Blaze not accurate at all

[LeeCM44]

I received my blaze yesterday, and sadly it doesn't seem to be tracking my steps accurately. I have a pedometer for a work step challenge and currently my blaze says 669, while the pedometer denotes 965. It also isn't tracking stairs accurately. I've restarted several (at least 4) times to no avail. Really hoping I didn't get a lemon as I am SO excited to just start using it! 

Moderator edit: Format

[LeeCM44]

Just did a step test and out of 100 steps it registered about 52. 😞 

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @LeeCM44. Great to see you in the Community Forums! 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that your Blaze is not recording your steps accurately 😕

I was right about to suggest doing a step test and from what you mention, it seems the tracker is not being accurate. The first thing I can recommend is going to your profile and making sure that your personal information such as height, weight, age and gender are correct, especially height.

Also, restarting your tracker could help. You can easily do this by pressing the left and lower right buttons for 10-12 seconds. This will make your tracker to reboot and after that, you can use it again and if you would, do a step accuracy test one more time and see how it goes.

Let me know if you need more help with this!

[LeeCM44]

Thanks for the reply. My height, weight, gender and age pulled in from when I had a fitbit several years ago. I just did another refresh as you suggested and did a step count. Of 152 steps it recorded 82. 

[LeeCM44]

I've continued to test it throughout the day and have been comparing to my other devices. My waist pedometer notes 8218 steps, my iPhone (which I do not carry with me everywhere) notes 6271, while my fitbit notes 5485. I have restarted about 7 times now. 

Thank you!

[Rich_Laue]

I would also try a shutdown through the settings menu, but this might require to then do a sync since it may mess the time up.

If nothing seems to work then contact.fitbit.com and have them take a look at the back end of your tracker.

[LeeCM44]

Thank you! Looks like I'll be contacting as repeated attempts to shutdown and restart are not solving the problem. 

[LeeCM44]

To close the loop on this item. I'll be returning my fitbit per fitbits suggestion. 

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @LeeCM44.  Thanks for getting back and keeping us updated on this!

Great to hear that you were able to get in touch with the Support Team and that you'll be returning your tracker. I would think it's getting replaced, right?

If so, hope to see you back on track soon. Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you!

[LeeCM44]

I returned the fitbit and purchased a new one. Unfortunately I'm experiencing the exact same issues which leads me to believe this is simply a blaze flaw. I have a few weeks before I can return it, so I'm going to give it a few weeks to see if it adapts to me, but if I'm honest I'm not hopeful. After some research on other forums it seems I am not the only one seeing this behavior. 

[Bsuzy]

I've had mine for almost a year.   It counts an average of about 80% of my steps.   Nothing seemed to fix it.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @LeeCM44 and welcome to the Community Forums @Bsuzy! 🙂

I'm very sorry that your trackers are not counting your steps accurately 😕

There's just one thing I'd like you to try to see how off the steps are. This will be a step accuracy test. For this, see the number of steps you have on your Blaze. Write it down and then, start walking and count 100 steps in your head. Once you're done with this, compare the new number on your Blaze and see the difference. A difference of 6-8 steps should be acceptable but let me know what's the outcome on each of your trackers.

I'll be looking forward for your reply!

[Bsuzy]

I have done this many times.   It's generally about 20 short.
I just did it now and it was 34 less than I counted.   
I'll try again later today.


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Carrie39]

I previously had an alta which was great but decided to upgrade to a blaze and wish that i hadnt bothered. I seem to be doing over a thousand less steps a day and doesnt register my active minutes. I have reset and altered weight and changed wrists but no difference. Im really disappointed. 

[LeeCM44]

Just tried a step test (again) 27/50 steps registered.

[zugzug]

I just got my blaze last week and I too have noticed that it is not tracking steps accurately. It seems to be very random on the count. I try one test and get 80/100 and then another I would  get like 40/100. The Blaze seems to  be consistently wrong all the time. Today I decided to do a 2000 step test and the results were not great, I ended being short 458 steps. Unfortunately this inaccuracy annoys me enough that I am going to return the device.

[Carrie39]

May i ask if it automatically tracks your active minutes. I walked for an hour and it didnt register unless i went into the excercise and manually press start. Very disappointed

[Bsuzy]

It does.   I honestly don't know how accurate it is though.
It seems fairly accurate.
It has completely stopped registering my sleep though.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Goosse1962]

I haven't needed complete accuracy. Approximations are enough for my needs. I have checked step counts in the past that were close. I just tested again three times. Per 100 steps, I was short 6, short 10, over 2.

I have been most concerned that it wasn't recording around home or office. I had thought it might be due to my arms not moving as much. I just found in another thread an explanation. Around home and office a lot of my steps are less then 5 between stops to do something. Apparently it only starts counting steps when there are at least 5.

Before using Fitbit devices, I used mechanical step counters on my hip. Tests of those gave me worse results, but were  still good enough approximations.

I wonder if there are other rules like the 'at least 5' that could be affecting the counts.