Pixel Watch 3 – Elliptical workouts no longer contributing steps after March 2026 update

[nathanmillson]

I’m looking for clarification and possibly reporting a bug related to Pixel Watch 3 step tracking after the March 2026 update.

Before the update, my elliptical workouts were clearly contributing steps to my daily step count.

Example (before update):

• 27 Feb

  • Elliptical workout: 1h 01m

  • Daily steps recorded: 21,229

• 2 Mar

  • Elliptical workout: 1h 03m

  • Daily steps recorded: 17,544

These workouts normally occur around 4:30am, and the step graph clearly shows a large spike during the workout window. My elliptical sessions typically contributed around 9,000 steps toward the daily total.

During these workouts I am actively rowing the moving handles on the elliptical for the entire session. My arms are continuously moving with the machine handles. This motion has always been detected by the watch in the past and recorded as steps.

After the latest Pixel Watch 3 update (March 2026) this behaviour has changed.

Example (after update):

• 6 Mar

  • Elliptical workout: 1h 03m

  • Calories, heart rate and zone minutes recorded correctly

  • Daily steps recorded: 11,904

The step graph no longer shows the large spike during the workout period. The elliptical activity appears to be excluded from the daily step count.

Troubleshooting already performed:

• Factory reset of the Pixel Watch 3

• Repaired and set up from scratch

The manual elliptical workout still records:

• heart rate

• calories burned

• cardio load

• zone minutes

But steps are no longer added during the workout.

To further investigate this, I contacted Fitbit support.

Support case reference: 1-8039000040697
Date: 7 March

During the support chat I was told that:

• Elliptical and spinning workouts are not designed to track steps

• However, if arm movement is detected by the accelerometer, steps can still be calculated during the workout

This aligns with what my historical data shows. My previous workouts clearly added thousands of steps while using the elliptical.

Because the only change between my previous working workouts and current behaviour is the March 2026 Pixel Watch update, I suspect something may have changed in the step detection algorithm.

My question for a Fitbit specialist:

Can someone officially confirm whether steps generated from arm movement during a manual Elliptical workout are expected to be included in the daily step count?

My historical screenshots show that these steps were previously counted, but after the March update they no longer are.

If this behaviour has changed, was it an intentional change in the update?
Or could this be a bug introduced in the latest Pixel Watch update?

I would appreciate confirmation from a Fitbit specialist, and I’m also interested to hear if other Pixel Watch users have experienced the same change.

Kind Regards,

Nathan.


Before


After

[him7403]

Google support didn't acknowledge this as a problem. They asked me to factory reset my watch instead. Such a poor support provided by Google.

[Chris....]

Google support advised my that they were working in a fix, I don't hols out much hope to be honest, it doesn't count my gym steps anymore when I put it in weight training and it was also double counting steps and calories I've got round it my removing my phone as a devise on the app so my watch accounts for everything now and not using the weight lifting feature.

[Morrigan]

At this point i am tracking everything as treadmill. 

I just hope that we are getting an update soon. This is very annoying.....

Thought about upgrading to the next Google watch when they release it but at the moment......🙄

@AndreaFitbit is there any update? Any news you can report?

Would be nice if we could get an update on the investigation 

[JCMtl96]

I'm having the same issue with my Pixel 2 watch! Anytime I turn on any workout, apart from "Walk", my steps are not being calculated but every other stat is. This is frustrating, especially because my job offers perks to those who achieve high steps throughout the week!!! Fitbit needs to fix this ASAP 😭

[BMesarch]

I just finally pushed the update last night.... Exact same workout on the elliptical as yesterday, and not only not recording steps but also showing a 200% increase in calories burned.....?? ++

[toubap]

Despite last app and watch updates. I keep facing the issue.

[Shred00]

When is there going to be a fix for this already!?!?  That this kind of thing leaked past QA is simply unacceptable.  This is not freeware.  I paid good money for this watch and I expect it to have some QA before updates like this last garbage one was.

Is anyone from Fitbit/Google actually paying attention here or are we all just users complaining to each other?

[canfitincan]

Same happening for strength workouts too. This is a deal breaker for me. 

---

I would be walking around, and even then, it doesn't move above my steps at all. It's just stuck. I ended the workout, and it still remaining stuck despite restarting the phone and watch. I then cleared the app cache, it started tracking again. But did a strength workout another day and the same issue

[KenG1959]

YES, I am having similar issues – Before the March software update (Google Pixel 3 watch), I would do 6 miles on the elliptical, and before it would show 3 to 5K footsteps, but now it only shows a few hundred. 

So I did a test.  I got on the elliptical, and didn't set it on "Elliptical".  I just monitored the footsteps, to see if it would pick them up = it did perfectly.  So then I flipped into the "Elliptical" mode, and immediately the footsteps stopped tracking, and it got stuck on the footsteps # the moment I flipped to Elliptical mode.

Last part of the test (and the SOLUTION for now): I tried doing the Elliptical in the "TREADMILL" mode, and it counted the footsteps perfectly.  So it appears to be a software issue (likely from the March update - wondering if they test the updates before they send them out?!).  In any case, this "fix" has been working for me perfectly, until they fix the real software issue. 

[Linzhey]

I have also been experiencing that same problem. It is with several of the exercise features excluding walking and running in my experience since the up date. It no longer is tracking steps. When I use the pickleball or tennis setting. It is also not tracking steps when I am weight training or hiit training. And none of them are accurately tracking calories anymore. Don't know what happened but it feels very frustrating. In my opinion. These are all exercises that should be tracking steps. And when I would do the elliptical previously before the update, it would still track steps. I could visibly watch the steps add up on my watch.

[canfitincan]

I wanted to try something which I thought might be the fix but sadly not! There was that useless finger tap gesture feature in the match update and I thought disabling those gestures may fix this. It didn't unfortunately and my steps were still not tracked in strength or elliptical workouts.

[AndreaFitbit]

Hi there.

Thanks for letting us know about this issue. We’re aware of it and are working to identify a resolution as quickly as possible.

We're sorry for any trouble. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track.

[Chris....]

Hi Andrea, thanks for acknowledging the problems but it's been around 5 weeks now, this message sounds like it maybe just starting to get looked at, or are you close to resolving?

[Techguy02]

Also affected........

[Jacvid]

FYI - I reinstalled Fit (leaving Fitbit) and can use Elliptical again and track steps.  Fitbit will "catch" about 1/2 the time and prompt "I think you were on the elliptical", if I confirm that to be true, it logs it as Elliptical time without showing steps.  They are still tracked overall, but not specific to that activity.  I feel there is a cross reference table between activity and attributes that is missing the entry there (not trying to solution it, but I am a developer so I see problems this way).

Tracking activities in Fit which sync's to Fitbit seems to be the best option currently (when I was tracking elliptical time in Treadmill Fitbit, it was about 80 to 90% of the steps).

[April57]

Same problem. 

[toubap]

Fitbit phone and watch updates yesterday evening here. Has anyone seen a difference? I'll give it a try tonight at the gym

Edit: unfortunately the issue is still there

[Mr_Sipher]

Same issue where elliptical steps aren't showing up and can't manually be added from elliptical workout triggered on Pixel Watch 4 WiFi and Fitbit app version released on April 8, 2026.

[Morrigan]

@AndreaFitbit 

This issue is already existing for over a month now. Is there any chance of getting this resolved soon? Do you guys have an Idea how much longer it will take? 

It's very frustrating......😞

[April57]

I hope Google can resolve this problem with the next update. Elliptical generates equal steps to walking and requires far more effort depending on resistance settings. I am looking at other fitness trackers for the first time in years. Extremely disappointed.