Fall detection false trigger

I agree that an unworn Apple Watch should not trigger a false alarm.

After re-reading Apple's description of fall detection:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944

I no longer consider my two false alarms an issue at all. Many cases described here are also nuisance alarms that as Apple designed it, will not call in emergency services even if no action is taken by the wearer. In my cases, I was moving and no such action would be taken.

However, if an unworn watch can trigger a false alarm (pet knocking down or whatever), then the un-moving watch could trigger emergency services. That is a minor concern that Apple should engineer around.

Still digging the little device. I derided it quite a bit when they were announced. Not any more.

I am also finding false fall positives on my Series 4 - and it is repeatable.

First, I have triggered fall detection multiple times when in putting on the watch, it slips out of my hand as I am putting it on. It falls to the floor and triggers fall detection.

Second, the Watch repeatably will trigger fall detection when I am gesturing during making presentations.

Now I'm up to a "Senior Apple Watch Advisor", which I guess is above a "Senior Customer Service Representative".

She is contacting the engineering department to see if I should get a replacement. This should only take 4-5 days...

She claims that the software in the watch is "learning" my movements and should improve over time.

I haven't tried chopping up garlic. I'm afraid to!!!

This is never ending.....

I don't think you're having a hardware problem at all. I think Apple's "fall detection" just isn't close to being ready for prime time. I'm totally disgusted with the feature.

I've got a friend with Parkinsons. His hands shake. He regularly gets a false fall detection just from hand shake, but since he has the watch has actually fallen hard four times and when he fell the watch didn't detect any of them.

My Apple Watch has given me several dozen false alarms. Any time I clap my hands together hard over my head at a concert it goes off. About 10-20% of the time when I'm in the kitchen chopping through poultry, smashing garlic, or shaking a half gallon of OJ hard it gives me a false alarm. This is totally reproducable. But the two times I've fallen hard, both from tripping over something on the floor in the middle of the night, it doesn't detect a fall.

Apple won't admit it, but they need to acknowledge they must work on fall detection and get it to actually work. The false alarms are annoying, but the falls, including the one I had last night which resulted in my head hitting the bed frame hard that weren't detected means this feature is an abject failure.

With all due respect. That's an absurd suggestion. It's one of the two major reasons I plunked down the cash for the watch.

What should happen is that Apple should get it to actually learn and work properly. The feature will never be perfect. That's a given, but it should work a whole lot better than it does. In fact it has never picked up an actual fall for me. It only thinks I've fallen when I'm still standing.

Moreover, considering the number of watches Apple has apparently replaced over this problem, they know it needs a lot of work. I'm hoping they will replace mine when I go to the store next week, but I don't have a lot of confidence, speaking to others, that it will make much of a difference considering the false-positive problem.

After 7 weeks on the phone (14 hours) with multiple Apple support people, they finally replaced my series 4.

I haven't had a false fall detection since.

Anyone wonder why there is nothing in the news about this problem?

Happened to me, too. Good thing my husband heard the alarm and canceled the call to 911! I was in a different room by then. I contacted Apple but they said they had never heard of the problem before. Maybe this will be fixed in an update?

That could very well be that the rapid downward motion makes the detection system think a fall has occurred. In fact, I'm sure that's true.

Having said that, permit me to point out some problems assuming that fact.

1. The motion is only a foot at most for anyone. I even measured my drop from a video taken and it was 12 inches max and a mean of 10 inches. One would hope that the watch wouldn't consider 10-12 inches of movement a fall. Even if you were sitting and fell out of the chair, wouldn't you have fallen more than a foot generally.
2. Shouldn't the watch know by now that my chopping motion isn't a fall after I've told the watch each time that I didn't fall.
3. The constant fall detections and telling it I didn't fall without improvement in the area of false-positives indicates to me that the watch is failing to learn.
4. The lack of knowing I have fallen, when I first tripped and fell thrice since getting the watch and then noticing it didn't detect the falls, purposely falling about a dozen times without detection tells me the software needs significant rewriting and that the base algorithm is faulty as is the AI component since it doesn't seem to learn.

I had that happen once - took watch off and placed on dresser before going into the shower - and also luckily my wife heard the notification and brought me the Watch to ask what to do.

But, that happened within the first few days of getting the series 4 Watch and has not happened since, so perhaps there is a calibration period for the accelerometer that is what detects the "falls". (Hope so anyway.)

This happened to me just recently. And is repeatable. So not fixed yet.

I think clearly a software bug. I also get false positives on fall detection from gesturing during presentations that I give. Repeatable.

Second level Apple tech support aware and reported to Engineering. No real advice yet.

I was advised to do a reset of calibrations: Watch->Privacy->Reset Fitness Calibration Data.

Now ... my Watch is also reporting wildly wrong pulse rates during certain exercise activities ... also repeatable. Even though pulse rate is largely accurate ... but not always.

These are software issues that should be reported to Apple.

This fall detection problem had happened a third time. I've contacted Apple support level 2. The problem had been passed on to the engineers. I've given them permission to track my iPhone and Apple watch. They don't know if it's a software problem on a hardware problem. With so few people experiencing this problem I'm inclined to think it a hardware problem. In any event it could be an Apple problem. This issue could blow the series 4 out of the water. Fall detection is one of their main selling points for the series 4.

It happened to me at least twice on a single bicycle ride on city streets. I finally had to turn the option off. There was no fall or extraordinary activity other than a simple ride. To the point, one of the reasons I upgraded was to have this option especially when riding. Will follow.

The fall detection failed again. This time I clapped my hands to get my dogs attention. Apple "Customer Service" said "no new watch", but rather required that I send the watch to Apple for inspection and repair. They couldn't repeat my fall detection problem. The techs at Apple updated the internal software and returned the watch to me. It hasn't failed again yet. Apple Customer Service called yesterday to see how the watch was performing..nice! So far no more problems.

The continuing saga of the Apple Watch Series 4 fall detection. I opened my car door and received a false fall detection alert.

This is the fifth false alert. Of the 5 alerts 3 have been all different movements. I've reached out again to Apple Customer Support. I've not heard back. I think it's time to replace the watch. I hope Apple thinks so also!

I've have my series 4 for less than 2 weeks and this is exactly how my first fall detection was triggered last night. I almost ignored the wrist buzz, good thing I didn't so I was able to cancel the 911 call. If this happens again I may return it. Fall detection was one reason to buy it (along with a host of even better reasons).

Maybe another example of oversold technology from Apple.