Stop activity tracking while commuting

I picked up a Tactix 7 Pro Ballistic Edition a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things that's annoying me is that part of my daily driving commute is counted as steps taken and even stairs climbed. Sections of the road surface is uneven enough to be incorrectly recognized as those activities.

Is there any way to temporarily disable the tracking of those activities to avoid messing up my statistics? If not, that seems like a useful enhancement.

  • I am sorry there is a issue. A bit odd. Those metrics are coming from two different sensors. Your accelerometer and your barometric altimeter. The driving alone, regardless of the road not being a perfect sheet of glass smooth, still shouldn't be giving you either metric just from driving.

    Please try the following:

    - Hard Reset your watch by long holding your top left button until your watch shuts off. Then let go of the button.

    - Ensure your software has been fully updated on the off chance the production date of the watch has it on older software.

    - Reset through the System > Reset menu if the issue persists.

    If no luck, please reach out to Outdoor Product Support in your region.

  • I can watch the number of steps taken go up in Connect while driving down the alley behind my home, and two days ago my watch alerted me to having completed my daily stair climbing goal while driving on the freeway.

    My watch is up-to-date, I'm on v8.21.

  • steps taken go up in Connect while driving down the alley behind my home, and two days ago my watch alerted me to having completed my daily stair climbing goal while driving on the freeway.

    I don't see this behavior during normal smart watch mode.  Are you executing an activity while driving?

  • No. I just have Connect open to watch the step count in real-time. There are no activities logged during my commute.

    I don't see the number of stairs climbed changing, but that's obviously also a less frequent change. I did get a notification for having reached my daily stair climbing goal on Monday while driving. It was on a section of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles that's climbing slowly. My commute started at 88 ft MSL according to Google Earth and goes up to 199 ft MSL.

  • that's climbing slowly

    Ah, LA traffic :).  So, I take it you are moving at a walking pace or slower?  Wonder if the algorithm is a function of velocity and elevation change for the stair count.  Can't explain the steps.

    From Garmin Support page: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=LJ6vYF2phv7JUAOlsRRjC8

    What Are the Requirements to Receive Credit?

    In order to receive credit you need to meet the following requirements:

    • A floor climbed is equal to 10 feet (3 meters) in elevation gain

    • Consistent arm movement tied to walking as you climb
      • Riding in an elevator would not earn you credit nor would riding a bike up a hill/mountain
      • Stopping in the middle of climbing could result in loss of credit
  • By climbing slowly I meant a slight slope. But yeah, traffic on the "freeway" is often slower than on surface streets.

    And this stretch of the 405 isn't all that smooth, with transitions between concrete sections every ten yards or so. The car hits one roughly every 1/2 second depending on the vehicle speed, and that registers as a step taken. I can take a video if that helps, but trust me when I say it happens.

    I don't think there's anything wrong with the watch and I doubt resetting it will help. The problem is that the accelerations are close enough to those seen while walking.

    Having the option to manually pause motion tracking really seems like the easiest solution.

  • Nothing you can do about it. Garmin is a lot better at non counting those rides than other companies (my old Fitbit counted thousands of steps every time a rode a bike). And if there are bumps and changes in pressure, it will count you some steps and sometimes some floors. Just the way it is, it will never be 100% accurate.

  • I'm not asking for a change in the activity detection, nor do I expect it to be 100% accurate. As a software engineer, I recognize that it's a difficult problem and that changing the algorithms is likely to break something and introduce regressions.

    The ability for the user to manually turn off the detection seems like a simple solution that won't mess with the existing algorithms. I'm going to Nevada for a couple of days next week, and I shudder to think what the drive will do to my goals for the driving days.

  • I got back from that trip to Nevada yesterday, and during about 4 1/2 hours of driving the watch added about 1800 steps and one floor climbed to my daily activity.

    I also saw that other people have reported the same issue (see https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-7-series/292521/watch-counts-steps-and-floors-during-driving). Why Garmin thinks this isn't a problem that deserves a solution is beyond me.