Blaze steps count inaccurate

[AlanaSB]

I haven’t had my Blaze long and it only tracks half my steps. I had a older Fitbit Charge and it never had this problem. Does anyone else have this issue or know how to fix it?

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to welcome you @AlanaSB.

If your Blaze isn't registering all of your steps, I recommend restarting it by doing the following:

1. Press and hold the back (left) and bottom buttons until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take less than 10 seconds.
2. Let go of the buttons.

After this process, please see how many steps you have, walk 100 and let me know how many it registered.

Hope to hear from you soon. 

[Walker1836]

I have had a similar problem.  I am a Walker and I see this problem  as inaccurate distance when I walk my regular routes.  Change in distance = stride length X change in step count. My stride length is correct.

Sometimes my Blaze is correct, other times it is off by as much as 33% (low).  Wednesday it was perfect, Yesterday not very good.  I walked 3 miles (1.5 out/1.5 back):

Outbound:

Garmin GPS: 1.52 miles

Blaze:  .95 miles

Single Axis Pedometer:  1.48

Inbound:

Garmin GPS: 1.45 miles

Blaze:  1.09 miles

Single Axis Pedometer:  1.55 miles

The only things different from when it worked OK on Wed was I was walking on pavement (instead of a cinder track)  and I had a water bottle in my dominant hand this time. Blaze was on the other wrist.  I also changed my stride length slightly in the settings.  My stride length is the same as used by the Blaze and my single axis pedometer.

Is possible that the accelerometer/counting algorithm takes some time to determine the proper threshold for counting when new or after a step length change?  I am a new user also, 1 week.  My Blaze seemed to get progressively better until yesterday.

I will do the step counting check routine again and the shirt pocket thing again (place watch in shirt pocket instead of wrist) and with and without the bottle.

I am thinking my walking movement is not to Blaze's liking or maybe the wrist is not the place to mount accelerometers to accurately detect steps.  

Thoughts?

[Wxdude]

I have experienced the same problem -- my Blaze will undercount steps by ~25-30%.

I walk between 116 and 125 steps per minute with an average step rate of 122, as determined by five different samples over recent walks.  Today I walked 69 minutes, which using the minimum step rate should have yielded ~8000 steps.  My Fitbit only counted 5934, which is in error by >25%.  I've also done this exact same route on other days and have had more than 8000 steps.

I have observed the errors occur on colder days -- it was 15 F this morning when I walked, but this is speculation on my part.  I suspect software issues and have had other software related problems with the Blaze.

I'm disappointed as many of the other parameters are calculated off the step count.  My recommendation is that Fitbit investigate -- I don't think rebooting the device is the real solution.

[Walker1836]

Wxdude,

I redid my 1.48 mile walk today and the Blaze came pretty close at 1.44.  This time I did not carry (actual I use a wrist lanyard) a water bottle in  the other hand.  I guess anything that might change the motion of your arms or shoulders may mess up a Fitbit watch step count.

If your are walking in 15 (F?) weather (crazy that)  perhaps your heavy clothes are similarly effecting the ability of the watch to count steps?

[Wxdude]

I redid the test today came up with similar results -- the Blaze seems to significantly undercount steps in colder weather.  I reset the Blaze about 15 minutes into my walk this morning, counted 100 steps and the Blaze only registered 64.  I wear it exposed to the cold, between the sleeve of my sweatshirt and glove so I don't think it is the interference from heavier clothing.  Temperature this morning was a balmy 20 F.  I've noticed this behavior occurs most frequently when the temperature is less than 35.

[Walker1836]

The question is, are your clothes changing the motion of your arms?

Can you find someplace to walk a short distance without your sweatshirt?

Is this sweatshirt restricting your movement?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there everyone! Good to see you in the Community Forums! 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with your steps not being counted correctly.

My first recommendation is to give your Blaze a restart. You can easily do this by pressing the left and lower right buttons for 10-12 seconds. This will make your tracker to reboot

Also, be sure that as you have mentioned, you're walking swinging your hands as you would normally do when walking. Anything that could change the arm motion in this case could make your tracker not to count steps accurately and miss them. For this reason, it's very important that you're not holding to a shopping cart for example as this will prevent your tracker from recognizing your steps accurately.

Hope that you find my suggestions helpful. If you need anything else, I'm here to help!

[Wxdude]

1.  I have restarted my Blaze during the middle of my walk.  I then counted 100 steps.  The blaze only registered 64.

2.  My arm movement is normal.  I wear roughly the same clothes unless the temperature is less than 10 degrees.  Thus, any variation in arm movement does not contribute to the variations above.

3.  I am not holding a shopping cart.  Wrong answer.

I contend that there is an engineering defect in the Blaze.  It appears to be related to temperature for reasons I can't imagine but I don't have any insight into the specifications and construction of that model.  I get accurate steps around my house when wearing the same clothes as outside, so that rules out any effect of what I wear contributing to this.

I have extensive experience in software, engineering and science.  I'm really frustrated that I can't get any more significant information other than reboot the device.   I believe there is a significant issue but can't seem to get FitBit to acknowledge this.  

[BlazeRich]

I don't think arm movement has anything to do with it.  I walked with my hands in my pockets and the fitbit recorded all my steps just fine.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Good to see you guys in the Forums!

@BlazeRich, the arms movements do affect the accuracy of the tracker as it looks for walking-like movements in order to determine step count.

@Wxdude, thanks a lot for sharing all those details. Now, it's curious that you mention that the temperature seems to affect the readings. Have you tried maybe to wear your Blaze in a way that it is left exposed to the outside and it's not covered  by your clothes just as an experiment?

[BlazeRich]

I'm going by personal experience. For me, 108 steps is equal to .05 of a mile. I walked outside in cold weather with my hands in my coat pockets. I counted out 105 steps and then looked at my fitbit---it registered exactly .05 of a mile. I continued my pre-measured walk of 1.2 miles and the fitbit recorded it as 1.2 miles.


I've also taken the fitbit off my wrist and put it in my pocket (when I want to wear a regular watch)--still accurate results.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Huh, that's interesting. Thanks for letting us know @BlazeRich.

I know that motion affects accuracy because I have known of several users that hold to a shopping cart bar for example and this makes steps not to be recorded accurately. I'm glad to hear that your tracker doesn't give you problems about that!

[Adfernz]

My Blaze stopped working and Fitbit offered me a 25% discount on a new one.  Thanks but no thanks.

Should have gone Apple.  It's no wonder the Blaze was discontinued.