Alta HR not auto recognizing exercise

[Jaximus1202]

I've had my Alta HR for a few months and initially it auto recognized my exercise. For about a week I've had to manually input my exercise with info from my steps, distance, active minutes. That's ok for recreating my exercise, but then my active minutes disappear. Please help me with auto recognizing exercise again. 

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Jaximus1202. Welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that your tracker is no longer auto recognizing your activity 😕

When it comes to SmartTrack, by default, it recognizes an exercise that lasts at least 15 minutes. You can lower this setting to 10 minutes, or increase it as high as 90 minutes. For example if you only want SmartTrack to detect your longer walks, you might change your duration settings to a 30-minute minimum.

If this doesn't seem to be the case, you can also restart your tracker a couple of times and see if this helps. You can easily do this by clipping your tracker to the charger and plugging the charger to a USB port on your computer or a wall charger. Then, Press the button on your charging cable three times within four seconds and your tracker should vibrate and show the Fitbit logo. This will make your tracker to reboot.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes!

[mickeyflip]

I've had mine literally 3 days now.  The first two days it worked perfectly fine, but this morning completely failed to track my 60min bike ride.  I can see that my heart rate was monitored and that it went up... but excercise minutes says 0 and calories burned for the day so far are as if I was in a rested state all day.  How can this be happening already?!  So annoying 😞  We shouldn't have to be resetting the device for it to work properly... not for what we pay for them. 

[JackieGian]

I am having the same problem with outdoor biking. It tracked the first time, but not since. I've lowered the exercise threshold, made sure I didn't pause my workout. Reset the FitBit. Reset it three times in a row. I initiated a chat, where they went over all of the troubleshooting I had already done. Then escalated me up a level in support. I just received an email informing me that in order to track, my arms had to move. I can hardly swing my arm while riding a bike. Then proceeded to give me all of the troubleshooting tips I had already done (and explained in my first chat) and directed me to a page, which explained how SmartTrack works. Really? This is escalated support? I am beyond disgusted.

[mickeyflip]

Hi guys - my issue has been resolved with some troubleshooting with tech support.  For the person above me... I'm sorry, this may not help you as it seems you've already run through it, but I'm pasting the email response I received from customer service that helped me for anyone else who finds this thread and wants to try this fix:  (I agree we shouldn't have to be doing triple resets so early on in owning these things, but it is what it is I guess...)

In order to troubleshoot your device so we can find the solution to this situation, we will begin by restarting the connections between your devices. Please follow the steps below:

1. Remove this Alta HR from the Bluetooth list of the mobile device used to sync (or devices if you use more than one)
2. Restart it 3 times in a row (restart instructions in this link)
3. Add this Alta HR to the Bluetooth list again

Hope this helps someone!  My bike rides track pretty perfectly now.

**EDIT**  No longer works for me 😞

Moderator edit: Format

[Rsmith2360]

My Fitbit HR will auto recognize a walk, sport but nothing else.  I work out daily and treadmill and eliptical are never recognized.  I have to add the work out in and then it seems my steps and activity minutes are doubled.  

I lowered the mins of activity to 10 mins and after my work out waited 4 hours and it did not log?   what am I doing wrong..

[JackieGian]

Here's the latest. It was suggested by support that I switch wrists (which requires a change to settings). Against all common sense, it actually tracked. So now, if I want my bike ride to register, I have to switch wrists and remember to switch the setting.

I saw elsewhere to disconnect and reconnect Bluetooth. That didn't work. I also reset three times in a row - nothing.

Other possible issues that tech support suggested is that apparently the road I ride on isn't bumpy enough to track. Interesting that I ride the exact same route. I guess it's bumpier on my right wrist than my left. 

Oh, and I could also manually enter my ride when I return. Hmm, I think that defeats the purpose of SmartTrack.

Bottom line, SmartTrack is useless. I have a free app on my phone that works better.

[JackieGian]

Rsmith2360, you're not doing anything wrong. This device does not work as advertised.

[mickeyflip]

My Outdoor Biking has stopped smart tracking again. Argh... Tried the above steps that CS gave me again but this time it hasn't fixed anything.  My last 2 bike rides on two separate days failed to track and I had to log them manually (which doesn't seem to calculate the calorie burn in the same way... odd?)

FitBit - this really is stupid.  Product doesn't work as advertised, it's clearly a widespread problem.  Has this been addressed in the firmware update that's rolling out?!  Help us! 😞 

[mickeyflip]

Is everyone still having issues?  I've received and performed the firmware update and thought this would solve all our issues, but this morning my walk didn't even track.  Walking has never been a problem with the SmartTrack for me.  Haven't been able to test with bike riding as my bike is in being repaired.  

Thought maybe my heartrate wasn't high enough for it to register as actual excercise (102bpm) but my walk on Monday tracked when it was only 107bpm.  I have definitely registered higher heartrates on walks before and don't feel I was going any slower/easier on myself this morning but... whatever I guess.

Maybe the HR monitor is just no good!

[Tforry]

Mine stopped tracking the elliptical...i did all the resets, finally called fitbit they sent me a replacement--it started out great and now has stopped auto tracking again---it is very annoying that this keeps happening...and it seems like it is a common problem and should be fixed by now.  now yet again i will go through all the steps of resetting it and hoping one day it will start working correctly again 

[JackieGian]

I did my first bike ride since the update. It still didn't track. I haven't had an issue with the steps or heart monitor. It records my heart rate on the ride, just doesn't register as a bike ride. I'm so very disappointed in the Alta HR and tech support is horrendous.

[sbrothers217]

To help with future auto-recognition problems, I've made a suggestion that might be of benefit on this thread: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Enhance-app-to-use-data-from-manually-logged-use.... If you agree, please vote for it.

-S

[MarinaDarhaz]

I totally agree.  For what i paid for the alta hr and to see it doesn’t track whem I am on the bike is a huge disappointment for me.  I am reconsidering my choice:(

[public_acct13]

i purchased an alta hr two weeks ago. (actually, i purchased two, for me and my husband.)

i engage in a 45-minute exercise class daily.

in the past 10 days, the alta has auto-detected the exercise sessions only 2 times.

further, yesterday (which included the exercise session) logged ZERO activity minutes.

after an hour spent with fitbit support (3 people), it's a known problem, they're working on fixing it, they have no timeline, yada yada yada.

AND, the heart-rate monitor is definitely picking up this activity.

we're investigating other vendors, we are discussing returning these devices.

VERY disappointed!

[Bartthebear]

Got exactly the same problem.

Purchased a Charge 3 and HR on Tuesday and the HR will not recognise any exercise. According to support only exercises that have continual arm movement are recognised.

On the HR bike rides show as steps and are not active minutes but gardening does show in active minutes because you are using your arms.

After I have spoken to Trading Standards next week the HR is going back for a full refund as it just does not work as advertised.

[volcanofire]

I've had my Alta HR for one-and-a-half years.  It measures steps, heart-rate, and sleep accurately.  That Alta HR also used to track exercise beautifully but just stopped two months ago.  I've reset the device, lowered the goal settings, unpaired it, etc.  Nothing seems to help.  SmartTrack still does not work.  Is there a software upgrade or other option?

[heatherfox]

Sounds like Fitbit is having some software issues. My Alta HR has stopped recording activities it's been recording since original setup. It no longer shows distance walks or elliptical activity. I thought I could add activities and have them register automatically...like it used to. I don't want to lose the records of all my activities to date with restarts. I suspect there's no way to re-record, is there? Or make sure it records one or more activities automatically? Please advise.

[TamaraBridge]

I have my goal set for 6 days of exercise.  I exercised Monday 4/27 it tracked 1.65 miles, 2035 calories, 46 mins. and 3960 steps, but under "track your exercise it doesn't show up.  Tuesday, 4/28 it tracked in both places and logged 1 of 6 days.  Activity was 2.55 miles, 2337 calories, 72 mins. and 6142 steps.  Wednesday 4/28 it tracked 2.84 miles, 2469 calories, 78 mins. and 6825 steps, but did not show up to track the type of exercise, bpm or calories.  And it did not count the day as exercise. 

I realized treadmill was not listed so I added it, as Wednesdays workout was on the treadmill.  It added the treadmill work but it states the work was done on Thursday, 4/30/2020 at 12:22 a.m. which is not when I did the exercise. 

I am completely annoyed and disappointed.  Can you help get this thing back on track?  

[Dddonna]

I had issues with HR not recording heart rate during exercise as it one had. Fitbit was not helpful I vow to not purchase again. Magically Heart rate started to automatically appear but now I’ve lost the automatic messages when I receive a text message or phone call. Ugh. So frustrating and horrible customer service.