Steps counting while driving

[Rumblebee]

My fit bit counts steps while im driving. Even on a smooth road. So i never really know how far ive gone.

[EdsonFitbit · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Rumblebee. It's great to have you here. Driving might cause your tracker to register extra steps. If your Charge 2 counts steps while driving you can try one of the following workarounds:

1. You can manually log driving on your Dashboard > Log > Activities. This will negate the extra data for you to really know how far you've gone. It can be done before or after your commute.

2. Charge your Fitbit tracker while on the road. (While your tracker is being charged it doesn't count your activities). 

Hope to see you around more often. 

[ErinCE]

I have removed my Fitbit when driving (charging it), however it logged it as a bike ride!  If I creat driving as an activity, will it remove the steps 'counted'?  And do i have to logon to manually add driving activities?  I drive a lot to go to/from work and drive quite a bit during the course of my day.  Any further suggestions?

[DerrickS]

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@ErinCE wrote:

If I creat driving as an activity, will it remove the steps 'counted'?  And do i have to logon to manually add driving activities? 

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@ErinCE If you manually log "Driving" in your activity log, floors and stairs climbed will be negated.

This can be done either on Fitbit.com or on the Fitbit App.

Let me know if you have any additional questions!

[Patcon]

Today is the first day I'm using my new Charge 2. It records every movement as a step. It recorded 300 steps for blow drying my hair. Also recorded steps when I eat, type, everything I do. I work on my feet all day & want to record all the steps I take but I can't have every single movement recorded. Is this a defective tracker or will every Charge 2 do this? I had a One for years but lost it recently & hoped to upgrade to a wrist tracker. Are they all this inaccurate?

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Patcon Welcome to our Community! Your tracker is a motion detector and will interpret your movement as steps so you will get some steps when moving your arms as this is normal in any wrist-based tracker. You could try wearing the tracker on your non dominant hand but keep the settings of the tracker as if you were wearing it on your dominant one so it becomes less sensitive to movement. Also logging a driving activity should remove undesired step and you can follow @Mcore instructions.

Let me know how it goes!

[RogueThetan]

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@EdsonFitbit wrote:

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Rumblebee. It's great to have you here. Driving might cause your tracker to register extra steps. If your Charge 2 counts steps while driving you can try one of the following workarounds:

1. You can manually log driving on your Dashboard > Log > Activities. This will negate the extra data for you to really know how far you've gone. It can be done before or after your commute.

2. Charge your Fitbit tracker while on the road. (While your tracker is being charged it doesn't count your activities). 

Hope to see you around more often. 

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You don't think it's a bit ridiculous to expect someone to manually adjust after every time they drive? This "tracker" is junk. It counts steps while driving, but can't accurately count steps and calculate distance when walking or running. If I wanted to carry my phone EVERY time to use the GPS in it to accurately measure distance, I would just use my phone and not buy/use a FitBit. 

If there is no real hope of this being corrected, I will be returning my FitBit. 

[Patcon]

Today I found my Fitbit One! So I took your suggestion and wore the Charge 2 on my non-dominant hand and kept the settings as though I was wearing it on my dominant hand.  I wore both the Charge 2 and the One today.  At the end of my 12-hour work shift on my feet all day, the One registered 5816 steps which is very accurate, and the Charge 2 registered 15,222 steps which is a HUGE difference.  The Charge is not just registering a few extra steps.  It showed I took 9406 steps more than I actually did.  My weight and stride length are entered in the app correctly.  I think the Charge 2 has the perfect features and is the perfect size, but not worth the $149 since it is extremely inaccurate. 

[nicolajanejones]

I have the same problem.  Mine is very inaccurate. I had it on for 10 minutes before leaving the house for work and it clocked 500 steps ! I then got in the car and by the time I got to work, I had reached 850 steps. 

[imurray]

I've added my driving as a activity but it doesn't seem to have taken off any steps or stairs?

[Patcon]

Does anyone know of a wearable Fitbit that's accurate with steps? Returned my Charge 2 & bought an Alta but didn't open it yet. Reviews on the Alta are similar with inaccurate step counts. Any feedback on the flex 2?

[Rich_Laue]

Well I have a One, Charge HR, Surge, Blaze, and a Charge 2, I've taken walks all tracker a on me, a 1000 step walk reported a low count of 930 steps, Surge, and a high of 999 on the One.
Now if the mileage is off, it is because the Stride hasn't been setup correctly yet.. If you have the strode set to zero then your letting Fitbit use an average stride for your age and height, this is fine except there is no person that is average.

[Patcon]

My walking stride is set at 25.2 inches which I think is pretty accurate. Having the Charge 2 record 300 steps while blow drying my hair is puzzling since I don't move my arm enough to match that stride. Charge 2 registered very slight movements as steps even when I played with dominance to decrease sensitivity. Any experience with the Alta or Flex 2?

[Rich_Laue]

I'm not sure what is meant by the arm matching the stride, the tracker sees the arm moving up/down and thinks your walking as if the hand was in a pocket.
Yes there will be times that an arm based tracker will think your walking.

[ErinCE]

Hi, I have done this twice now and the steps and floors haven't come off the total count.  As there is no option to enter it as 'negative', what makes the steps 'disappear'?  This isn't very practical as I drive an hour each way to work and then drive on/off throughout the day.

[Patcon]

Right. What I mean is when I walk at a certain stride my arm will also move a certain distance. When I blow dry my hair my arm doesn't move that distance so not sure why 300 steps would be recorded.

[Rich_Laue]

@Patconit's not looking at at distance, it's seeing that your arm is moving up and down, and interpreting this as a step.

@ErinCEFollow the instructions in the solved solution. As you start typing "Drive", you'll see a pop up menu with the word "Driving". Tap on this word in the pop up menu.. Typing in the word and hitting enter will not work.

[ErinCE]

Oh thank you!  That works!  Now how to get it on my fitbit (on my wrist) so I don't have to keep a paper log of every timeframe that I drive!

[JonMN]

Last night I took my Charge 2 off while I was driving and it logged even more steps then when I wear it in the Semi truck.  Took the advice to log an activity of Driving and added the time.  It shows on my activity history, but all my steps, miles and stair count have not changed.  Do I need to delete the driving activity to delete the other info?

[Trailridergirl]

As a truck driver, this drives me crazy! I do have pretty good luck using the Fitbit Travel App, but do get tired of trying to remember to start and stop it. Ugh.