IPhone 16 pro max not accurate for walking distance.

[Steve Hope]

Hi guys, wondering why my new iPhone 16 pro max is so inaccurate logging walking/running distances. I carry this phone in my hip pocket as suggested but compared to my wife's Apple Watch and my cheap fitness watch ( both accurate to within 0.1 mile of each other.) My iPhone is over-rating distances by 30%. On our last walk of 2.8 miles as shown by both watches and verified by driving in our cars; my iPhone registers 3.7 miles on same trip!! Any thoughts? BTW, I did re-boot and re-check the calibration in Settings. I also tried carrying the phone in my shirt pocket but that made the accuracy even worse.

 

[MightyGem]

I may be way off on this, but here's my theory. The iPhone Health App registers each step that you take. It assumes a length of each step based on the height that you'd entered in the Health App(I think), so after so many steps it says, "1 mile".

Let's say, for sake of argument, it thinks that the length of your step is 30". That will be 2112 steps for one mile. Again, for sake of argument, let's say that the actual length of your step is 24". The iPhone still thinks it's 30" so after 2112 steps, it says, "1 mile". However, at 24" steps you've actually travelled 0.8 miles.

I'm 6ft, but take quite a long pace adjusted my height in the Health App down to 5'6" and the distance is usually accurate to plus/minus 5%.

 

[Steve Hope]

Thanks. Chat GPT had me recalibrate motion and distance . Checked gps accuracy by carrying phone in hand as opposed to carrying in my pocket. I also reset location and privacy. Doing all that improved step count from 30% over to 6% over and mileage improved from 30 % over to 13% over. I checked again with wife Apple Watch and my cheap fitness tracker. The Apple Watch and fitness tracker were the same . Unless there is a hardware or software flaw, the obvious answer is use my watch and not the phone. Again, thanks.