Not recording treadmill activity

[Jezika]

I just switched from the Charge HR to the Alta HR because the band on my Charge was coming apart and I liked the idea of being able to switch bands with the Alta. 

At first, I loved this new Fitbit, but I am now noticing really annoying details. For one, my walks/jogs on the treadmill (a popular form of exercise) do not track my distance. For two, this morning I spent 45 minutes on my treadmill, my Fitbit logged the active minutes but did not give me credit for a workout. It shows I did not workout today at all! So I went in and manually logged my workout.. only to see that it then wiped my active minutes!

I suppose I will take out my manually logged workout and see if it gives me back credit for my active minutes.. and then just workout again tonight. Ridiculous that I spent good money on a product that is not telling me how far I walk and sometimes doesn't track a workout at all!

Yes, my auto workout recognizer is on. I had 'ignored' the outdoor bike and elliptical activities because I do not participate in those.

I am so disappointed with this 'new' Fitbit.

Modified by moderator: Title for clarity 

[Salo]

Thanks I will look at the Zip product.

Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

Actually it is not correct to say that your wrist based Fitbit will not record steps when your hand is not swinging.

Many people believe (and say so on these forums) that the Fitbit counts, not footsteps, but hand swings.  This is FALSE.

I prove this every day by walking around with my hands in my pockets (even though my parents and my teachers told me not to) and the Fitbit still counts my steps.  It is NOT counting hand swings.  It IS counting step like movements based on what it detects in your wrist.

All Fitbits are, at heart, pedometers (but pretty sophisticated ones).  They all include a 3-Axis accelerometer designed to detect forward movement, side to side movement and (this is a guess) up and down movement -- but the third may be another variant on side to side -- I am not sure!

Basically what happens when you walk wearing your Fitbit on your wrist is it picks up your forward motion (that's easy) and the vibrations from your footsteps, that move through your body and travel along your arm to your wrist.  With each forward motion, it counts a step...

People who are unusually light on their feet sometimes have problems, and this is also why the Fitbit won't count your steps when you walk on soft carpet -- it detects the forward motion, but the vibrations aren't strong enough to reach your wrist (because some of the energy is absorbed by the carpet, or you just don't thump enough!)

So, when you are walking on a treadmill, there is potentially a double problem -- because the forward motion is also pretty limited.  But if your arms are free, they will get all the vibrations and the programs says "Okay, no forward motion, but I am definitely seeing steps, so count those guys!". (This is why you get steps if you wave your hands around a LOT)

But if you are holding on the sides of the treadmill, the Fitbit doesn't get the forward motion (because yu aren't really moving forward) but it also doesn't get the other clues.  When you are holding on, the handrails actually absorb a huge amount of the energy that would be coming from your feet and along your body.  It is the same with pushing a shopping cart.

So the problem with not counting steps when you are on a treadmill or pushing a shopping cart is NOT because your hands are not swinging.  It is becaise somehting else (treadmill hand rails, shopping cart, stroller)  is absorbing the energy before it gets to your Fitbit.

I prove this every day, wandering around with my hands in my pockets (not swinging!) and getting all my steps -- but if I push a shopping cart -- no way!

Long explanation, but whenever I see the theory that Fitbits count hand swings not steps I have an urge to explain that that is definitely not true...

[SunsetRunner]

This fixed it for me! My walks with my dogs in the morning were recognized fine but anything on the treadmill wasn't registering. I toggled all the exercises off and on and it magically made my morning workout today on the treadmill show up. Thanks for posting!

[AngelaOwl]

Toggling the auto-recognize button on/off and reducing the time to 10 minutes got my Charge2 to start auto-recognizing my C25k treadmill interval exercise again as a jogging.  Thanks!