Wrong distance tracking

[Petra_d]

Within the pas 2 days, I used Fitbit to track my activity and both times the distance tracked was wrong, approxiimately half of the actual distance. First day, Fitbit said that I ran 5,4 km while the actualy distance was approx. 12 km. The next day, I decided to use also Runkeeper to track the run. Runkeeper recorded 25 km, which was in line with what also my boyfriend recorded using his Garmin watch, while Fitbit said the overall distance was only 11.18... (I used GPS in my phone to support Fitbit for both the activities and I have the latest version of the firmware installed). The journey map recorded by Fitbit is complete an copies the one recorded by Runkeeper, only the distance is wrong...

Do you please have any idea what might cause this? I really like the Fitbit watch, but this is annoying, since it impacts all the statistics and makes the watch use-less for activity tracking...

[henkjan]

Hi, I did not pause the tracker both on several runs and while biking. The track shows correct in Google maps but the distances are incorrect, though for me it is not just half. I had a run of 4.6 km that showed 5.6, a bike loop that showed  9.0 first and 6.0 return while the correct distance was 7.7

[Doeterniettoe]

Seriously do we all really still believe @LanuzaFitbit  is "contacting" the team??

  I did some research on the community forum and found out that this problem has been there since about October 2016 already...

Meanwhile, we are almost 3.5 years further... and my Fitbit still calculates the wrong distance. And before anyone will suggest to update app/firmware/use Fitbit approved phone... restart phone and bluetooth, i already did it all... In some posts fitbit admit they are aware of the problem and will "solve the problem" bit seriously, i don't think they ever will.

The problem is, i am sure fitbit ALWAYS uses tride * steps = distance, instead, like they mention in the manuals use GPS results to make stride distance more accurate.

No, the auto adjust function doesn't work... it always shows the same data.

Solution... forget the support from fitbit, they keep sending you in circles

What to do? Connect wit Strava, upload your exercise to strava. View distance in Strava and recalculate your stride. Adjust the strid in the Fitbit app.

(km in Strava * 100000)/steps=stride distance

Too bad users shoud find a workaround for bugs the manufacturer is aware of. When this fitbit is broken, there will be NO fitbit anymore! Continous sync problems 2x "charge 2" broken screen problem, and a helpcenter that keeps telling you to restart your phone. Never again!

[SunsetRunner]

To all that read this, i have found a solution. It's really simple, I bought a Garmin. When i posted this earlier it never got published... hopefully second time lucky. 

I can't run not knowing my pace and distance is accurate ... it's how I am motivated. 

So thanks for the intro to sports watches, although now I realise you are a posh step tracker not a sports watch.

[Petra_d]

Hi,

Agree with that. I am the one who entered the original post more than 2 years ago and for last 10 months, I have been a happy user of Garmin 5s. So if you really mean it with tracking the sport activities properly, forget about the Fitbit...really never more...

[SunsetRunner]

Totally! I'm collecting my new Garmin this weekend, annoyingly after a 10k race... which it will say i did 8.5k.... can't wait!!

[heretick]

Here we are YEARS later and my brand new Fitbit Charge 4 just shorted my run distance by 30%.

This thing already looks like a waste of my hard earned money! #Unsat #UNacceptable !!

[Coolname186]

 Is this an apple type trick where you update/make obsolete your old devices?  It somehow tracks steps correctly but can't add?  I even tried repeating the such with the correct  stride right before getting on treadmill and it starts off fine,  then it forgets how to add, but still tracks steps?l.

This is a major software glitch that has existed for years and you've still never solved. You've somehow taken away a computers simple ability to multiply stride by steps.

Fix it or I'm never buying a new Anything from you. This is sad.  5 years I see comments on this and still no solution?

[sarahrara]

100% happens to me aswell. I’d like to be able to track the distance walked/ran even at times when my phone battery has died. Have to say this has really given me a lack of faith in Fitbit and I am now contemplating getting an alternative replacement 

[Sylwester]

Hi All,

This is still an issue. Wrong distance, however for me Fitbit shows much more. I exported the GPS track from Fitbit and imported to a different application - 38km in Fitbit and 26km in an external app! I did that since I was cycling with my friend who had a different app and said he has around 26km! Hey Fitbit, why do you have a proper GPS track, but you get the distance wrong? Any online app would calculate the correct distance from exported TCX file from Fitbit. How do you calculate distance? Isn't it from a GPS?

And just to mention this is with Fitbit Charge 3.

Moderator edit: merged reply