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!

[Robert101]

Wanted to add my experience with my Blaze here:

Longtime fitbit user, have had a charge, charge HR, and now a Blaze. I just received the Blaze last week and my step count has now gone off a cliff. What used to get me 20,000 plus steps (a day of coaching youth sports) now nets me 8000-10,000. I have not adjusted any settings yet as I feel I shouldn’t have too. I never adjust settings when switching between my charge and charge HR. All of my data stayed the same so there shouldnt be a need to change anything.

Why cant Fitbit just test out the different trackers and adjust the step count logic to make them, at minimum, within 30%? All my historical data is now useless if I continue wearing the Blaze. Step count challenges are now a waste of time since I would need to literally double my steps to the get the same amount as my charge HR. What’s the problem?

?

[sagegoose]

@Robert101 I don't even think that 30% is good enough. They wanted me to send back my tracker so they "could figure out what is wrong with it". I already know what's wrong with it....it doesn't count your steps when your arms are swinging. Test your fitbit out when walking with your arm held stationary (like you're looking at the time) and see how accurate it is then. It actually counts your steps perfectly. I'm pretty sure they can fix this with an update being as enough people have complained about this same issue so they should know what's wrong with their fitbits. I'm saying fitbit's' because the Alta does the same exact thing. I gave my alta to my son when I was sick of it undercounting and when he wears it the steps count out perfectly but he doesn't swing his arms that much when he's walking.

[Robert101]

Sagegoose, I agree there is a serious issue. This morning, I got up, went downstairs, made breakfast, got Coffee, went upstairs, went back downstairs grabbed my phone, went back up stairs and sat down at my computer.

What was my step count????

0....WTF

[Rich_Laue]

Welcome to the thread @Robert101, to be honest, you are seeing the symptoms of what went wrong,  not the actual cause or what is wrong. 

Fitbit realizes that some, but not all since many are having no issues, are having step accuracy problems. Their thinking is that a shipment of some part in the Blaze is out of spec. If Fitbit gets a confirmed bad unit in their hands this will help in figuring what went wrong, and a fix can then be found.

Unfortunately this fix will not be found, diagnosed, software rewritten and debugged overnight. I believe Fitbit will be able to find a solution, as they where able to with the Surge.

[OmarLittle]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

Welcome to the thread @Robert101, to be honest, you are seeing the symptoms of what went wrong,  not the actual cause or what is wrong. 

Fitbit realizes that some, but not all since many are having no issues, are having step accuracy problems. Their thinking is that a shipment of some part in the Blaze is out of spec. If Fitbit gets a confirmed bad unit in their hands this will help in figuring what went wrong, and a fix can then be found.

Unfortunately this fix will not be found, diagnosed, software rewritten and debugged overnight. I believe Fitbit will be able to find a solution, as they where able to with the Surge.

---

Pretty sure this is not the case as I just chatted with "brian" from fitbit. He made me do all the normal BS and told me I had to do another reset (I've done that already but he said I didn't). If they could tell by serial number he would have replaced it and I wouldn't have to wait till they could verify this silly step. 

[Robert101]

Rich,

Usually this is something you do 'before' selling a product. I am not a beta tester. This watch has been out for a few months. If they want me to beta test for them I would appreciate a major discount on the product. Having it so far off on step counts is more like Alpha testing. How hard it is to have a charge HR user switch to the Blaze and check that their results are consistent between the devices. A day or two?

[Rich_Laue]

Mine have been consistent.. Personally I test my tracker not by comparing them to each other, but by taking a 1000 step walk.. I then compare it to the count on the tracker.
My feeling is that it is going to be traced to a shipment of some part used in the tracker being slightly out of spec. This error was introduced with a firmware update, that was extensively tested, possibly not with the effected unidentafied units. 
As for the daily none exercise times, my movements are not predictable enough to be accurate 100% of the time, but should still get. Relative day to day reading.

[sagegoose]

@Rich_Laue. If that is their thinking that a "shipment of some part in the Blaze is out of spec", then why is it that the Alta is having the same exact issues?? I had the Alta and it was doing the same exact thing and then I got the Blaze and it's, again, undercounting. I don't think that there was a bad shipment in 2 different products. That's too big of a coincedence for me. What I think is that these problems, for some odd reason, seemed to start showing up when they did their last firmware update. Now that's not too big of a coincedence for me. As for me sending my tracker back to them while they figure their crap out is out of the question. I think that they can find a sufficient amount of trackers from other people that are having the same issues as mine to compare to. I'm sure they can go to their warehouse and pull one off the shelf and it would have the same issues because it seems that when they send you a replacement it does the same exact thing as the first one if not worse!! I'm just getting so fed up and frustrated with these people filling me full of crap because they don't want to admit that they screwed up but instead they turn around and make it seem as if it's something you're doing wrong.

[CMichelle]

Hello, all!  I was involved with this post originally so I have been following your updates for weeks now. I'm not chiming in to rub this in anyone's face but I had the same issues you all have - my Blaze was under counting my steps by 30%, wouldn't count steps with large arm swings, etc.  I receive 2 replacement trackers and they never requested I send the others back, even though I asked.  I was *this* close to giving up when all of a sudden, one day, tracker #3 started working!  I didn't change or do anything differently, I was just on my normal workout walk, tracking it on Blaze Walk exercise function along side the Endomondo app and I noticed the distances and steps getting closer and closer together until they both were spot on and it has remained that way ever since.  I think from start to finish, it took about 3 weeks to be totally and completely accurate.

I have since passed on one of my replacement Blazes to a friend of mine and it has been working fine for her as well.  My point?  These trackers both SUCKED, I mean, pretty much didn't work at all counting steps then all of a sudden. . .did.  WHY?  I can't answer that question to this day - there was no firmware update pushed out, I didn't put my tracker on some magical combination of settings or swing my arm in any particular way.  Now, it just works without having to even think about it.  Connected GPS, Exercise functions, including Treadmill, the whole ball of wax.

I feel for all of you struggling out there because you pay all this money for the thing, only to spend countless hours trying to troubleshoot why it won't work!  I did the same thing. . .but for some, I wonder if it's just a matter of hanging in there with it for 2 - 3 weeks and then it eventually gets used to your movements, your stride, the communication between your track and phone, etc and finally gets calibrated properly.  I don't think this type of tracker will work right out of the box correctly for anyone but admittedly, even 2 - 3 weeks or longer is a long time to wait until it does.  I guess I'm just saying there is hope.  I wouldn't have believed it if it didn't happen to me.  

If anyone has any questions on my experience, I am happy to answer them.  Again, I don't have the answer or magic fix, just the experience of being totally and completely frustrated beyond measure, calling and complaining to Fitbit night and day, to loving my Blaze and having it finally work without even having to think about it.  Best luck and wishes to you all!

[sagegoose]

@CMichelle. I'm really glad to hear that someone is having good luck with their Blaze. I just hope that mine does the same although I've had this darn thing since the end of May so I don't know if it's going to get any better. I'll cross my fingers though. I do agree that this is so frustrating that I could just scream. I just honestly wish that they would quit pulling crap out of thing air with these faulty trackers though. First they say that it's a firmware update that they need to do, now it's due to some shipment of some part of the Blaze that throwing the specs off. Then they have you do repeated test step counts and ask dumb questions like it's your fault that it's not working. AAARRRRRGGGG!!! My only silver lining is that at least at the end of the day I just take my total steps and add on 40% and I can pretty much guarantee that it's close to what it's supposed to be, although my distance will be off, but I can live with that part.

[Tkcmom]

Mine has not counted correctly since I have had it.  I purchased it in March.  I think there have been two firmware updates since then.  It is also cheating me out of about a quarter of my miles when I walk or run. 

[sagegoose]

When you think about it, it's not only cheating you out of steps....it's cheating you out of distance walked and calories burned. So at the end of the day, yes I can add on 40% to my steps, but how in the world would I figure out calories burned? I suppose I could figure out distance if I took my steps, multiply that by my 40%, then figure out the distance with my stride length and total steps but that is way too much figuring for me. At the end of the day I shouldn't have to get a calculator out and do all of this like I was in high school math again. For the money spent, all I should have to do is look at the screen because isn't that what it's there for and isn't that why a majority of people bought these?

[arkaycee]

My Surge is well over a year old, and it never “got used to” my steps. Sadly, when I’m out for longer walks I seem to have gotten used to not moving my arm at least most of the time. So it’s more accurate, but I remembered reading that those arm swings give one a little more calorie burn. So the Surge is slightly cutting into my calories burned, rather than enhancing them.

[sagegoose]

So it's not only the Blaze but the Surge and the Alta that is giving inaccurate step counts?? How is this not getting fixed by fitbit? I don't see how they can blame this on a shipment of some part of the Blaze that is causing this when it is effecting not just the Blaze but two other products. I don't think that anyone should have to change their way of walking to compensate fitbit's mistakes!!!

[CMichelle]

@sagegoose  As long as your heart rate monitor is working correctly, that is what calculates your calorie burn, not the number of steps you take - at least in my experience so in the end, the steps don't REALLY matter even though I agree, it's frustrating that a product that was designed to count steps can't even do it right.

That's the whole reason I upgraded from the Flex to the Blaze in the first place - the Flex never gave me a true calorie burn because it just calculated off my age, weight and number of steps taken.  Now, with the heart rate monitor, it does it off your average heart rate during the day instead.

[sagegoose]

I actually got this mainly for the step count because I like to be in competition with my husband and son. So everyday when they compare how many steps they have that day and when they ask me, I just get a little cranky because theirs is so much higher than mine. I can roughly calculate in my head what it should be with the added 40% but it just sucks that I have to do that. Call me a stickler but I would just like it posted right on the screen and not have to get a calculator out or roughly add it in my head. And I guess I never thought of the calorie burning thing that way...but it makes sense. Hopefully the heart rate thing is accurate, but I'm thinking that it is because my heart rate is usually kind of high and that's what my blaze says. I do have to say this though - the one thing that I love the fitbit for is the workout screen. It actually counts squats as steps too so at least I can make up for some steps lost.

[Rich_Laue]

@sagegoose read my post again, i said that is my thinking, Fitbits thinkingg is to get a hold of trackers with a kniwn step issue so that they can determine a definate fix.

as for calories this is Fitbits secret, but thid help document might help

[sagegoose]

@Rich_Laue. I'm sorry but do you get paid from fitbit to say all of these things? If this was just your thinking about the shipment and not fitbit's thinking then why even say "this error was introduced with a firmware update, that was extensively tested"???? And if this error was extensively tested before then why would they need my tracker right now because they didn't need it before? If the fitbit people spent half of the energy that they spend on making excuses then they would have this problem fixed by now!!! They even went as far as to try to butter me up by offering me a free year of fitbit premium package. Whoopdy-do!!! I could care less about that stupid premium package.....I just want them to fess up and fix this issue. I don't think that's too much to ask for the price that they put on their products that don't work.

[Rich_Laue]

No I don't get paid, click the link in my sig. 

I was very clear in my post, this was not intentionally put in, it might not even have been a problem with any of the tracker that where tested. As many users have pointed out the error did not exist before the last update, according to these users there was no step error to troubleshoot until after the update. 

It does seem that there are many that have unaffected trackers and a lot of users that have affected trackers. 

No I'm not making excuses, I'm simply stating the order of events. 

Tracker works - receive update - some find tracker not working - Fitbit looking into it - Fitbit troubleshooting - Fitbit asking for some with confirmed problems to have them sent back, probably to confirm or fine tune the fix. Fitbit has a way of seeing the back end of your tracker, and might be using this data to choose what trackers to retreive.

As I stated this is an educated speculation on my part, based on after having worked as both hardware and software developer, and as a hardware final assembled and tester.

[sagegoose]

@Rich_Laue, I agree with you that it seems that there are a lot of people saying that this happened after the last firmware update but what I question is, if that's the case, then why oh why can't they just put out another firmware update to fix or reverse the last one. I'm not a computer programmer or anything but I know that these "engineers" are probably pretty smart so I think they can figure this out. And also I would have to disagree with you on the whole "not a lot of trackers out there like this". It sure sounds to me like there are plenty of trackers that are doing this so I don't think they would have a problem getting a whole bunch of them to compare and fix. Obviously yours works....great, happy for you.....but on these 2 threads there are a lot of people having the same issues as I am and it sounds like this has been going on for quite awhile (since March for me). It just seems to me that they haven't done anything to fix this except sending out faulty replacements.