Indoor walking is not accurate

[MeeShell1010]

I set my Fitbit Blaze to track a mile walk on an indoor track. With my cell phone I kept track of laps and knew exactly when the mile was complete. My Fitbit only showed a 0.56 mile walk. Any ideas?? 

[WendyB]

Are you using GPS? As It does not do well indoors. Needs to be outside.

[WendyB]

Also make sure your stride is set correctly

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-do-I-measure-and-adjust-my-stride-length/

[MeeShell1010]

My stride length is correct. I'm assuming that it's because the GPS was
turned on. I see now under "walk" that you can turn the GPS off, would that
correct my issue?

[Colinm39]

@MeeShell1010I have an outstanding support case with Fitbit because of the stride length on the Fitbit. was reporting low.. when I divided steps into distance.  You can check yours by doing the same thing.. This eliminates the missing steps.

I found that walking at a domestic level my distance was under reported by about  15%..

Also I found if I walked at an exercise pace on a planned walk it was close to my stride setting.

In the end I set my stride to 10% above my measured stride.  For me it was easy because I don't run, so both were set Stride+10%. I'm now catching up some lost distance over the last 12 months.

Regarding GPS, it should not work in an indoor stadium..

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@MeeShell1010 wrote:
My stride length is correct. I'm assuming that it's because the GPS was
turned on. I see now under "walk" that you can turn the GPS off, would that
correct my issue?

---

[MeeShell1010]

@Colinm39 Thank you so much for your response. So if I increase my stride length and turn off my GPS for indoor walks, should that correct the distance? I was really hoping I could get rid of Map My Walk and just trust the Blaze, but so far it's not the case. 

[Evenissa]

How do you turn on the GPS?

[MeeShell1010]

On my Fitbit Blaze if I tap "exercise" and then "walk" there is a little
nut/circle on the bottom left that if you tap can turn GPS on or off.

[MeeShell1010]

@Colinm39  So I just walked a mile indoor again. I turned off my GPS and increased my stride length by 10% and it only measured 0.7 miles instead of a mile. Anymore suggestions? 

[Colinm39]

@MeeShell1010You are experiencing what I went through.

Firstly... divide your steps into the 0.7 miles to see what the Blaze has used.. If that is accurate you could be losing steps because of the method you are walking.

Secondly... I found if I walked at a minimum of a 17 minute mile I got accuracy because I believe the inbuilt accelerometer detected that effort and I would finish up with my stride calculation acceptable. Also my steps matched that of my other Fitbits and were within 1% of my Fitbit One.

Thirdly... I made sure my Blaze was set to non-dominant wrist.

This link shows you the typical steps/mile for your height..

At one stage I used all of my Fitbits as part of the testing for my Support submission to Fitbit and always found my other Fitbits were accurate.. I use the Fitbit One (waist mounted) as my gold standard.

Fit accepted all of my testing and just passed it on to the engineers.. They always came back with the stride settings

Since then I have found and confirmed by others in the Southern Hemisphere the Blaze Connected GPS has an increasing error in and East/West (E/W) direction. OK in the North/South. It increases at the rate of 12"/second E/W and 2 mins/KM pace.  But that doesn't help you at the moment.

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@MeeShell1010 wrote:

@Colinm39  So I just walked a mile indoor again. I turned off my GPS and increased my stride length by 10% and it only measured 0.7 miles instead of a mile. Anymore suggestions? 

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[MeeShell1010]

@Colinm39 I really appreciate all of your advice. I'm still playing with different stride lengths to perfect my indoor waking distance. I hope to be spot on very soon. Now as for outside walking with GPS turned on. I do notice the error there as well which frustrates me. I can understand an error for indoor walking, but using GPS outside should be more accurate I would think. I walked 1.5 miles yesterday and it was 0.05 miles off. That's 264 feet! They say that there  can be a +/- 30 foot difference but 264 seems extreme. For as many people that use fitbit to track their workouts, I'm shocked that there are not more frustrated people. I would think by now at least the outdoor GPS would be more spot on. 

[Colinm39]

@MeeShell1010Some more tips..

1. Do the 100 step walk test and compare the tracker because you need to establish, "Are you dropping steps"..?. I have my Fitbit One to be my umpire and today 4653 - One, and 4401 - Blaze.., 5% error

2. If you use the exercise tracking on the phone outdoors, the GPS will help you with your stride. Last night I walked for 45 minutes at about 3.8 mph (4.15 kmh) and it calculated my stride slightly less (divide steps into distance) even though I have fixed my stride.

Is your 0.5 mile error extra using the Connected GPS on the Blaze, because in the Southern hemisphere we have a 12"/second acceleration. OK in the North/South. The Exercise/Tracking via the MobileRun feature in your App is accurate.

There is a bug in the Android version and you must pause to finish and then hold finish for the green flash screen.. If you resume most of us are getting a "no save of the activity and map".

3. At the end of the day I divide my steps into the distance and that will give you an idea how you day fared. I only walk so my extra stride length helps me overcome the 5% loss I have with normal walking.

The default value for stride for females is 0.413 x height, and males 0.415 x height

I have a p[air of Blazes and Surges with my One so myu comparisons are fairly accurate.. I also found that walking at exercise speed and definire arm movem,ent, not exagerated I was noremally within 5% on the Fitbit One.

On one test I did below was fairly accurate and I was testing every p[lace we could use a Fitbit,  All of my Fitbits are set to non-dominant because I'm ambidextrous

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@MeeShell1010 wrote:

@Colinm39 I really appreciate all of your advice. I'm still playing with different stride lengths to perfect my indoor waking distance. I hope to be spot on very soon. Now as for outside walking with GPS turned on. I do notice the error there as well which frustrates me. I can understand an error for indoor walking, but using GPS outside should be more accurate I would think. I walked 1.5 miles yesterday and it was 0.05 miles off. That's 264 feet! They say that there  can be a +/- 30 foot difference but 264 seems extreme. For as many people that use fitbit to track their workouts, I'm shocked that there are not more frustrated people. I would think by now at least the outdoor GPS would be more spot on. 

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[Lynnbgirl]

when we pay 200 dollars for a tracker we should not have to be doing all this extra work to figure out how to get our indoor steps right? its so frustrating!!! my outdoor gps connected is pretty on but my indoor is all over the place and to me for 200 dollars is not acceptable!!