An intracardiac ventricular pacemaker is configured to operate in a selected one of an atrial-tracking ventricular pacing mode and a non-atrial tracking ventricular pacing mode. A control circuit of the pacemaker determines at least one motion signal metric from the motion signal, compares the at least one motion signal metric to pacing mode switching criteria; and responsive to the pacing mode switching criteria being satisfied, switches from the selected one of the non-atrial tracking pacing mode and the atrial tracking pacing mode to the other one of the non-atrial tracking pacing mode andthe atrial tracking pacing mode for controlling ventricular pacing pulses delivered by the pacemaker.