 4 hours and swinging/waving my arm non stop, the watch only recorded one hour of standing. It only seems to work when it reminds you to move. Other than that, I can’t figure it out, one day it works fine, then it sleeps on all your movements. It’s really frustrating.

Standing is irrelevant. Walking is irrelevant.

Waving your arms only counts if it is a rhythmic 30-60 forward and back full cycles.

if you start, then interrupt rhythmic motion for a few minutes, it will start over. Interrupt enough, and it seems to penalize you, making you do even more forward and back cycles.

My watch tells me to stand several times a day while at work. I never sit for 50 minutes to an hour and I am definitely moving my arms. I had been standing up for about 10 minutes just now and moving my arms around, when I went to sit down the watch told me time to stand. I think it's time Apple acknowledges there is an actual issue. Not the end of the world if it doesn't work. I don't really need to be told to stand, but if the feature is there it might as well work.

Rcain333 wrote:

My watch tells me to stand several times a day while at work. I never sit for 50 minutes to an hour and I am definitely moving my arms. I had been standing up for about 10 minutes just now and moving my arms around, when I went to sit down the watch told me time to stand. I think it's time Apple acknowledges there is an actual issue. Not the end of the world if it doesn't work. I don't really need to be told to stand, but if the feature is there it might as well work.

Apple does not read this user-to-user technical support forum for feedback.

But you can send Apple feedback via:

Feedback - Watch - Apple

If enough users send feedback, it is more likely a decision maker will see it, and maybe take action.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

If you sit at your desk for the first 50 minutes of an hour, you'll get a Time to Stand notification, which is really an invitation to become active for at least 60 seconds.

That is the crux of the Stand requirements and it works for me.

Nothing needs fixing.

But if you can't manage it choose another smart watch make.

Walking the dog is not standing, it is non-workout activity and will show mostly in the red ring.

The Stand Notification is quite a useful feature for me. My legs get stiff if I sit for long periods of time, so getting up and wandering around (even when watching TV) helps a lot. And my Series 8 watch seems to recognize my action, even when I just stand up and wander around the room. And it just notified me now...

Neal