Blaze consistently undercounts steps by 30% to 50%

[ellochka]

This has been happenning while I exercise, and at first I was confused because the symptom of this condition was the fact that my Blaze was traking the distance that was way off. As I was trying to figure it out, I realized that the problem was much bigger - Blaze is undercounting my steps by as much as 50%.

I am not tracking closely enought to say definitevely whether it undercounts steps in everyday activity, since it is harder to track, but what is happenenning under closely monitored condition of exercise is quite evident that I am not getting the number of steps I do when I either power walk or run.

I contacted FitBit Support and got one of those maddenning responses, along the lines of "fitbit is not designed to measure distance". Yeah, so you mean my stride is 50" (I am 5'3")?

This is not really a question. My regret is that I have not been able to figure this out before the return policy on this piece of junk run out.

Comment to the snapshots:

Health App counted 4,004 steps between 4:15 and 4:45 pm.

Blaze counted 2,857 (71% of actual).

Here is the difference in dinstance between FitBit estimate based on foulty step count and GPS.

[ellochka]

@SunsetRunner I like Polar for running. Love it. Not only it does not get confused by the sweat, the strap works better when you are sweating because the electrical conductivity is better. You actually have to wait for a few seconds before it starts working because it needs moist skin under the electrical receptors.

I only had one issue with connectivity when my phone would not connect to H7, and I resolved it by removing the sensor and adding it back.

[Dshaw4]

Same thing happened to me yesterday.  I walked 4.04 miles in 1 hr and 1  minute and the blaze had me walking 3.01 miles in 1 hr 3 minutes. 

[goodmorning]

I have the same problems.  On my treadmill it says 3 miles, fitbit says approx 2.75.  I climbed several flights looking at the Fitbit Blaze, it didn't move.  An hour later, I go up the same stairs, and it registers one flight. I have already suggested a software update, but the fitbit staff just wants to send new hardware.  When I had a Charge HR it worked perfectly until the first software update, that's when I started having problems.  Since the update downloaded automatically, I could not prevent the problem from being repeated.  So, I bought the Blaze.  The exact same thing is happening. 

[goodmorning]

I guess the stride length depends on wheather you are 5' 2" or 6' 2", without this information it is impossible to know if 30" is too short, to long, or just right.

[ellochka]

@goodmorning In the stride length discussion noted that I am 5'3".

[SunsetRunner]

I just bought a Garmin 15. I am done trying fix the blaze. Wasted my money

Sent from my iPhone

[gfindley]

I am 5 11

Moderator edit: Personal Information

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hello all, I hope you are doing good.  First of all, thanks for all the information you have been providing. I was able to see that you have tried all troubleshoot possible like restart the Blaze and test it to fix the steps accuracy inconvenience you have been having. At this point, I think it is time for you to get in touch with our support team since they are the ones that have the proper tools to see the information that your trackers have been recording. For a faster response you can contact them via phone or chat.

Let me know the outcome. 

[SunsetRunner]

Reset the Blaze, re-installed the Blaze, signed out and then signed in. Recounted steps and reset the personal steps on the Blaze. Put the Blaze on one arm and the Garmin on the other and begin a count of the day.  Garmin reads; 11,875  5.02 miles and Fitbit 8,482. 3.14 miles. I will try it again today. 

[Rich_Laue]

@SunsetRunner have you tried taking a walk of 500 steps while counting them with your mind? 

[SunsetRunner]

No, I haven't tried that yet.

[SunsetRunner]

Just want to echo earlier posts about undercounting.

I had suspected for some time the Blaze wasn't registering all steps but today it gave me a double whammy!

Not only did it underestimate my steps by (my educated guess) approximately 2,000.

But it also underestimated the time; the Blaze said my jog lasted 15 minutes.

According to my watch, I ran for just under 28 minutes!

What the ????

Has anyone else experienced a time issue?

[SunsetRunner]

I know! I have started thinking there was a problem and then checked out all these comments and I was right, steps, time calories, all off.

Sent from my iPhone

[chilehead]

I've had a fitbit flex, fitbit one, and now a fitbit blaze after my one got lost.

Wow, talk about a difference in accuracy.  Both my other fitbit's were pretty darn accurate from my manual counts.   My blaze is off consistently by at least 15%, usually closer to 20% for walks and elliptical.  For runs (which I don't do much) it seems more accurate.

If there isn't a fix, time to get something different.

[chilehead]

Chatted with support, and they sent me directions to do a step count (which is exactly what I did before the chat - and I informed them of that!)   OK, so I'll do it a couple more times.

I'm getting an average of 21% step loss.  While I didn't expect the Blaze to be as accurate as my Fitbit One that I wore on my waist, I wasn't expecting this many lost steps.

Might have to return it and try a different product, or a different brand. 

[Rich_Laue]

@SunsetRunner did you manually track or let the Blaze auto detect the exercise. 

@goodmorning tracking miles on a treadmill tells nothing unless the stride has been set for the speed your going. If your arms are on the bar this could result in a low step count. 

[SunsetRunner]

Exactly! Maybe it's a software problem.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

I did for six months and couldn't get it to track correctly.

Sent from my iPhone

[Nuuniaana]

I thought that i have same problem and I took contact to Fitbit customer service. They told me to count by myself 100 steps and compare numbers with Blaze. There was no big difference, but I think Blaze isn't counting steps at home when I'm moving shorter length..

[bbarrera]

Sorry, accuracy is not proven if you carefully go out for a walk and count 100 or 500 or 1000 steps, and it closely matches.

Everytime its suggested, someone needs to counter that a better accuracy test is walking for 100 steps and then stop, and rhythmically move arm 100 times. I'll bet most will have close to 200 steps, rather than 100 steps.