Inaccurate steps count on TomTom Adventurer
Can any one please help, the steps count on the adventure multi sport watch is hugely inaccurate. I have supposedly done 12453 steps / 6miles today. I have been indoors/driving all day. its not possible. It seems the watch cannot differentiate between an arm movement and a step. unfortunately the price of this watch, it should function perfectly.
Thanks
Jack
Comments
Superusers
The activity tracker is detecting steps based on movement of your arms, just like all fitness trackers do. Incidental movement of your arms or movement of the car can be enough to trigger steps. It is not an exact science, it is meant to be directional guidance. For every extra step it picks up from brushing your teeth, or moving your arms while talking or driving, it is missing steps when you are walking pushing a cart or walking with your hands in your pockets. Again, it is meant to give you a directional view if you are active enough, not an exact count. You can improve the readings by wearing the watch on your non-dominant arm and not wearing it while doing activities that have a lot of arm movement with no actual walking (like cardio exercise, etc.). You an also try keeping it in your pocket, other users have reported they get good readings this way.
You can try a factory reset to see if it helps but it may be that you are expecting too much of the technology. It is not meant to be a perfect step counter, for that you would need a calibrated foot pod. It is an indirect measure assuming arm swings equal steps, which may not always be the case.
If this is a vital feature for you and you are within your return period you may want to look at other devices that offer this option now. I would not count on it coming, you need to make your decision based on the features that are currently offered, and not what may come in the future. Go into it with the assumption that what is in the box is all there is and it will never be updated, to save setting yourself up with false expectations.
To do a factory reset, make sure the Connect software is running and dock the watch to your computer. The Connect window will open; press the gear at the top right and select Factory reset from the next screen. Follow the steps provided, giving the watch the same name and using the same email address. When prompted to register or sign in to MySports, select sign in and use your existing account credentials. It is fairly straightforward and should take less than 5 minutes.
I hope this helped answer your question. If so, please mark it as a solution so others can look for it if they have the same question.
Even simple tasks, making a cup of tea and walking around my house result in 100m of activity.
Is there any way to reduce the sensitivity of the step counter? This might improve the accuracy and usefulness.
Superusers
No, there is no way to reduce the sensitivity.