Switching between Kilometres to steps

[Kieranroberts]

My daughter has a new Fitbit Ace and it has switched from showing steps to kilometres, how do we change it back?

[TSR41]

Can I change the steps counter on the Ace to number of steps rather than in kilometres?  It says steps on the app but not on the watch face.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @TSR41, that is a very common question, but what your are seeing IS steps.  The K stands for THOUSANDS not kilometers.  It is because on the vertical orientation there is not quite enough room for the whole number...

So up to 999 steps, you get the full number.  Once you get to 1000 steps, you get 1k instead.  This means 1 times 1000 = 1000.  If you (or your child who is wearing keeps walking it will go to 1.1 K steps = 1.1 times 1000 = 1100 steps, and so on...  The number of steps is ROUNDED to the nearest 100.

So your child gets a math lesson at the same time as getting fit!

100 steps is only a couple of minutes walking for most people, so up to 10k that doesn't make much difference, however, once you get to 10k, the next number will be 11k because then it rounds to the nearest 1000.

If you don't like the rounding, you can change to the horizontal orientation, and you will always get the exact number.  However, in that case you will lose the flower which grows when the user is active, and shrinks when the user isn't (I assume that the Ace has a flower, same as the original Alta, which it is based on...)

If you want to change the face orientation, a video instruction for the Alta is here.  I think the Ace will work the same way.

[KateFitbit]

@Kieranroberts Welcome to the Fitbit Community. Thanks for stopping by the Ace board.

This has to do with the vertical clockface. The k on the on the display is referring to steps. See below, this user reached 10,000 steps.  

You might want to change the clock face to horizontal. Once the display is set to horizontal (as seen below), the Alta will fully display the entire numerical step count. 

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Kieranroberts, that is an excellent question!

The answer is, your child's Ace is not showing kilometers... It is still showing steps.  But on the vertical screen there is not enough space to show the full numbers once a lot of steps are recorded (so kudos to your daughter).

On the vertical mode, the Fitbit will show exact steps up to 999.  After that it will show 1k .  The k does not stand for kilometer -- it stands for THOUSAND.

Once your daughter reaches 1000 steps, on the vertical clock face mode it will round to the nearest 100 steps.  So after 1k it shows 1.1k .  That's 1.1 times 1000 = 1100 steps.  Next it is 1.2 which is 1.2 times 1000 = 1200 steps.  And so on, until 10k (which is, of course, 10,000!)

So your child gets active and gets a math lesson at the same time, lol.

Speaking seriously, if you don't want it to round the numbers you can switch to horizontal mode.  There's a video here that should help.  The disadvantage of the horizontal mode is that you lose the flower, which grows when you are active, and shrinks when you sit around too much -- I think kids might like that.

The real disadvantage of rounding is when you get past 10k (=10,000, of course) it rounds to nearest 1000 instead of nearest 100.  That's quite a big jump.

I hope this all makes sense and helps!

 Edited to add: cross posted with @KateFitbit -- who gave a much briefer answer than mine!

[KateFitbit]

@TSR41 I've merged this post with @Kieranroberts. 

@Julia_G thanks for the excellent response! It's very appreciated. 

[TSR41]

Many thanks for your explanation.

Sent from my iPad

[olgaindacochea]

Mine reads Km, not K.  Meaning, it switched from steps to kilometers.

[EdsonFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community, @olgaindacochea.

The information shared above refers to the Fitbit Ace series which are the only Fitbit devices that don't count distance. If you have a different Fitbit device, you might be able to see your distance traveled on the screen (except Flex & Flex 2). To see the model of your Fitbit device, please visit the online Dashboard here.

For instructions on how to change your Fitbit device's clock face, please visit this article.

Have a nice day.

[olgaindacochea]

I am afraid I was on the wrong chat. I actually have a Fitbit Inspire.
Out of a sudden, the steps switched to Km, on the application only (both my Apple phone and my tablet) The dashboard on Fitbit.com continues to show steps. I tried changing it on settings, but it is already set for steps.
Please let me know how to change it back to steps on the application.
Thanks.
Olga indacochea


Sent from my iPad

[Julia_G]

Hi, @olgaindacochea , you will notice on the front screen of your app, to the right of the word “Today” the word “edit”.  Click on that.  Each of the Today stats can either be hidden or shown.  Just click on the grey x to hide or the + to show.  It sounds like steps has been hidden, so click on the + to restore.  You can cause the main centre stat to change by hiding it.  The stat bottom left will rotate into that position (clockwise).  By hiding and showing again you make steps the centre stat once again, if that is what you like.

I hope this helps.