Auto tracking workouts not working, even after reset.

[Cvernadakis]

My Blaze was not auto tracking my morning walks so I read on one of the boards that I should reset my watch. I did and it auto tracked yesterday so I thought everything was back to normal. Today it did not autotrack again but said I had 37 active minutes. Any thoughts? Sometimes I forget to log an exercise before I start so the auto track is an important feature to me.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Cvernadakis. Welcome to the Community! 🙂

Your tracker should automatically recognize your activities but it also relies on how you've selected the settings. For example, by default, SmartTrack 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. To know how to modify your minimum exercise duration, see the instructions for each platform below.

-iOS and Android:

1. On the Fitbit app dashboard tap the Exercise tile to open your exercise history. This is the tile that says "Track exercise" if you haven't worked out today. If you've already worked out, you'll see the exercise category on the tile instead (for example, Run or Hike).

2. Tap the gear icon in the top right corner, then tap the target exercise and adjust the duration.

-Windows:

1. On the Fitbit app dashboard tap the Exercise tile to open your exercise history. This is the tile that says "Track exercise" if you haven't worked out today. If you've already worked out, you'll see the exercise category on the tile instead (for example, Run or Hike).

2. Tap the gear icon at the bottom, then tap the target exercise and adjust the duration.

-Fitbit.com dashboard:

1. Log into your fitbit.com dashboard and click the gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Click Settings > Devices. If you have more than one tracker, choose the one that supports SmartTrack.
3. Find and change the option for SmartTrack minimum duration. 

Hope this helps and if you need anything else, let me know. I'll be glad to help! 😄

[fudge22]

I set mine to be 10 minutes for the auto track to kick in but that is my personal preference. I agree, check the settings and make sure they are what you want them to be. For me, it has reliably auto-logged walks of over 10 minutes. 

Do you sstop intermittently on your walks? I wonder if stopping at stop lights on walks affects the workout when it is auto-logged as opposed to a manual workout.

[Cvernadakis]

Thanks! So each of my auto track settings are set to 10 min.  I walk the dog every day on the same route and it takes 14-17 minutes. I also started a weights/pilates workout today and did it for 37 minutes and then realized I forgot to track it. I assumed auto track would kick in since my heart rate was up for most of it.  But it didn't.  From what I understand, if I'm doing an exercise where my heart rate is elevated or taking a bunch of steps, after 10 minutes my Fitbit will start recording it an an exercise.  In the past I've seen "walk" show up in Auto Track and it lists how long I walked for and how many calories I've burned.  I hope this feature works because I really enjoy it.

[Stacesam1]

I have an HR and just bought a Blaze to switch on and off with.  I wear the HR on my non-dominant wrist and the Blaze on my "watch wearing wrist. when switching from on to the other (not together)  

The HR is seamless when auto tracking my walking, eliptical or any fast movement lasting 10 mins or more.  

I wore the Blaze today for the first time... and although it did track my steps and heart rate, it did not pick up  my 1.5 mile walk with my dogs (the HR picks it right up and logs it for me).

Am I doing something wrong?  Anyone experiencing the same issues?

Thanks.

[Stacesam1]

Same with me. I walk my dogs daily for about 30 minutes.  My HR auto tracks it as a "walk", shows steps, duration and calories burned.  Today, while wearing my Blaze, I walked my dogs a similar route and it did not auto track it.  I had to manually put it in, and guess how many calories based on the passed auto tracked times a few days ago.  

I do wear the Blaze on my left wrist (dominant) and that hand holds the leashes where the HR is worn on my right wrist, the wrist that is free and moves.. so maybe that is the issue... is it?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Cvernadakis @Stacesam1. Welcome to the Fitbit Community! 🙂

Just to be sure @Cvernadakis, your Blaze will automatically recognize the following activities:

• Walk
• Run
• Outdoor Bike
• Elliptical
• Sport
• Aerobic Workout

Don't really think that Pilates will be recognized with the SmartTrack feature so it's better if you manually track this exercise with from the Exercise shortcut options available.

In both cases, if for the activities that should be recognized are not tracked, I'd recommend restarting your trackers by pressing/holding the left and lower right buttons for 10-15 seconds until the tracker turns off and back on. After that, make sure the settings are as I specified on my previous post and see how it goes.

Also @Cvernadakis, I wouldn't recommend wearing both trackers at the same time if they are syncing to the same account. 

If your account has multiple trackers and you forget to take one off before putting on another, rest assured we’ll reconcile the overlapping data to present the most accurate information possible on your dashboard. For example, if one of your trackers is using GPS and another is not, your dashboard chooses the GPS data when calculating total distance since GPS provides a more accurate distance measurement than step counting alone. However, the more overlapping data that exists on your account, the more likely it is that your dashboard's accuracy will suffer. For best results, do not wear more than one tracker at a time and sync each tracker before taking it off and putting on another.

Hope you guys find this helpful and if you need anything else, let me know!

[Stacesam1]

Hi and thanks for replying.

I manually put in Pilates.. however the one time I wore the Blaze and took
a long walk, it did not track. I never wear both my HD and Blaze at the
same time...However, I wear the Blaze on my dominant hand... which I
thought may be the issue. I switched it on line to the non-dominant, but
still wear it on my watch wrist.

My hd i wear on my other wrist.

[River16]

mine has been double tracking .... which ALSO  doubles my steps. SO frustrating. I now figured out if I delete one that it takes those steps off. which is fine, since I didnt get them.

[fudge22]

@Stacesam1 In the app, make sure you have walk as an auto-recognizable activity. Under the blaze, click exercise shortcuts. Make sure walk is included in the list. Then go to track your exercise and click the settings button. Walk should be included in the list. Click on it and make sure auto recognize is set to on and the time is 10 minutes. If these are all set up correctly, it should auto track the exercise. Let us know if it still doesn't.

[Stacesam1]

HI and thanks so much for responding to my post. I really appreciate it! I
did do what you wrote, and when I went for a walk yesterday, it did not
pick it up.

I did hear from a Fitbit moderator who told me that my arm would have to be
moving for it to track... so in other words, I would have to wear it on my
right wrist (the one that does not hold the dog leashes) so that it would
swing and pick it up.... Kind of crazy, but I am guessing I will just wear
my HR when I walk them to make it easier.

S

[fudge22]

Ah, that would make sense. If the arm was holding the leash it wouldn't pick up the steps consistently. You can still start the workout under exercise on the blaze and pair it with your phone and it will pick up the gps information even if the steps are inconsistent due to holding the leash. 

[Stacesam1]

Thats a great idea... will the Blaze still track my activity as "walk" and
also the calories? Thats really what I want to see... the HR is pretty
spot on with that.

Thanks so much for responding.

s

[Stacesam1]

I just tried that for a second and it did record when I looked at "activities".. so this may be the solutions provided I remember to do that before leaving the house.

S

[mjpblake216]

I did a 2+ mile walk and it recorded it as a run - how do I make it record it as a walk?  Thanks, Marian

[Rich_Laue]

For now bring up the rin, hit the edit pencil and change it to walk.
Now if you don't run, go to track your exercise.. Tap the gear and turn off any exercise that you don't do, this will also help with the battery.

[SandraMK1960]

Just jumping in on this thread. I have had my Fitbit Blaze since 5th August 2016 and commenced regular walks since then building them up to most days and a shortwalk now being 5kms (50mins) and a long 15kms (not too often). I use Map My Walk simultaneously via my iphone and post each walk onto Facebook - helps to keep me accountable. While I notice differences between MMW and Fitbit tracking (kms, steps etc) I can live with this.

A couple of weeks ago I posted in here about elliptical and walking seemingly being confused by my Blaze.  All my walks are out and about yet somehow they were not all being treated as walks. I was advised in here to turn off the elliptical auto-detect as exericse which I did - thought things were fine, but have just noticed that now that not all my walks are being detected by the Blaze.  The step count is working fine but it will now show that I have exercised 3 out of 5 days when infact I have walked every day - including hills.

I wear the Fitbit on my non-dominant hand, carry a water bottle usually in my dominant hand (although occasionally I will gve that hand a few mins rest), on downhills or very flat surfaces I sometime sbreak into a jog (cough ... shuffle). I do swing my fitbit arm when I walk - not power walking style though.

I don't want to have to manually start and finish exercise activity on my Blaze for it to be picked up when it has an auto-tracking capability - I already do this with MMW.  So I have now added elliptical back into the mix (better for a walk to be picked up even if it misinterprets it as elliptical), have lowered the time to be detected to 10mins or more and I guess I will do a reset too.

I know it's not an exact science but when you are a creature of habit and there seems to be so much inconsistency with how the Blaze detects everything it takes away your confidence in the device, and its role in encouraging you towards setting/achieving your goals.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.