Swimming workout miscounts laps and distance

I just did my first pool swim yesterday and I too was having missed laps. I was doing freestyle only and know exactly how many yards / laps I had done.

I'm glad to hear that contacting Apple Support helped you to resolve your issue.

Thank you for following up! 🙂

Me too. Today I swam 38 laps in 25-yard pool (watch has those right), and watch says total distance is 125 yards!

When in Pool Swim, my screen is locked with the blue water symbol at top. So the only way I can access the screen is pushing the button or turning the crown. I don't have that problem you describe. If you don't activate the swim activity, the screen is NOT technically locked but the general advice is that the screen may not be as responsive to touch senses/gestures when it gets wet. If you want to jump into the pool to relax and not do laps, you can water lock the screen by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and clicking on the water symbol.

I typically swim just freestyle, although yesterday, I added two additional laps to my workout using a different stroke at the very end, and they were properly recognized/counted. At the end of each leg, may turns vary so there was no impact there on the lap count.

I also didn't have the issue of missed laps, it was always too many laps. The Apple Watch algorithm must have an issue depending on the pool length you specify versus what it tracks. Like Siri, maybe the watch improves the accuracy as you use it more. The first time I used it, it counted 15 more laps than what I actually did, but then again, was it really full laps when I only entered one pool length for the pool length (especially when the total yards was about half of what it should have been).

I am having the exact same problem. I am only swimming freestyle and both times that I've swam with my watch it has miscalculated the laps. Both times it was almost double the actual laps I swam. For example, I swam 15 laps and it said I did 29. My husband thinks it's because I do not flip turn. I hope that's not it!

All I know is the pool has two lengths which should equal a full lap -- the Watch should be specific as to what you enter: pool length or pool lap. As suggested by Apple Support, the way you swim affects the actual lap count; which I don't think it should because if you provide the length/distance framework of your pool, it should have a better algorithm to get the lap count to be more precise. Last year, my watch only accurately counted my laps three times (for the last three months I started using it for swimming -- all freestyle). At least it seems that the calorie count seems to be less questionable. I've used other apps where you enter the data as well as some swim sensor devices and I prefer the Apple Watch.

tl;dr: Interval training is probably bad for measuring

Thanks for the review link.

I swam 17.5km so far with the Apple Watch 2, and the counting and lap times were imho quite reliable.

Today, I started to do interval swimming and some kicking drills. As a result, my AW2 reported I would've done 1200m with 3 of the 100m-laps (in a row) finished in less than 1:10. That would be jawdropping.

Actually, I swam 1000m plus maybe 25m "chilling" in the end - and my fasted lap was around 2:18.

All in all, today's results were kind of scrambled - and that's quite annoying.

Another thing I noticed:

The first 100m lap is always (i.e. 12 of 12 times I used the AW so far) about 20s faster than the rest of the laps (whose times are far more equal to one another). However, I don't feel that difference when I swim. That's why I'm not counting it for a "fastest lap". Did anyone else notice this?

Did anyone ever feel no a fix for this? I tried Apple support, and they didn't help at all. They suggested it was because you glide for the first couple meters when you push off from the wall. But given that every swimmer does this, you'd think they would have taken that into account in the program. I've tried shortening the length of the pool by a couple meters on my watch, which helps get the count closer to accurate, but still not perfect.

Very disappointed. Swam laps for an hour. Predominantly freestyle. It recorded 1 lap for 50 yards. Not anywhere close. Since I assumed the Watch was counting laps, I didn't count, but likely swam @1800 yards or more. 🙁

I Just used my new AW today and swam freestyle and got the same result: innacurate laps and distance. It starting getting off the mark after the 12th complete lap.

Thank you for these posts I'm having the same issues. So to be clear.. in a 25yd pool you enter 50yds at the beginning of your swim for the length?

Actually I believe you enter 25y.

* Autocorrect edit: Did anyone ever find a fix for this?