Activities no longer listed in search results when trying to manually add

[sjrily]

Hi, when trying to manually add an activity after the fact, I've always had trouble finding what would seem to be common activities (yard work, raking, pushups, bowling, etc., nowhere to be found), but the last couple weeks, activities that DID show in search results now don't.

Examples of now-absent activities include household chores and shopping (while not always ideal, it was a better than "walking," which is it's own repetitive movement activity with one goal -  walking. 

In fact, hardly anything is being listed when I search now. I have to enter several letters before ANYTHING appears, and that makes it next to impossible to try and figure out what alternative might be there. 

A post from years ago showed entering the letter "b" returned a list of activities:

• 

 When I enter "b" I get nothing:

So I guess my issue is two-fold. Why is is so difficult (or impossible) to add common activities, and why are they disappearing from search results? 

[KatherineNY]

@sjrily I think there's s a list of 40+ type activity on the Charge 6 that is recognized.  Maybe the developers have edited it out all the rest that you used to see. 

By using 2 letters might result in better searches.  For exame in your use of "b", I get nothing but "bo" returns "boxing" and "ba" returns yet more options.

[RiekoC]

Hello @sjrily 

To add to @KatherineNY 's response, we used to be able to edit the name of a completed activity to better track what we actually did, like housework, yard work, bowling, gardening, etc. Doing this would create a custom activity for us and we would be able to select it from a list in the app or the on-line fitbit.com dashboard when we went to edit the name.

However, that feature to edit completed activities was broken awhile ago for both Android & iOS users after an app update. It was partially fixed for Android users but was broken again after another app update. Also, the on-line fitbit.com dashboard was discontinued last year. So now, we no longer have access to custom/"common" activities and are limited to what's available in the Fitbit's activity list.

[sjrily]

@KatherineNY It's interesting you get "boxing" when entering "b" - I get nothing at all!   And why would entering "b" return only the single item "boxing" and not return items beginning with "ba"?  Why wouldn't "boxing" require search query "bo?"  Seems something's way off.

Even if that's by design (surely not), it's not practical to enter two letters when trying to find an unknown activity - "unknown" as in, what would replace the "shopping" activity that was there last week but has apparently been deleted? errands? running around? - I haven't a clue.  Likewise for heavy yard work - thus far I can only find "gardening," which in my view isn't usually heavy work (though it certainly can be).  

Do you have any idea if the list of 40+ activities exists somewhere to view? (I tried finding one with no luck).

To clarify, these activities do not/did not show on my Charge 6 device - only via the app "add activity."

[sjrily]

@RiekoC I witnessed the dashboard for a very brief period before it was gone. I was still learning my way around at the time. I really don't want to log everything that's not specific pre-listed exercises as "workout," ESPECIALLY since I can't edit (or rather, the app won't save the edit for more than a few seconds), or enter any notes within the app (an essential, yet missing feature if you ask me). 

[KatherineNY]

@sjrily you misread.  I did have to enter "bo" to find boxing and "ba" for the others.  So the trick might be two letter search instead of using just one.

When you go and initiate an exercise on the Charge 6 it should give you your top 5 frequently (last) used exercises first.  Then keep scrolling down, click "more" you should be presented with the following types of exercises that can be tracked. 

• Aerobics
• Bike
• Bootcamp
• Canoeing
• Circuit training
• Core Training
• CrossFit
• Cross country skiing
• Dancing
• Elliptical
• Golf
• HIIT
• Hike
• Indoor climbing
• Interval Workout
• Kayaking
• Kickboxing
• Martial arts
• Outdoor Workout (this is for non-step based activities)
• Paddleboard
• Pilates
• Powerlifting
• Rollerblading
• Rowing machine
• Run
• Skating (the icon is a figure on ice skates)
• Skiing (downhill)
• Snowboarding
• Spinning
• Sport
• Stairclimber
• Strength training
• Surfing
• Swim
• Tennis
• Walk
• Weights
• Weightlifting
• Workout
• Weights
• Weightlifting
• Yoga

However, I'm not able to find a comprehensive list of all activities that can be manually logged. Example, there is no boxing on the tracked exercise list above.  So might just have to play around with your searches using the first 2 letters to initiate.

[sjrily]

Sorry, yes, I did misread concerning "b, bo, ba." But again, the activities I'm referring to were never available to select on the Fitbit device itself. They are/were "non-exercise" activities I would add via the mobile app (by searching in the mobile "add activity" search bar).

Things like housework, yard work, shopping, ect., can certainly generate zone minutes, steps, etc. and I try to record accordingly instead of lumping everything as a workout (especially since I also do sets of exercises I log as a workout).

Anyway, while there was a "household chores" and a "shopping," for example, as recent as two weeks ago, they've since disappeared. Having to enter at least two letters makes it nearly impossible to find alternative activities unless you know what the alternatives are (see the dilemma?). I lucked out when I tried "cleaning" as an alternative for "household chores," and it was available.  Even still, "cleaning" is a very poor description for what I was actually doing last week, which was texturing and painting a room. 

Something else I noted that was odd - when "household chores" was still available, it didn't appear in search results until I typed "hou," then it would DISAPPEAR if I typed more than one letter past that - if I continued to type "house" no drop-down results were available - like I've got ONE more letter to decide if that's what I want, then too late, it's gone LOL.   This happened every time (I defaulted to household chores fairly often). Very, very strange. 

[KatherineNY]

@sjrily I didn't even know about these alternative activities!!  I could log as cleaning when I'm tidying up the house!  Imagine that.  I usually just track exercises with the Charge 6.  Never occurred to me to manually log other active movements.  It sounds like a lot of work to try and log every little bit of motion though.  However, I see your point, it would be hard to find the right words for what you're doing if at first you can't find the exact match.

[sjrily]

@KatherineNY 

😆 OK! So now same page! I find it really handy because a lot of times I do get some pretty intense periods doing "non-exercise" activities. In tracking health metrics, it's handy to look back and see what I was doing that day/week. I don't track all movement, by any means, just the more intense  - hauling wood up cause we're expecting sub zero temps this week  (we really are!) , or extended - a ton of extra steps from something. Rather than wonder if extra steps are  Fitbit's misinterpreting sanding and repeatedly shaking spray paint cans as steps or three hours of shopping, I'd log that as shopping.

I'd log hauling wood as "household chores" or "yardwork" before those disappeared (if I could include a note, that'd be bomb, but we can't). Now I'm stuck with "cleaning"  or workout (yes, it is a workout, but I like to save that for workout exercise activities. 

I also like to log because I sometimes have some unexplained HR spikes lasting a few minutes. If there's nothing logged, I'll assume there was really wasn't a reason for it if I can't remember what I was doing at the time. I've noted some instances that look like classic SVT runs when doing nothing, but have never gotten a notification from Fitbit. That's probably why I started logging intense/extended activities (plus Fitbit considers it as exercise - so I don't have to jump on a row machine after hauling wood to get credit for doing some cardio that day LOL)

[LZeeW]

@sjrily  I moved your post to the Android app forum, a better fit for this issue.  Your screenshot in your initial post is from the web dashboard.  That list is very, very different from the app lists, because it is from a simpler time.  When Fitbits didn’t have heart rate monitors, adding an activity needed a broader description.  Estimated calorie burn came from a reference called a compendium of physical activities.

Fitbit evolved.  Estimated calorie burn comes from heart rate based algorithms.  In fact, you should only be using that “+ manually log activity if you forgot to wear your Fitbit.

I don’t know why the choices changed.  But this is an app issue.

[sjrily]

@LZeeW Thanks for the input and for moving this to the right place! I'm not so much interested in calorie burn as I am cardio and heart rate data (I'm actually try to gain a few pounds, so I do look at calories in that sense).

You're saying we shouldn't manually add anything unless Fitbit didn't record data? Doing so doesn't change any of the data, does it? (Out of curiosity I once manually added a second treadmill activity on top of the treadmill activity I started on the Fitbit, which had logged only .2 miles of a 1.3 mile session). It DID change my step count for the day, but it did NOT change  total zone minutes (which is what I was curious about).

Nevertheless, in addition to manually adding non-exercise activities, I manually added exercises when I've forgotten to start them on the Fitbit, or when Fitbit logs mountain biking or spinning when I was leaf blowing or painting 😵‍💫 And I've "temporarily" added activities just to get a closer "zoomed-in" look at HR during a certain period (I may take a screen shot for reference, then I delete the activity - if there's an easier way to expand the data, I'm all ears!).

I've found the non-exercise activities very useful in helping me categorize activity, differentiate "deliberate" exercise and "unintentional" exercise, and as I mentioned, give meaning (or not) to periods of heart rate spikes, "excessive" steps, etc.

Perhaps they're in the process of eliminating "non-traditional" activities. Fitbit technology certainly has evolved, no doubt, and it's awesome! But it seems in some cases the consumer interface/software isn't keeping up or is even devolving to a degree, but that's not for this thread. 

I wish there was an easier, more logical way to search (or add!) activities and hope I won't be limited to a select set of traditional exercises/sports to apply to my data. It was helpful to me, and likely would be to my doctor ("What were you doing here?" "Heck if I know, but I wasn't spinning!" 😅)