Fitbit Blaze walking distance inaccurate

[KarenEpp]

I've been using the Blaze for about 3 weeks and it's inaccuracy is extremely frustrating. I walk a well-defined 6.2 mile route usually every day and the Blaze never gets the distance correct. Also, it has started disconnecting from GPS on my iPhone 6. I've tried several steps to improve the accuracy (e.g. entering my stride length) but nothing has helped. It's fine a telling time but right now that's all it's good for. I'm very disappointed with the device and I'm thinking about possibly returning it.

[bmiller1969]

Return. I hate to say that but I have had mine since February and has not
been corrected as of yet. Very frustrating and they will not return it
through fitbit so if you are going to do it through where you got it before
your time is up.

[imoksoami]

Thanks for all the info everyone. I have only had mine a couple of weeks and I am going to return it and go elsewhere. I have benn reading through all the threads and there is no 'fix'. Fitbit tried redirecting people to some different pages, then closed them. On another thread they announced an update but said not to discuss your problems on it. Neither distance or HR from my Blaze are even close to my Charge or Garmon. The Garmon and Charge were freakishly close to each other.

[Fands]

i am on my 2nd Balze--i decided to use the replacement one that fitbit sent me when i complained long and loud about the battery life and the inaccuracy.  I specifically waited for the update that would fix everything.

Sadly my Blaze is off CONSISTANTLY with the treadmill--every time i use it it varies (shorting me distance) from 1/4 mile to 1/3 of a mile...this depends on how long i walk, if i walk slower it is less descrepancy, if i walk longer it gains more inaccuarcy.

i just add the difference in manually. when i log activities.  

my stride length has been adjusted as far as i can without being ridicules.  I don't know why this hasn't been fixed yet or if it ever will be--so i just do what i can to make my stats work for me and show all of my exercise.

when i replace my tracker at some point, it won't be with this brand, it is too time consuming to be fiddling and adjusting manually.  

[piratepete]

I agree!! I have had my Blaze for 5 weeks now. In the first week or two it seemed really accurate. Now however, it is off a minimum of 25 to 30% MINIMUM in distance and steps. I have several well defined and mapped out routes from 3.6 to 5.8 miles. Yesterday the 3.6 said I traveled .84 miles...

I already have a watch. I already have the Map My Workout app on my phone. The reason I purchased this product was to give me a fairly accurate documentation of burned calories and mileage/steps in a 24 hour period. I have not changed any of my normal movements while doing cardio, nor have I changed the positioning of the Blaze on my wrist. This product is way beyond inaccurate and very disappointing.

[darlacat]

Good luck with returning it.  I recently "upgraded" to the Blaze and have nothing but problems with it.  I am in touch with Fitbit who are "troubleshooting" with me.  By "troubleshooting", they mean "We don't believe you, but will respond nicely to all of your emails until you just decide to suck it up and keep your device, no matter how badly it works". 

I am beyond disappointed.  I was so happy with the other 2 devices that I had - but this one sucks.  And they don't really care.

I also hate the strap - it gets so dirty!  The pink one was filthy after a couple of days at the office, (ink etc).  Looks horrible. 

[CrissB]

I recently got a Blaze and I'm finding the connected gps incredibly inaccurate as well.  I've been emailing fitbit support and I'm having the same responses as darlacat 😞  They just keep putting me off with silly suggestions that I've either already tried (and mentioned to them) or that don't make any sense (eg closing the app and reopening it, how is that going to do anything!).  Their latest suggestion is changing my stride length to calculate automatically.  However, I'd already set these up when I was using my charge hr and was pretty happy with them as they were!  

At this point I am very disappointed with my blaze as well!  It is unable to satisfactorily do what I bought it for, which was to track my runs.  

[NeerajNatu]

I am new user for Fitbit and i have recently purchased Blaze to start a better routine. The huge inaccuracy in the tracking led me to this post where i could find more users who have such problems.

For me i found out my Blaze would count steps even when i am at the same place and just moving my hand. I have an average of 9K steps during the time i am just in office all time sitting at a just one place which is bizzare.

[Shortcake31]

I just posted earlier today about the exact same thing! You are not alone and I agree it's extremely frustrating!

[bmiller1969]

All I can say is send it back. It will not get fixed 😞

[Fands]

if you will notice--this thread and issue dates back to MAY 2016---they have not fixed this issue and probably won't --i am stuck with the $200.00 i spent last year....you can complain and complain and ask until next year (2018) and they won't do anything to improve it ---(until they start using Pebble's software--then you can buy the enhanced version they show you--for a jacked up price).

If i get too frustrated i can go back to my original faithful ONE which was very accurate--it was clipped to my bra daily for 2 years and held up well--when it did poop out-fitbit customer service replaced it at age 8 months and when that one  skewed, they replaced it again....but that was 2014.

[CrissB]

I've had 2 'troubleshooting' emails from Fitbit on this issue that refer to correcting my stride length. I kept asking what did my stride length have to do with the accuracy of a connected gps run if it was using the phone's gps to calculate distance. This morning I've had the following reply from then: 

"To calculate your distance, our trackers multiply your walking steps and stride length and mulitplying your running steps and stride lengths. Your stride length is measured by your height and gender. When using connected GPS, your stride length is taken into account when pinpointing your GPS location."

I'm not too sure on what they actually mean by that last sentence? Wouldn't the phone's gps be used to pinpoint your location??? But it sounds to me like distance is only measured by the stride length and number of steps! If this is the case, I feel the connected gps feature is misleading! 

[Rich_Laue]

My suggestion is to properly calibrate and set the stride. It then will give an accurate dostance.

[CrissB]

Thanks Rich_Laue, my point is though I wouldn't have spent the money on the Blaze if I knew that it didn't actually use gps to calculate your distance when doing a connected gps run. Stride length does not allow for sessions where you might be doing sprint/jog intervals, as opposed to just a steady jog at the same pace, as I found with my Charge HR.

[piratepete]

That makes absolutely zero sense. I own a $200 dollar digital watch.  Very disappointed!


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Rich_Laue]

I m just saying that for everyday just walking, you want to set the stride.

Im still trying to get an ifficial answer to the GPS question. 

[piratepete]

Really?? What a great suggestion. 


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[piratepete]

Again.... DOES NOT WORK. Steps, mileage are sooo far off. I bought this to keep track of what I do. I didn't expect it to be dead nuts accurate, but over 30% off on routes that I know exactly distance??


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[CrissB]

Well it seems to me from what they've said, and my experiences using it, that it only calculates distance using steps and stride length, not gps. When I was using my charge hr I would use the mobile run feature in the app for running outside and was pretty happy with it. For treadmill sessions, where I'd do intervals alternating between walk/jog and sprints, I'd set the stride length to give me pretty close to what the treadmill said. So I'd roughly do 5k in around 30-31 mins on the treadmill using this routine. My last long run with the Blaze was for 60 mins and yep it told me I'd done 10k. The run is only  around 8.5k and is very hilly - I would not average 6 min per km pace on that run.  But this pace fits with how I'd calibrated my stride length for my treadmill interval sessions. 

[JoelWalker]

Found that my Blaze does not count steps if my arm is behind my back, on my stroller handle, or other wise immobile. Make sure you have your arm loose and moving. Then check your steps.

[EMAF]

If you are pushing a cart it will not register - your fitbit arm must be moving.  Same thing happened when I was moving and carrying boxes - the steps did not register.