Step counter wrong on fenix 6 / floor count wrong

Better if you customize your distance per step in the Garmin app. The readings will improve that way.

For the floor counting, just forget it. It's pretty useless.

Ah ok... I will and let you know.

But my Polar was very accurate on steps counting, better than my fenix 6.

Autourdupc said:

But my Polar was very accurate on steps counting, better than my fenix 6

Not helpful but maybe you need to consider going back to Polar? Why stick with a less accurate device that undoubtedly cost more?

Was not aware...

My Polar M430 died suddenly while charging.

The only bad thing at polar is GPS management... Only 3 possibilities of settings, and the most accurate setting for ski drains battery in 6 hours ! (Need external battery pack to charge during lunch). Normal use of the watch was 7 days without charge.

So I was looking for a better battery management and found fenix 6 with more than 1 day for ski. My choice was based on this parameter... And due to the Brand, price and manufacture date I was hopping the watch could be higher in all functionalities.

The floor counts used to be accurate prior to 13.10 update. For me it was spot on, and I go up and down floors all day at work. Now its a total hit and miss.

After one year of use my 6X is better at floor counting now than in the beginning. A floor required 10' (3m) of continuous ascent in order to be counted. At home it is not quite 10' between floors. It used to miss numerous ascents, but now it is improved. Maybe they changed the threshold a little. Anyway, if your floors are not far apart it may not count them every time. If you're bothered and want to force each ascent to be counted you can try to raise your watch arm at the top step to add some extra height gained.

Height gained on slopes will also count, but again there needs to be enough continuous ascent to make a count in multiples of 10'

As for steps, it doesn't count steps at all. It counts arm swings or jolts to the watch. You can count steps by brushing your teeth with the hand that wears the watch. If your arm is kept very still, like watching the watch as you walk, or carrying a tray or some shopping, it might not register the steps fully.

In my opinion steps is a stupid metric to be concerned about. It is a proxy for activity and "necessary" on simple devices without HRM. Personally I think that with 24x7 heart rate data and calories burned these are far more valuable metrics than steps, which could be short when shuffling around the house or long when marching out on a walk or even running. So what does a "step" really mean? Not much.

Where are you looking at this? The watch face only updates once each minute (a power saving feature). This means it can lag up to 100+ steps from the real count, but should eventually catch up. If you look at the steps widget, this will show steps in real time.

The suggestion of step length elsewhere in this thread will do nothing about the step count.

If floor measure is 3 meters, there is no need to have counter for this.
A standard floor is 2m50, but can by highter

Concerning steps, if not accurate and not usefull, no need to provide a counter for thems.

In fact, thoses counters are given, but unusable... Right ?
If this is the case, the watch is sincerely too expensive ! 

mcalista said:

The suggestion of step length elsewhere in this thread will do nothing about the step count.

I think so... Step measure do not depend on step length.
But steps measurement accuracy should consider accelerometer in synchro with hand movements and body movements... Not only hand movements. 
Maybe the algorythm should be improved.

(Polar never counted  my hand  alone)

While I do not care about the steps count value, I do wear an Oura Ring on the same hand as the watch. Right now the count for the watch is 3906. For the ring it is 3798. They are close enough not to be concerned about the small difference, if I ever cared at all.

Later I will be riding my bike. My activity effort will be high. So will my heart rate and calories. My step count will reflect nothing of the effort. It is a stupid measure to include in the daily measurement if you have better measures available (like heart rate or well calculated calories).

The fact that the watch includes step count does not make it a bad product. It serves a perceived need of the masses. Maybe Garmin would sell fewer Fenix watches without it, although at this level I doubt it would make much difference to the clientele. Its accuracy is probably quite sufficient, given it's rather questionable value in the grand scheme of things.

You can always get a Fitbit if you care about steps. ;-)