Blaze not logging steps/distance accurately

[Deb_16]

I have had a Blaze for about 5 months.  It seems to be less accurate on step count and distance in the past month.  I have been walking a 5km route that has been verified by Chiptime so I know the actual distance is accurate.  Today my Blaze only logged 3.8 km.  That is a huge difference.  I could understand a quarter km out but not more than 1 km.  Any suggestions?

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Forums @Deb_16. Thanks for the information about provided about your Blaze. I recommend restarting your tracker and after this process, please check the post Things you can do to make the Blaze more accurate created by our friend @bcalvanese.

I hope this helps, let me know the outcome. 

[Corvettekid]

Alejandra, all these Blaze's that are only 70-80% accurate on Steps/Distance.....how about a firmware fix ?

[Deb_16]

I followed your suggestion and did a restart.  After reading several discussions about the lack of accuracey of the Blaze, I moved the blaze to a pocket on the leg of my pants.  The distance was slightly more accurate but still short .75 km.

[Rich_Laue]

@Deb_16 have you calculated and set your stride yet? 

[_scottdavey]

What a shame. I finally got the update and went for a run, and discovered that the Blaze distance inaccuracy issue remains. It's useless as a running watch when it's out by over 1km on a 5 km run.

[Sundancer256]

Wow.  Love the new notifications, but mileage is WAY off.  This morning I went 10+ miles (a little bit more than my usual path), and blaze put it down as a little more than 6.   Before the update it was a little off, but now.. woooo.. way off.

[Deb_16]

Thank you for the suggestion.  I have calculated my stride length and it made no difference.

My husband has a Garmin that seems to be much more accurate.  I am looking to change.

[Goosse1962]

---

@_scottdavey wrote:
What a shame. I finally got the update and went for a run, and discovered that the Blaze distance inaccuracy issue remains. It's useless as a running watch when it's out by over 1km on a 5 km run.

---

I haven't seen anyone more knowlagable responde to this. My Surge was sometimes off on my walk distence. When I switched to the Blaze, the distence improved. A major difference is that the Blaze doesn't have its own GPS. It uses the phone. My Nexus 5X phone has a really good GPS. Using the Blaze, the only time my walk distance has been off was when I upgraded my phone to Android 7 and it had speed issues. When the GPS was not available, my Blaze had a much shorter walk on the same path that normally matched the Google Maps distence. I am guessing that it used my stride and steps to caluclate the distence. I have never calebrated my stride. It varies considerable. On a long walk, I have a tendency to use longer strides, thus reducing the distance reported.

GPS technology has improved. It still has limitations. The phone connected to the Blaze has an effect on accuracy. Other elements of accuracy is weather and terain (mostly tall buildings). Buildings can reflect signals, giving inaccurate readings. with connection to 5+ satalites, the location is very accurate. 4 satalites can shift the signal many yards. Less than 4 satalites there is no position.

Top that with many phones able to use WiFi signals to locate a phone when GPS isn't available. My guess is that what you are experiencing is NOT a Blaze issue. My first guess is your phone. My second guess is where you are running, I.E. tall city buildings. My third guess is weather, such as usually cloudy.

I write this in hopes that it helps at least a little in understanding what might be causing the issue that you reported. I dislike 'blame' being misplaced. In this case, I feel that the issue is not the Blaze hardware or software.

Have a Terrific day!

[MikeS1971]

The blame should be placed on the Blaze, well actually FitBit. Its their software causing the accuracy and distance problems. Its been a problem for a long time, since the early days of the Charge HR. The issue lies in how the app uses the phones GPS to map and measure distance. Using other distance tracking apps, they follow routes pretty much exactly while the FitBit app cuts corners, straightens curves or just plots points far away from your actual route. One thing I noticed while I had my Blaze is that it would periodically loose its bluetooth connection with my phone. This may correlate with its GPS location and measuring issues. Then add that the Blaze has issues correctly counting steps while its not using "connected GPS" then you really won't get correct information.

[jmattwood]

---

@MikeS1971 wrote:

The blame should be placed on the Blaze, well actually FitBit. Its their software causing the accuracy and distance problems. Its been a problem for a long time, since the early days of the Charge HR. The issue lies in how the app uses the phones GPS to map and measure distance. Using other distance tracking apps, they follow routes pretty much exactly while the FitBit app cuts corners, straightens curves or just plots points far away from your actual route. One thing I noticed while I had my Blaze is that it would periodically loose its bluetooth connection with my phone. This may correlate with its GPS location and measuring issues. Then add that the Blaze has issues correctly counting steps while its not using "connected GPS" then you really won't get correct information.

---

As far as I'm aware, the Blaze doesn't use GPS at all to calculate distance; it uses stride length multiplied by steps to calculate it. Certainly does that for a walk. 

Sent from my BlackBerry — the most secure mobile device

[MikeS1971]

---

@jmattwood wrote:

As far as I'm aware, the Blaze doesn't use GPS at all to calculate distance; it uses stride length multiplied by steps to calculate it. Certainly does that for a walk. 

Sent from my BlackBerry — the most secure mobile device

---

The Blaze itself doesnt use GPS, but in "Connected GPS" mode, it uses your phones GPS to calculate distance. Its just not very good at doing it. 

[Lizzyrodmell]

Hi since this update by blaze has been acting crazy. It no longer dectects hr/makes up a random number when not worn(i have cleaned the sensor as directed using a soap free clenser, i have restarted and re paired the device many times) it also either wildly over counts steps (18000 while watching a movie) or doesnt count any at all at a ramdom point in the day....but mostly when you actually moving. A 4 mile run was 2 steps apprently) i have tried all sorts to fix it. Moving arms worn. Changing the dominence setting. Changing hr to auto then back to on and nothing is working.

So basically i have a pretty watch with pointless informarion on it and a very inaccurent my fitness pal account. Please advise.