Total Steps — Support
Total Steps helps you keep a running tally of every step you have ever taken with your iPhone and Apple Watch. This page covers common questions, troubleshooting tips, and the privacy practices for the app.
Quick answers
What can I do with Total Steps?
- See today, month, year, and lifetime step totals in a single view—tap the headline number to switch modes.
- Browse rich statistics: 10-week heatmap, streaks, personal records, milestones, goal tracking, and hourly activity charts.
- Join the global leaderboard or compete in invite-only leagues that refresh continuously during the day.
- Create, join, and manage private leagues with friends (limit varies based on in-app entitlements).
- Share a poster of your total steps with the iOS share sheet—perfect for social updates.
- Add lock screen and home screen widgets to glance at your lifetime total without opening the app.
- Sign in with Apple to link multiple installs, purchase nickname tokens, tip the developer, and edit step goals directly on device.
How do I grant Health access?
Total Steps is read-only and requires permission to read your step count from Apple Health:
- Open Total Steps and stay on the Steps tab.
- If prompted, tap Allow in Health. If the prompt does not appear, open the Health app.
- Go to Health > Sharing > Apps > Total Steps (or the search field, then “Total Steps”).
- Enable Steps under “Data from Apps”.
Once enabled the app will refresh all totals automatically and keep the widget updated. HealthKit does not allow third-party apps to delete step data; Total Steps only reads it.
What if the widget shows 0 steps?
- Open the main app for a few seconds—widgets read the most recent cached value stored in the shared app group.
- Confirm Health permissions are granted and that “Fitness Tracking” is enabled under Settings > Privacy & Security > Motion & Fitness.
- Widget updates arrive at most every 30 minutes. The number turns zero if Health access is revoked or the app has not refreshed in the past day.
How does the leaderboard work?
Total Steps uploads aggregated step totals (today, month, year, all-time) to the server whenever you pull to refresh or the app syncs in the background. These totals feed:
- A global leaderboard with daily, monthly, yearly, and lifetime boards.
- Personal leagues you create or join via invite code.
Your display name appears on leaderboards. If you sign in with Apple, your installs stay linked so the same totals appear across devices.
How do I create or join a league?
- Open Total Steps and swipe to the Leagues tab.
- Use the segmented control to switch between Global and My leagues.
- Tap Create / Join to either start a league or enter an invite code.
- League ownership and participation limits depend on in-app entitlements. Account deletion places leagues in read-only mode until the process completes.
How can I change my nickname?
Nickname changes consume a Nickname Token ($1.00) to prevent spam on public leaderboards.
- Open the Me tab and choose Profile.
- Tap your current display name, edit it, and choose Save.
- If you do not have a token you can buy one from the same screen via the App Store tip jar flow.
Nicknames are moderated. Offensive or impersonating names may be reset.
How do I delete my account?
- Open the Me tab > Profile.
- Scroll to Delete account & data and follow the confirmation flow.
This permanently removes your profile, leagues, leaderboard entries, and linked installs from the server. HealthKit data on your device stays intact (Apple does not allow third-party deletion). You can reinstall the app at any time to start fresh with a new install identifier.
Troubleshooting
- Sync feels stale: pull to refresh on any tab or force-quit and reopen the app. Background refresh requires Low Power Mode to be off.
- Leaderboard empty: ensure you are signed in with Apple (optional but recommended) and have synced at least once today.
- Goals not saving: editing goals happens in the Statistics section of the Me tab. The values stay on-device; reinstalling the app resets them.
- Install linked to the wrong account: open Me > Profile, sign out of Apple, then re-link using Sign in with Apple with the desired account.
- Challenge pass required: some leagues require an in-app entitlement. Verify the purchase under Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions and re-run Restore Purchases from the tip jar card.
Known issues
- Widgets update roughly every 30 minutes. iOS may delay updates overnight to conserve battery.
- When Health permissions are revoked, the app enters read-only mode until access is restored.
- Account deletion can take several minutes while all linked installs are removed. During this window leagues appear read-only.
- If you reinstall, you will receive a new install ID and therefore a new leaderboard profile unless you sign back in with Apple to link it.
Changelog
- 1.0 — Initial App Store release with HealthKit sync, leaderboards, leagues, widgets, and statistics.
Privacy Policy
Effective: 12 Oct 2025
Total Steps balances insight with privacy. The app operates with a minimal data footprint and does not run advertising SDKs or third-party analytics.
Health data
- Total Steps only reads your step count from Apple Health. It does not write to or delete HealthKit records.
- When you sync we send aggregated counts for today, this month, this year, and lifetime totals—never individual workouts or GPS traces.
- HealthKit permissions can be revoked at any time from the Settings app. The app will continue to function in read-only mode without uploads.
Data we store on our servers
- A randomly generated install ID that resets if you uninstall the app.
- Your display nickname and optional Sign in with Apple subject (if you choose to link installs).
- Aggregated step totals, sync timestamps, and your device timezone identifier—used for leaderboards and streak calculations.
- League memberships, invite codes you create, and leaderboard positions.
- Purchase receipts for nickname tokens or challenge passes (Apple sends anonymized transaction identifiers; we do not process payments ourselves).
Data kept on your device
- Step history, streaks, and charts derived from HealthKit.
- Display name cache, goal targets, and nickname token balance (encrypted by iOS in App Storage).
- Widget state stored in the shared app group.
Third parties
- Apple handles Sign in with Apple and all in-app purchases.
- No advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or social plugins are bundled with the app.
Security practices
- All communication between the app and our servers is performed over HTTPS with TLS 1.2+; plaintext transport is never allowed.
- API credentials and database access are restricted to the service itself—no shared credentials or third-party operators.
- Data stored on the server resides on encrypted volumes in a hardened infrastructure environment with regular security updates.
- Operational staff access is logged and limited to the minimum required to provide support or maintain uptime.
- Backups are encrypted, stored separately, and rotated on a fixed schedule to minimize retention while still supporting disaster recovery.
Retention & deletion
- We retain leaderboard and league data while your account remains active. Requesting account deletion wipes it permanently.
- Server backups are pruned regularly; once deletion completes your data disappears from active and backup storage within 30 days.
- Support emails are kept only long enough to resolve the issue and can be purged on request.
Children’s privacy
Total Steps is designed for a general audience and not marketed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
Contact
If you have privacy questions, email murashkin.alex@proton.me. We are happy to clarify how your data is handled.