Fitbit didn't log my run correctly

[tirsoam]

 Today I went for a run with my Alta HR and did about 6 km. I'm sure I did set the app to track my run, and when I finished it showed all data (distance, pace, etc.) However after I quit the screen, it didn't log my run. I waited about 5 minutes and then restarted the phone. 2 minutes after restarting, the app finally logged the run, however it missed a lot of information. It logged the run as if it had been automatically tracked by the Alta HR instead of by the app, so it didn't show the distance, the map, or the pace. It's honestly annoying because that way I cannot compare it with my previous runs. So, is there any way to get back all data that had been tracked but not logged? Or is it already lost?

[RobertoME]

Hi there @tirsoam, thank you for joining to our Fitbit Community and for bring this issue to my attention. I was reading your concern about your run activity and the missing information including the map route.

Since you made sure that the information was saved correctly and there was GPS signal during the exercise, I can confirm this is a bug affecting a limited number of users. Rest assure our team is already aware of this issue and they are working to find the source of this behavior. Unfortunately if the map was not saved, I'm afraid there is no way to recover that data.

Have you tried to use a different activity like walk or hiking as alternative to see if the issue persists? Is this issue affecting other activities that have you recorded with your Alta HR?

I would like to suggest to reset the app as this might help to address the issue:

Log out from your Fitbit app and go to your phone settings. Access to the App manager option and look for the Fitbit app in your downloaded apps list. Once you are there, clear the app cache and data and proceed to "Force Stop" the app. Finish the workaround by restarting your phone. When your phone has initialized, go back to your app and try again.

See you around and hope this information helps.

[tirsoam]

@RobertoME, thanks for your reply!

After posting, and still looking for a solution, I did reset the app, but it didn't work either, so I just accepted that the data was somehow lost. Also, I haven't recorded any other activities so I'm not sure if it would happen in any other context. Next time I go for a run I'll check if the same thing happens again, but I guess it was just a one-time error.

Again, thanks for your reply. I'll be sure to keep you updated on this.

[MattRK]

I updated my Fitbit app yesterday and hah a similar issue for a run yesterday, run today, and walk today (did just to test if walk would work). The distance that the app says I covered is roughly half what I know I did cover (very familiar route).

The map shows fairly close to what my route was, but has some jumpy/jittery periods, and also periods where the line weight is smaller (it isn't as thick). I've never seen that before, even when the Android 8.0 update first caused GPS tracking issues. For today's run, I actually left the app open on my phone and screen on in case that old issue had returned, but the app still tracked my GPS very poorly. Really frustrating.

[tirsoam]

@MattRK Wow, that's weird. I'm sure you understand how frustrating it is to have such problems.

@RobertoME Today I went for a run and the exact same thing at first happened again. Now it has become really frustrating for me. I don't know if it might be my phone or something (HTC One A9s) or maybe it's just the app itself.

[Pojen]

So annoying

 This has just happened to me. Worked ok yesterday but just ran 10k for a virtual running event and no data saved. I know the map was correct and it was 6.6 miles as I looked this before I pressed finish.

[RobertoME · Accepted solution]

Hi there @tirsoam, @MattRK and welcome aboard to the Fitbit Community! Please accept my apologies for the late response.

@tirsoam and @Pojen by any chance are you pausing the exercise at some point of your exercise? There are reports of pausing the exercise while you are using the GPS MobileRun, will caused the map disappear. If this is the case try to avoid pausing the exercise and see if this is the reason your map route is not being recorded.

@MattRK by the description you are providing I believed the issue in your case is different, Please refer to this post for more details: Charge 2 GPS distance inaccuracy after 2.66.

See you later fellows and keep me posted how it goes.

[Pojen]

Actually yes. On this odd occasion I did pause the run. I will bear this in mind in future and not restart after pausing. Thanks.

[tirsoam]

@RobertoME No worries. I believe I did actually pause both runs. I'll see if it works next time and I'll be careful not to pause.

[Jade31]

I've been having the same issue with my fitbit app not recording my exercises and I never paused the app. 

It was happening when I was using the flex and that is why I upgraded to an Alta HR, but now its happening again and on a different phone.  It would appear that it was recording normally, I can see the clock and the map while I'm walking, but when I stop and end the recording I'd get a blank screen. Most of the time when I press the back button to go to the main screen and wait a few minutes, then it would show that there was an activity logged with the map and the distance, but sometimes it doesn't. 

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[tirsoam]

@RobertoME Today I didn't pause my tracking at any moment, and effectively it worked. I have the complete report of my run. So I'll bear this in mind and take it as a temporal solution, understanding however that this is in my opinion an important problem that needs to be solved. Thank you for the help!

[RobertoME]

Hi there @Pojen, @tirsoam and @Jade31, thank you for keep me posted regarding the behavior of this feature. Glad to hear the workaround has been helpful in the meantime.

@Jade31, I was reading in your particular case you are not pausing the exercise. Now since you mentioned the screen goes blank, I'm wondering if you have tried one of my previous suggestions about logging out and clearing the cache of the app? If you haven't try it yet, you can find theses suggestion here.

Definitively we are monitoring this issue as I can understand this is affecting your exercises. As Soon I got more updates I will let you know.

[Jade31]

I was reading in your particular case you are not pausing the exercise. Now since you mentioned the screen goes blank, I'm wondering if you have tried one of my previous suggestions about logging out and clearing the cache of the app? If you haven't try it yet, you can find theses suggestion here.

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 what does clearing the data on the fitbit app do? What data will be erased?

[RobertoME]

Hi @Jade31, how it goes? I just saw your question while I was reviewing the Android forums.

Rest assure by clearing the data of your app, refers to all cache data that is stored in your phone. This data helps for the app doesn't take to much time to load some process or to load faster the interface usage.

However in occasions this data may slow some functionalities of the app. So by doing this, you're basically starting the app over from scratch and it'll behave as it did the first time you installed on your phone. 

Don't worry since this will not delete any of your exercise data on your Fitbit app like steps or other stats, primary because this is stored in our servers and not locally in your phones. And any other data that has not being synced will be stored on your tracker which there is no way it can be deleted by clearing the cache of the Fitbit app.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have other questions.

[RobIgoUK]

well that's no bloody good is it?  I've just started using the app instead of runkeeper and today I paused it mid run to change music and then it lost my work out/run session - nothing recorded for today.

Asking users "not to pause it" isn't a good enough answer!

Back to runkeeper I go (been using it for the last 2 years only tried fitbit as I wanted to win an ionic!) 🙂 

[phoebemonster]

October 24th 2018 and the "lost-GPS/distance-info from pausing mid-exercise" thing seems to be a present bug again! I just biked at least 6 miles, but my Fitbit app only tracked 0.07mi for distance/map info (it just stopped the first time I paused/un-paused). It did however track all 41:42 of the Bike-Exercise event, and all of my heart rate/cal activity as expected. I hope the GPS the bug can be resolved again soon -- I was really looking forward to viewing my forest exploration path on the map, but it sounds like the data has been lost 😞

[jkornfeld]

The same issue is affecting me on my Charge 3. I have location settings turned on. Not sure what the glitch is. 

[Ngauthier]

Hello, I have just experienced the same issue twice this week. I have a charge 3 as well but run without the GPS (only the watch) and everything post-pause seem to not get recorded. The watch even showed me the correct duration but then the data got stripped when transfering to phone. Seems like a sync bug. Any ETA on the issue?

[spufidoo]

I agree. I got home after a run, only to find that it hadn't recorded it, all because I paused to look at the river on my journey. Asking users "not to pause" is completely unacceptible in these modern days of Agile software development. Fix the issue. Now.

@RobertoME