Charge 3 distance information incorrect

[fbitUser00]

Hi,

I am quite disappointed to discover that Fitbit distances and pace is very inaccurate, basically completely useless 😕

The GPS is correct, it has the correct distance, but Fitbit doesn't care about the recorded GPS and it just uses some guess numbers which are wildly inaccurate. This is very frustrating for a device for this price to do such mistakes especially if it has the correct data, but drops it on the floor.

Even worse is that when I sync to other services from Fitbit  e.g. to Strava, then the receiving service takes over the lies from Fitbit and contributes to a false summary of exercises and fitness levels 😞

Please Fitbit, is it really the best we can do with this expensive watch?

Note that this and similar issues have been reported by others numerous times, but none of the answers are good. Replying with "Fitbit is guessing your distance and pace based on step count and stride length despite having accurate information from GPS" is not acceptable on any level, maybe it would be for some toy device, but I wouldn't assume Charge 3 to be a toy and just act as if it was working while giving me useless numbers.

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you around, @fbitUser00.

I am sorry for the delay in response and understand how are you feeling. 

Fitbit devices calculate distance based on the device’s accelerometer data and stride length setting.

Default stride length is based on your height and gender. If available, Fitbit devices use GPS data to calculate more precise distances.When you sync your device, our algorithm interprets the data from the device, and you see your distance traveled in the Fitbit app. 

Note that when you track an exercise with GPS, both GPS and accelerometer data are used to calculate the distance shown in the Fitbit app. For more information about accuracy, check the article: How accurate are Fitbit devices?.

Let me know if you need anything else. 🙂

[O-Pah]

Walk a measured mile and re-adjust your stride by the percentage your mile is off

[fbitUser00]

AlejandraFitbit, thank you for the answer, I already knew how most of this, the thing I don't get is why is the distance 99% of the time not matching the GPS distance?

I always measure with GPS enabled, but when I sync to other services I have to manually correct every FitBit export according to GPS data, because the totals I get from FitBit are way off. It is very frustrating as I have to manually adjust every single activity day by day.

The basic question is this: why is the distance/pace calculated by FitBit not matching the GPS data measured by FitBit like almost never? If FitBit would use GPS when GPS is on to calculate the distance I would expect matching results, could you explain me this please?

[fbitUser00]

O-Pah, thanks, but this is not what I am asking for as there are multiple issues with such measurement.

I want to measure by GPS, that is why I am using FitBit connected GPS all the time, I run on uneven terrain so cannot rely on stride length as it changes based on where I am, so it cannot be used for measuring pace or distance reliably. And this is the reason I want to use GPS, however FitBit does not process GPS data correctly it seems and provides mismatching distance and pace data.

[fbitUser00]

AlejandraFitbit, let me tell you a recent example. I was out for short jog, GPS enabled and connected all the way, FitBit measured 2.40 km distance, when I import into Strava or Runkeeper and have them correct the distance, the result is 1.77 km, to confirm this I measured the route manually on Google Maps and the result is the same, 1.77 km. So, FitBit has the correct GPS data, but decides not to use it, instead it makes a guess that is in this case off by more than 30% which is very bad.

It is not always this bad, it depends on the run, it varies from slight differences to such large as shown above reaching even 35% error.

[TheMikerr]

Although I have  Versa, I am having the same problem.  Fitbit shows a 5 mile run, with GPS on all the time, while Google Fit and onthegomap.com both show the distance as 5.5 miles.  Mine is a 10% difference, which isnt as bad as a 30% difference. Why cant this be corrected?  I am getting so frustrated that I am looking into switching to a Garmin device.

[fbitUser00]

I am using Strava's "Correct distance" function manually for the moment after syncing, because Fitbit measurements are all over the place, last run by Fitbit 2.21km, Strava 3.16km which is more than 40%. On some days it is very close, but sometimes very bad. I think when my stride varies much like on a mixed terrain, Fitbit somehow becomes messed up...

I also just found this which looks like a similar report https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Distance-discrepancy-between-Fitbit-and-Strava/td-p/2721380/