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Treadmill walking data on 265S grossly inaccurate

Leah P
6 months ago

Last week, I walked for a while on a treadmill, with a Treadmill activity started on the Garmin. I walked at a steady pace the whole time. Garmin gave me garbage data, reporting only 13:34 moving time (actual moving time 20:23), and 1:57 idle time (actual idle time 0:00). The Garmin charts show random huge drops in pace and wattage (which didn’t happen). I was dismayed but willing to consider that I somehow confused the watch by occasionally using my hands to look at phone, iPad, etc., which may have messed up the basic step-counting function.

Today, I walked for 48:05 on the treadmill, with a Treadmill activity started on the Garmin. I walked at a steady 20:00 minute mile pace the whole time and didn’t use my hands for anything, just let them swing at my sides. Yet Garmin is still giving me garbage data, reporting only 8:04 moving time (again actual moving time was 48:05) and fully 26:52 idle time (actual idle time 0:00). The charts again show huge random drops in pace and wattage (which again didn’t happen). Garmin calculated my total distance as 0.32 miles, when in fact it was 2.3 miles, per the treadmill. So it thinks I moved at a snail’s pace, achieving less than 14% of actual distance.

This is not acceptable and is yet another huge defect from Garmin. And don’t tell me I need to “calibrate” the watch to the treadmill, as:

  • Even without calibration, it should be able to do a basic step count and get something reasonably close to what the treadmill got (maybe not precise but seriously, .32 miles and tons of hallucinated idle-time? give me a break!)
  • It is not even possible for me to “calibrate” per Garmin's own instructions (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-F41EAFB3-6CC9-42DE-9C6C-9E358DBB0671/EN-US/GUID-86541696-B60E-44BC-9A46-4349C86A1CD8.html), which say to go on the treadmill “until your watch records at least 2.4 km (1.5 mi.).” Using today’s data, I would have to walk 10.8 miles in reality, taking 3 hours and 45 minutes, just to get the watch to think I walked 1.5 miles. That can’t possibly be necessary. I have things to do in my life, and they do not include working for free for Garmin almost 4 hours just to unlock a basic functionality of the watch.
  • The watch is up to date on all software updates. 

Another day, another unbelievably frustrating Garmin experience. Garmin, you need to fix this yesterday. 

  • 0 6 months ago

    Turn off auto stop is a suggestion (you are also using running which may be looking for higher speeds). make sure watch is snug. treadmill data is dodgy at best - it just counts steps and multiplies by a derived stride length to guess distance.

  • 0 6 months ago in reply to rskamar

    This is a Garmin software issue, not user error.

    • It's called Auto Pause and it was already turned off. I would have mentioned if the watch kept buzzing at me that it was pausing/unpausing.
    • I am not "using running." The only option on the watch is Treadmill. I was using Treadmill. Nothing about that option conveys that one must be running instead of walking. GC calls it Treadmill Running after the fact, but since they don't offer a separate Treadmill Walking option, it's not like I selected the incorrect activity.
    • "Make sure watch is snug" -- FFS. Why does everyone feel compelled to say this? This is insulting. I am not a tiny child wearing a smartwatch for the first time. Anyway, a loose watch (which I obviously would have noticed) shouldn't affect detection of steps, just HR -- and the HR data I got was fine, demonstrating that I know how to wear the watch correctly.
    • Of course the watch SHOULD count steps and then multiply by what it thinks my stride length is. It counted something like 6000 steps during this activity yesterday, very comparable to what my iPhone in my pocket got. So it should have easily been able to estimate (based on a typical walking stride length of 2.1 feet) that I went 2.39 miles -- which is very close to what the treadmill reported. If the Garmin estimated 2.39 miles while the treadmill said 2.3 miles, we wouldn't be here. And if the watch assumed that I was running instead of walking, it should have estimated an even longer stride length, yielding an even higher mileage estimate (which would have been too high, but whatever). What happened is that the watch counted 6000 steps and decided that I went 0.28 feet (not even 3.4 inches) per step. On what planet does it make sense to assume a stride length that is only 13.4% of a typical walking stride length, when I already started an activity and told it I'm doing a real activity here? This is totally unacceptable and is, again, and obvious software issue.
  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Leah P

    I use the "Indoor Walking" activity when using my treadmill while watching TV news/shows at night, however the treadmill will report, let's say 4km, and Garmin Forerunner 165 will say it is 2.5km.  I think this is because the smartwatch is calibrated for counting steps using the natural movement in the arms in an outdoor setting, and this doesn't replicate in an indoor treadmill setting. 

    Treadmill in the smartwatch is a running activity as far as I can tell, so I had to look for a while for a walking activity without GPS, and "Indoor Walking" fits the bill, while it doesn't get the correct distance, I can live with the step counting and calories calculation, it is ok-ish.