Ace2 tracking wrist movements and steps on bumpy roads

[Ms602]

I just got my son an Ace2. He is excited to track his steps. But he quickly discovered that he gets extra steps by just moving his wrist around. He was wearing another tracker as well today, and the discrepancy was about 4000 steps!!! Outside of telling him not to do that, why is this Ace2 being so sensitive when it was made to be worn on the wrist. Shouldn’t these accommodate for wrist movement? Otherwise this is a wrist tracker not a step tracker. 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[JohnnyRow]

What was the other tracker?

[Ms602]

It’s a Fitbit flex2. The one with just the dots. He is doing a study through school so will have to wear both until the end of the study. But he really wanted one that shows the numbers. 

[SFMom123]

Same here. Just got Ace 2 for my 11-year-old daughter. She quickly found that it tracks wrist movements and even the bumps in the road on the streetcar. Pretty sure there are an extra 4-5000 steps of wrist and streetcar bumps today. Fitbit??? What can be done about this?

[LiliyaFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @SFMom123. It's nice to see you around @Ms602 and @JohnnyRow. I am sorry for the delayed response. 

@Ms602 and @SFMom123 I understand your concern regarding the Fitbit Ace counting extra steps. The tracker is a motion sensor on the wrist and it may count some steps when you're working at a desk or performing other activities with arm movements, however it shouldn't be significant when compared to the overall stats. The tracker may also add some steps on bumpy roads or in a car. If you want to remove these steps from your daily total, you can manually log the driving activity for the time you were in a vehicle. You can find steps how to do that at How do I delete steps and floors? 

I also recommend changing the wrist setting to dominant. The dominant wrist setting decreases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any over counting of steps when your body is not moving. You can change the wrist setting in the account setting in the Fitbit app (From the Today tab> tap the profile picture> tap your device image to see the settings). 

@Ms602 please check this help article about using several trackers at the same time: Can I use more than one Fitbit device with the same account?

For more information about the accuracy of Fitbit devices, please see this help article: How accurate are Fitbit devices?

@JohnnyRow thank you for your efforts to help. 

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.