While the March 2026 Feature Drop introduced several new features for the Pixel Watch, it also brought along some unwanted bugs. Soon after installing the update, many Pixel Watch owners noticed unusually high step counts and inflated calorie tracking. Google is now rolling out a fix for the problem, though there’s some bad news.
Since the beginning of this month, Pixel Watch users have taken to Reddit and other online forums to complain about inflated step count and calorie tracking. Many say that the watch overestimates their step count even when they spend most of the day sitting at their desk. Similarly, personalized calorie goals were also showing inflated values.
Google appears to have finally identified the root cause of the problem and is rolling out a fix. On the Fitbit forum, a Fitbit moderator confirmed that the team has “found the cause of the issue and are currently fixing it.” He notes that personalized calorie goals should now work properly, though some users may still get an error message when creating or updating a food plan. Google expects to resolve that remaining issue within the next few days (via 9to5Google).
The company has also fixed the issue leading to overcounted steps. However, as noted on the Fitbit status dashboard, the fix only applies to new activity. Your previous inflated step count remains as it is. So, if you heavily rely on your Pixel Watch for tracking your health data and trends, you’ll have to disregard the inflated data for the last week.
If you still notice inaccurate step counts, Google recommends restarting your watch.
Google must step up its QA game
While minor, this is a clear misstep from Google. Fitness tracking is a core part of the Pixel Watch experience, and such bugs affect its ability to perform that very function.
Worse, this is not the first time Pixel Watch owners have run into inaccurate step count data problems. In March 2025, Google rolled out a new step count algorithm for the Pixel Watch lineup as part of Wear OS 5.1, which led to similar complaints. The backlash eventually forced the company to revert to the original algorithm.
