App does not work properly

[unclepoop]

We are having a health thing at my work and it requires using a fitbit or in my case adding the app to my phone and using my phone to count steps. So day one was ok, things were looking good and seemed to be working properly. Next day I looked at the app midway through my day and my steps were at a very high count. I'm as lazy as a person can get so this confused me.

I went through the app and figured out the step counter just counts your total steps and does not show you what your current steps are. I'm not against a little math but 4 days in now and I have no clue what my steps are per day. I really just want to get the minimum I have to get and not have to do math to figure out what I have left to do. I'm not going to keep a journal or any of that stuff, the info should be in the app and easily accessible.

The other issue with the app is that it does not count all the steps made. The samsung health app shows the other day I did 1132 more than the fitbit app does. I can understand there being a slight difference but over 1000 for a day is a bit much. I did shorten the walking stride in the app and that didn't seem to help but I have to let me friend do the calculus needed to figure out what my steps were today.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @unclepoop.

Let me help you figure out what is going on with the steps being counted on the app.

The first thing I'd like to ask is for you to share a screenshot of what you mentioned where you can't tell what your steps are for a single day. That way I can better understand what you are seeing and how to get the information that you need.

Getting a better understanding of that would be helpful in determining what is happening with the step count.

Look forward to your reply.

[unclepoop]

Hello, thank you for the response. Here is what I see when open the app. No way I did 18k steps today and only .7 miles. I'll take it if you can rig it for me to up load like that. Cause there is no way I'm making this step count for work

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

Thanks for bringing this up and sharing that screenshot. I definitely see what you mean.

It could be that it is loading incorrectly from the servers and thus it is displaying that. Let's try to log out of your account and then log back in. That will force all data to be downloaded again and should get it to display accurately.

Keep me posted on how it goes or if you have any further questions.

[unclepoop]

I did the log out thing, it reads what I walked today. So we'll see what happens over the next couple of days. Also my step count is 1300 steps smaller than the Samsung app reads.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

Thanks for giving those steps a try.

Please do keep me posted on how it continued working from now on. 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[Colinm39]

@unclepoopIt can be frustrating, but if you tap on the steps tile (1) you should see your last weeks steps in graph form and if you tap on any day listed (2) below it will show your progress during that day.  Finally if you tap (3) on the small box you can see your progress over the year.

That will help you analyse you effort during the day.

[unclepoop]

@Colinm39 I see that, it's ok. But when I was worried about it, there was times where I just wanted a quick look, see what I needed and go about my day. Really had no need for all the dramatic details, just wanted a step count. I'm not a health nut that needs to worry about calories or how many steps there are per calorie burned and whatever else health nuts stress about.

I decided to drop out of the work competition. I couldn't do half the steps they required per day and when a lot of my steps are not being counted, it's not worth the reward.

Thanks for trying to help though.

[unclepoop]

Did an experiment today, thanks to the help from a friend of mine. He has friends that do hiking and running and all kinds of outdoor stuff. So they were kind enough to take my phone for a couple of days and take it with them as they did the activities they do. The fit bit app recorded 14055 steps and the samsung health app that comes with the phone recorded 27202 steps taken. They told me they passed the phone around as people look rest breaks.

There is definitely something not right with the fitbit app. I can believe the samsung app is maybe recording a little sensitive. But double the steps, there is something wrong there.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

Thanks for sharing those details on the matter. 

It is important to note that both apps probably use different algorithms to track steps and thus we are not able to fully determine why this might be happening with the difference between the two. 

My recommendation in this case would be to try to walk for some steps, about 100 or so, and count them yourself and then check how they are counted by each app. That could shed some light into what is going on.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[unclepoop]

I will give this a try. Tomorrow will be a good day for this.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

I apologize for the delay in my response. 

I'd like to ask if you had the chance to try that or if you have found that the accuracy has gotten better? 

I look forward to your reply.

[unclepoop]

I did attempt this twice. I did them at 100 steps, first one I had 15 more steps on the Samsung app. The second one had 27 step difference in favor of the Samsung app.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

I apologize for the delay in my response. Thanks for giving that a shot.

Could you let me know what were the totals for both tests? 

I look forward to your reply.

[unclepoop]

Totals were.

100 counted steps, fitbit 90 samsung health app 103
100 counted steps, fitbit 86 samsung health app 109

The first count was with my phone in my pocket. The second count was with the phone in my hand.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @unclepoop.

Thanks for reaching back with those details!

We appreciate your feedback through this situation. Please know that we will be taking your situation into consideration to further improve the overall Fitbit experience.

Please let me know if there are any other questions I can help you out with.