Fitbit Blaze step count inaccurate

[OmarLittle]

Hey there,

Today was my first full day rocking my Blaze. I went to an outdoor festival and had some solid step count, however, when I got home and checked my step count I noticed that the blaze tracked about 1/4 the steps I actually took. My iPhone health app logged about 10K and my Fitbit did about a 1/4 of that (2500). Also I noticed it did an auto workout and thought I had rode my bike. I think this is due to my sons stroller I was pushing. Any suggestions on how to calibrate? If I go for a run and use the GPS- will that help? Thanks!

[runbobrun]

I have contacted Fitbit several times regarding this matter. FB won't
acknowledge there is an issue or tell me if we can expect a fix. FB sent me
a new blaze even tho I told them it wasn't going to address the problem but
they insisted. And guess what. Same problems. I gave up with them. Very
frustrating. Love FB but this product is subpar.

--

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[CMichelle]

@runbobrun  Same here - my 3rd Blaze is doing the exact same thing.  I have tested it within an inch of it's life, all 3 of them and the problem is exactly the same - if you are swinging your arm, it only counts every other step.  If you keep your arms stationary or up against your body, it counts accurately.  That's it, end of story.  

This product does NOT work but you will never get them to acknowledge this. I am floored by people who say theirs is accurate because you seem to have some sort of jackpot or I'm just incredibly unlucky OR people who say theirs is over counting steps!  I WISH.  I haven't been able to participate in a step challenge with friends since I bought this thing back in March but there's no way I can keep up when it won't count my steps right.  

[sagegoose]

I am floored when people say that too but my husband's is right on. I don't know if it's because he never syncs his so he didn't get that latest firmware update or what. Maybe he just got extremely lucky but I get green with envy everytime I see him do a step count and it's on the money. Then when I talked to the fitbit people again I had them telling me that I should check to see if I'm wearing it on my arm right or if I'm wearing it on my dominant arm or not. Like I haven't done everything possible to see if it works!!! I literally changed my profile to a man's profile (just like my husband's) just to see if it would work that way. I was getting desperate. Then they proceeded to tell me that after I took all of those factors into account and checked to see if I was doing it right to do another step count. Like I haven't done a million of them already!! They also explained how to do a step count. Here's what they told me to do

"If after taking these factors into account you still think your tracker is significantly undercounting or overcounting steps, please try a step test:

1. Put your wrist-based tracker on your wrist or put your clip-on tracker on your hip or torso.
2. Walk 100 steps, making sure to count a step each time one of your feet hits the ground.
3. Pause, then check your tracker to see your step count."

Well DUH!!!!!

 

[AndrewFitbit]

Hey all -

For those that haven't seen my post over here, I've been monitoring all the feedback about inaccuracies with Blaze. Like I said in the other post, this is definitely something worth looking into, and I already brought this to our team's attention for investigation.

Feedback is certainly appreciated, but please keep the Community Guidelines in mind when posting.

Thanks!

[dragonslayer63]

yes, and I had the same experience -- wish I had known before the purchase

[dragonslayer63]

I will not recommend the Blaze -- very disappointing especially when we are using for a work related program so every step counts -- highly unreliable --

[ejp316]

Thank you, Andrew for being the first person at FitBit to acknowledge that
there is a deficiency here. I think I speak for (almost) all of us when we
say let's get this step count issue corrected before anything else.
Everything else is minor. Step count is major. Again, thank you for
acknowledging that there IS a problem here!

[MikeJenH]

This is good news if something is actually addressed. My wife and I both have the Blaze and her step count is way off, close to 1500 steps over the same 5kms we walked together. I am 6'2" 190lbs and I average 1180 steps every km according to my Blaze, however even with the proper set up my 5'9" 120lb wife only gets credited for 850, and clearly she is taking more steps than I. Knowing that the average step count per km is roughly 1300 I believe mine is accuate and hers is under-counted. Please help before she quits the Blaze and further continues to tell her friends about our troubles when they are considering your product(I bought it as a gift for her)! :o(

[MarkB905]

I just had a similar issue, walked 8.04 km, but only 5,431 steps were counted. That gives me a stride length of double my actual entered stride of 74 cm, so it was only counting every other step. I currently have automatic stride turned on, so shouldn't it calculate this from the GPS distance?

I will try turning off automatic stride length detection as well as restarting the Blaze and see if that does anything. As far as I can remember, it was very accurate before the last firmware update, and I have not changed my gait since.

[CMichelle]

I am replying on this thread to keep the issue alive because my Blaze STILL does not count steps accurately!  Is anyone else still having problems with it dramatically under counting your steps?  I have seen a few new thread pop up in the past week, everyone has the same issue and at least one person from Fitbit admitted this is an ongoing problem due to the last firmware updates.  SO - when is Fitbit going to get this fixed?  They first acknowledged the problem here back on May 5th and here it is the 16th with no patches pushed through.  I bet they have lost a ton of market share and good word of mouth from people who have gotten frustrated and returned their Blaze.  I am right on the brink but keep thinking, they have to fix this eventually, right??  Chime in if you returned yours OR yours still doesn't work!

[pmellon]

I returned mine... I am frustrated at the silence of Fitbit on the issue. If here had been a definitive post regarding the issue and exactly what/when to expect resolution, I would have kept it. I loved it -- except for the way under counting step part. I have a program at work with challenges and I get gift cards for # of steps. Frustrating to start losing step counts after spending $200. Glitches happen, an honest response from the company would be nice.

[ejp316]

Mine still does not work. I've been trying to trouble shoot it for nearly
two months now. I also participate in challenges at work, and it is not
fair since my Blaze counts 65-75% of my steps, while everybody else's
counts nearly all. This issue SERIOUSLY needs to be admitted to, and
resolved.

[OmarLittle]

Man, this thread keeps my email provider busy! 

I still have the issue and I'm not sure if anyone from fitbit has actually acknowledged the problem- pretty sure it was a forum moderator.

[ejp316]

I'm trying to figure out how the Blaze has a 4/5 star rating on Amazon, and
how the initial reviews were generally so positive. Did nobody actually
test the step count to see if it was accurate? You would think that'd be
where you start when reviewing a product like this. I'm on my third Blaze,
and they all have had identical performance issues. always counting 65-75%
of steps, at best. I also do a lot of heart rate zone training, and I
monitor my heart rate on the machines at the gym, and compare them to the
fitbit, and there are many times the fitbit is 15-25 bpm too slow. Same
issue with all 3. FitBit dropped the ball with this one. Let's hope they
redeem themselves and maintain me and many others as lifelong customers.

[Rich_Laue]

See. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Calorie-Count-Dramatically-Increased-Incorrect-Count-Defective...

[BlazeRunner]

It's still baffling to me how inconsistent all FitBit's devices are against each other. For awhile I finally just accepted my Blaze was undercounting compared to the Charge HR and I was ok with that, because then at least I was 100% sure I actually hit my step goal.

However I just got back from a Disney world trip with my husband's family who also have the Fitbit Charge HR and one member had a regular pedometer. If anything, Disney is the perfect way to do a comparison between step counters! At the end of Epcot and Magic Kingdom, all the Charge HR members had around 19-20k steps and about 7 miles tracked for distance, while I had 13-14k steps on my Blaze and about 5 miles distance. That's a HUGE difference.

But guess what? I just googled how long the distances are for the parks and the Blaze makes the most sense now. Epcot is 2.78 miles and Magic Kingdom is 2.17 miles around the perimeters. We were all together the entire day, so we all walked approximately the same amount of steps and distances, yet the Charge HR gave so much more credit. But we didn't walk around the perimeter of either park more than 3 times...so 7 miles is a bit too generous. I think the Blaze logically made the most sense; we approximately walked around the entire park 2 times when you factor in the walking into stores, shows and ride lines. Also I have approximately 2500 steps to a mile, so my step count is consistent with my mileage. If you have 20k steps and you have 2500 steps in a mile, that means you walked around 8 miles which is around the park almost 4 times. Nope. Didn't happen.

I'm realizing the Charge really is a lot more sensitive than the Blaze. Step-wise, they all count quite accurately. The major difference is that the Charge picks up movements on rides or things like that, and counts them as steps, thereby giving that huge 20k number at the end of the day. The blaze is not very sensitive to non-step activity; it for the most part only counts actual walking steps, and therefore the discrepancy was so high.

Not intentionally, a trip within Disney helped me figure out a lot since 3 Charge HRs, 1 regular pedometer and my own Blaze were involved.

[amandagal]

I don't agree that the Blaze is more correct.  I run certified distances and I've ran with a Charge, a Blaze and a Zip (and my Epson GPS watch) since I got the Blaze.  The Charge and the Zip always register almost the same as my GPS watch.  The Blaze is always significantly under (I ran a 50k not too long ago and it didn't even give me credit for a marathon distance).  These are certfied, GPS tracked courses.  I've used a fitbit since the very first one and I've never had such a big difference between the amount the fitbit says I run and the amount my GPS watch says I run.

There are a lot of variables at Disney.  I'm not saying that experience is wrong, I'm just saying it's not that other devices are just not as accurate as the Blaze.  The Blaze is a dud!

[sagegoose]

I totally agree!! The Blaze is definitely consistent....consistently off!!! I have done oodles of step counts and each and every one of them is 40-50% off. On the better step counts the Blaze actually counts 65% of the steps but not very often. It's pretty bad when I have to set my step count goal to 40% less just to make up for the lost steps. So just so I know that I hit 10,000 steps I have to set my goal to 7250 steps, then I just tack on that 40% lost steps and it comes out to 10150 steps. I shouldn't have to do this but evidently I have to because fitbit refuses to do anything about this issue. I have received numerous emails back from them saying that I need to do more step counts just to make sure it's not just me wearing it wrong or putting it on the wrong arm. Yes, they are still asking me these stupid questions. I don't understand how this is still an issue. How hard would it be for them to do another firmware update to fix the last one.

[rdbishop999]

It's official.  My Blaze is going back and I have ordered a  Garmin vivoactive HR GPS Smart Watch to replace it.  I've done multiple tests with the Blaze and Fitbit One and the Blaze consistently misses 30-35% of my steps.  That is more than unacceptable.  I paid good money for the Blaze and I am not getting paid to be a beta tester.  I shouldn't have to wait for 3 or 4 firmware upgrades to correct something as simple as step count.

[thegreenmnm]

Add me to the list of people very disappointed with the Blaze so far.  Long time FitBit fan, I have gone through Ultra, Flex, Charge HR and now Blaze.  I'm very familiar with my daily step counts.  I don't have exact numbers because I don't have a way to wear two and compare but I can say that I am at least 2-4k lower than normal depending on my activities for the day.  The difference is quite noticeable.

While I love my Charge HR I can no longer wear it because my wrist breaks out in an eczema type rash.  I tried again after not having worn it for months but it came right back.  

I love Flex but I am spoiled with heart rate and other new features.

I'm running out of options