Stand activity doesn't work with standing desks (oh the irony)

I use a standing desk and normally stand from 9am to 2:30 every day (sometimes all day). Today I've worked with my hands on my keyboard from 9-2 and watch only thinks i've stood for 2 hours - the times that I went to the bathroom and when i went to get lunch. I suspect that L shaped hands up desk posture is considered "sitting" by watch when the irony is that i'm at a standing desk the whole time. Pretty hard to tell I guess but wow ironic that as one of the people who has been standing at work for a long time that I'm unlikely to ever meet my standing goal (guess 12 minutes beats 8 hours of standing according to apple watch - doh!)


Anybody else seeing this issue?

Apple Watch, apple watch standing desk

Posted on May 4, 2015 11:06 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 22, 2017 10:54 PM

I have a standing desk at work and ran in to the same issue. The easiest solution is to put your Apple Watch wrist by your side like you are standing to attention, this makes the watch think you are standing.


Pro tip: Drop your hand to your side while sitting to also meet the stand goal.

69 replies

Mar 3, 2016 12:52 PM in response to Jonathan UK

Jonathan -


Please do not respond to my postings. Your messages have the effect of keeping other people, who've got a much better track record than you, from responding.


And yes, your initial responses were great and they were welcome. But as I have worked through issues they proven to be the same exact message, with the same exact suggestions, which either had the same results or would have the same results.

And I really don't need you mansplaining how to use an electronic device. Honest.

Mar 4, 2016 5:31 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston -


You're right - he's very polite, concise, etc. until the problem isn't solved by giving up and going to the Genius Bar. I get better "results" by ignoring what he says. But, If he responds, others don't, and then the hectoring comes.


Your two comments about losing "Move" or "Exercise" minutes to minimum heart rate or warmup time is more consistent with my experience than Jonathan telling me my Watch is broken and I need to go to the Genius Bar. Your answers were something I'd started suspecting a week or so ago. I've lost count of how many times I've been told I needed to calibrate my watch by him. Watch is plenty calibrated.


Likewise, I wear my Watch while I sleep because I do. Meg's suggestion that I put it in Airplane mode at night was more helpful than telling me to go to the Genius Bar because my watch is broken.


You and Meg have been very helpful. Thank you both for your help.

Mar 4, 2016 10:30 AM in response to julie78787

julie78787 wrote:


Winston -


You're right - he's very polite, concise, etc. until the problem isn't solved by giving up and going to the Genius Bar. I get better "results" by ignoring what he says. But, If he responds, others don't, and then the hectoring comes.


Your two comments about losing "Move" or "Exercise" minutes to minimum heart rate or warmup time is more consistent with my experience than Jonathan telling me my Watch is broken and I need to go to the Genius Bar. Your answers were something I'd started suspecting a week or so ago. I've lost count of how many times I've been told I needed to calibrate my watch by him. Watch is plenty calibrated.


Likewise, I wear my Watch while I sleep because I do. Meg's suggestion that I put it in Airplane mode at night was more helpful than telling me to go to the Genius Bar because my watch is broken.


You and Meg have been very helpful. Thank you both for your help.

Jonathan is perhaps the best expert we have on Apple Watches. He is correct in everything he has told you. Fo now, you say that Winston and I have been helpful. You said the same thing about Jonathan.


The suggestion to put your watch in Airplane mode has nothing to do with the hardware problem that you have with the watch.

Mar 4, 2016 12:01 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Meg -


I really don't know how to be any clearer than I've been - there really are ZERO hardware problems with my Watch. None.


There are some rather interesting design choices, and the software seems to use models which have issues with uniformity of data reporting -- choosing an active calories model based on heart rate, lean body mass and time, rather than one based on weight, time and distance, for example -- but there are exactly 0.0000 hardware bugs in my Watch.


The reason I mentioned you and Winston is because your answers aren't the canned "Calibrate your watch" (very well calibrated, as proven on a treadmill) and "Go to the Genius Bar" (though you seem to keep fixating on that as well) responses I get from Jonathan.


Anyway, the horse it has been beaten enough. Other than waiting (forever ...) for Apple to decide to provide the ability to do a direct comparison between every other fitness app and tool I've got and itself, I've got all the info I need. I never have trouble getting my "Stand" time these days - I make sure not to carry things around in my "Watch" hand. I don't have to swing my arm or anything, I just drop it by my side and I get "You did it!" in short order. If it takes more than a minute I give my arm a wiggle and then I get "You did it!" When I'm doing working out, I wait until I'm finished cooling-down and a big chunk of calories I didn't get while warming up all show up -- that's because the active calorie model is based on heart rate, so I get "credit" for the calories not recorded warming up while cooling down. No needed for repeated calibrations and resets - I just get the "cool down" calories I missed during "warm up", which is correct for a heart rate based model. I keep my body fat percentage updated every so often (1% lost since starting to use the Watch, yeah, me!) and that helps with the accuracy as well.

Mar 4, 2016 12:38 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Remember - this is my FOURTH smart watch and I've used many other devices which report calories. There are many unique features to the Watch and in many instances, common features work differently or are poorly documented, or just plain undocumented.


The "Stand" feature is, I think, the best example of that. I would ... stand up. And I would ... move around. And I would ... move around A LOT. But, when I stopped carrying things around the house, suddenly it started working, and that's not documented.


The calories-burned model isn't documented. There's nothing which says "don't end your workout until you've cooled-down because all the calories you burned weren't recorded because the Watch uses heart rate, which doesn't reach a steady-state until several minutes of exercise."

Mar 4, 2016 12:45 PM in response to julie78787

julie78787 wrote:



The "Stand" feature is, I think, the best example of that. I would ... stand up. And I would ... move around. And I would ... move around A LOT. But, when I stopped carrying things around the house, suddenly it started working, and that's not documented.

It's not documented because, on a properly working watch, it does recognize standing and walking even when carrying things.

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Stand activity doesn't work with standing desks (oh the irony)

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