Charge 3 stopped tracking during exercise

[JeanLab]

My charge 3 said 3,000 steps prior to my afternoon walk.  When I returned after 35 minutes of walking it was only 3,600. Normally it is >2000 steps.  Has anyone else seen this?    Thanks in advance for any advice.

[NellyG · Accepted solution]

Restart you charge 3 several times and see how it performs next walk.

Restart your tracker

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @JeanLab, it's good to see you around in the forums. 

I haven't seen this too often, but as @NellyG already mentioned, restarting your Charge 3 could certainly be of help to prevent this from happening again. You can follow the steps listed here to complete this process. Then continue to track your activities for the following days to see how it performs. 

Please keep us posted on the outcome. 

[IronsA]

Mine did the same in the middle of a run today. Only recorded half of it. Went from peak zone to zero just like that. Battery was showing half power. Only had it a week. Ridiculous for a pricy product. Seriously considering sending it back.

[JeanLab]

Thank you.  It has not happened again since restarting.

I am not sure if it is relevant but, shortly prior to the problem I had received a phone call, which sent the notification to the charge.  I cleared the notification prior.

[DavideFitbit]

Hi @IronsA, thank you for the details, and welcome to the Community forums. Could you please confirm if you continue to experience the same difficulties after the restart steps mentioned here as well? Also, if possible, I do recommend that you maintain a stable battery level above 25%, since this could also affect the performance to track GPS activities. 

Thank you for the update @JeanLab, it's good to know you haven't seen this happen again after the restart. 

Keep me posted. 

[C.R.S.]

Mine stops too during exercise. Plus, it only once auto tracked my walk greater than 15 minutes. Thinking about returning it. 

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @C.R.S., welcome to the Community forums.

Thank you for the details you've provided regarding your Charge 3 stopping during exercise. Could you please confirm if you've also tried the suggestions mentioned here previously? Did you notice any difference after the restart? 

As you mentioned, Fitbit devices automatically recognize and record high-movement activities at least 15 minutes long through the SmartTrack feature. Try changing the amount of time required for the activity to be recorded and please check if you're able to have your activities tracked automatically again. 

Please keep me posted. 

[C.R.S.]

Actually, the other night it stopped tracking my steps all together. I had to restart it several times before it started tracking my steps. Yesterday, it auto tracked my aerobic workout. Today, it did not auto track my walk. I haven’t tried using the exercise feature since restarting it. I went back to using map my walk app on my phone to track exercise. I will try exercise feature again soon.

Today, I used exercise feature on Fitbit charge 3 to track my walk. For the first time, it stayed on until I pushed the finish button. Yeah! I used map my walk app as well. So, I won’t be returning it. 

Moderator edit: merged reply

[DavideFitbit]

Thank you for the updates @C.R.S., it's good to know that you were able to track your activity properly. Please let us know how the device is performing during the following days. 

Keep us posted. 

[JonCaspell]

@DavideFitbit I'm glad to see a moderator on these boards!

Similar problem here, I did a four mile run and let the Fitbit do an auto detect run to track it for me instead of the in app tracking, but it stopped tracking my run after 2.75 miles. I did not pause or stop it, I did not slow down....it just stopped tracking my run for apparently no reason. Very frustrating. I had plenty of battery charge, and my settings are correct. 

Is the only solution to try and restart the Fitbit?  What about a permanent fix from Fitbit? This shouldn't be happening. I looked forward to the auto detect run feature with the firmwear update, but clearly it's not working. 

Thanks!

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @JonCaspell, it's great to see you around in the forums as well. 

Thank you for the feedback and all details provided about what you've been experiencing with your running activity being interrupted. Besides the standard restart procedure mentioned earlier and keeping a battery level above 25%, could you please also confirm if you already tried changing the amount of time required for the activity to be recorded automatically with SmartTrack (it is usually 15 minutes as default). This simple step helped me to resolve when I was having the same problem while running. 

I've also seen some users having similar difficulties when using a specific clock face, if possible, please try to change to a different clock face and confirm if you continue to experience the same inconvenience. 

I hope this helps, keep me posted. 

[JonCaspell]

@DavideFitbit thank you for the reply!

So far, here is what I have done:

-reset the Fitbit

-charged the Fitbit and will keep charged above 25%

-verified the in app Smart Track for Auto Recognize Runs is on

-changed the in app Auto Recognize Run Longer Than from 10 minutes (I had decreased it from the default 15 to 10 previously) back to 15 minutes then back to 10 minutes; resynced the app and my Fitbit to ensure the change

-verified the Fitbit run settings show Use Phone GPS On, Run Detect On

-changed the Fitbit clock face from HR Stat to Charge 2 Retro (which I've been meaning to do anyway)

I will try a series of runs over the next week, letting the Run Detect feature auto-track my run, and see if the Fitbit stops tracking my exercise mid-run again. I will report back in a few days. 

[DavideFitbit]

Great @JonCaspell, thank you for sharing all the steps that you've tried so far. I'm sure this can also be helpful to other users experiencing something similar. 

Let us know how it goes after your tests on the device over the next week. Keep us posted. 

[JonCaspell]

@DavideFitbit here are my results, in brief there appears to be a bug similar to the Notifications bug that caused the Fitbit Charge 3 to freeze then reboot itself when you hit Clear or Clear All.  It was fixed two firmware versions ago (for your engineers' FYI).

On all these, my settings were Fitbit firmware version 20001.49.45, Fitbit app version 2.85, Charge 3 Run Detect and Use Phone GPS both On, Fitbit app Auto-Recognize Runs On, short sleeved shirts (nothing touching the Charge 3), and all outdoor runs.

Run 1:  4 miles at 9:15 mile pace, HR Stat clock face.

Charge 3 auto-detected run, but froze and rebooted when touching the side button to stop tracking the run, it still successfully logged the run data to the app; made no changes.

Run 2:  4 miles at 9:30 mile pace, HR Stat clock face.

Charge 3 auto-detected run but stopped tracking the run at 2.75 miles then logged only that data to the app; closed then rebooted the app, changed clock face to Charge 2 Retro, restarted the Charge 3, resynced.

Run 3:  3 miles at 9:05 mile pace, Charge 2 Retro clock face.

Charge 3 did not auto-detect run nor log the run at all in the app; changed clock face back to HR Stat, closed/rebooted the app, restarted the Charge 3, resynced.

Run 4:  5 miles at 9:20 pace, HR Stat clock face.

Charge 3 auto-detected run and logged the data to the app, no problems, made no changes (NOTE, this was the only run of my 5 that there were no issues auto detecting and logging the run!!!!).

Run 5:  3 miles at 9:15 pace, HR Stat clock face.

Charge 3 auto-detected run, but again froze and rebooted when touching the side button to stop tracking the run, then did not log any of the run data to the app (no run was logged at all despite it being tracked on the Charge 3 prior to freezing/rebooting).

In summary, the Auto Detect Run feature of the Charge 3 is not working correctly, appears to be isolated to the Charge 3 (not the phone app). and appears to not work at all with the Charge 2 Retro clock face.  The fact that it keeps freezing and rebooting when stopping the run by touching the side button then trying to log the run to the Fitbit app shows it is (I think) a bug similar to the Notifications Clear/Clear All bug that caused the same reaction.....freeze, reboot....probably a bug associated with the Firmware as it pertains to transmitting the data via Bluetooth (again, I think)

Please let your engineers know about this bug, I suspect I am not the only one experiencing this.  If I am, my Charge 3 is faulty and I will need help getting it replaced....however I strongly suspect I'm not the only one and it is a Firmware problem/bug......and once they identify the bug, fix it and send out the next firmware/app update, it will stop freezing/rebooting (like it did two versions ago for the Notifications reboot bug).

@DavideFitbit what are the next steps to try and resolve this?  I certainly don't mind manually tracking my runs in the app, but the Charge 3 is marketed to auto detect and log runs....the feature should just work (it's one of the reasons I paid for this).  And the answer should not be constant restarts of the Charge 3, it should work better than that....it should just work without freezing/rebooting on one particular feature.

[DavideFitbit]

Thank you very much for providing all this detailed information @JonCaspell, I've gone ahead and sent your information to the Customer Support team for further assistance, I'm sure all the tests you've done so far will be of great help to find a solution. 

You should be getting a reply soon, keep us posted. 

[JonCaspell]

@DavideFitbit thank you for that!  I'm glad to try and help fix this.  I have now found a few other threads logging the same intermittent problems of the Charge 3 stopping logging mid-exercise.  I tagged you in those to try and focus them to one bug/problem and not be logging problems on multiple threads.

Also for what it's worth, I did run 6 yesterday with no problems....auto detected run (5 miles, 9:20 pace), it stopped logging after without freezing/rebooting, logged the run data correctly to the app.  So if the engineers are looking for a successful one on my history, there's one!  🙂

@DavideFitbit kudos to Fitbit's engineering team, they reached out to me VERY quickly!!

They have identified this as a known issue and are working to resolve it in an upcoming app and firmware update.  For any other readers, they advised to keep looking for updates and keep both the app and firmware updates when they are released.  My own input is, to ensure your exercises are accurately tracked while this gets fixed, to manually track it with the in-app Exercise feature.

I have had very positive interactions with Fitbit customer service in the past, and am confident your engineering team will get this fixed.

Thanks again @DavideFitbit!!

Moderator edit: merged reply

[DavideFitbit]

Excellent @JonCaspell! Thank you for all the details. for sharing the information they sent your from the Customer Support team, and for letting us know your experience with them was positive.

Let's hope this gets resolved as soon as possible with a future update, it's great to know they're already working to find a solution. 

[Sally32]

I am also having issues with the tracker stopping mid-run.  I did a 6.3 mile run today and it quit tracking after 1.5 miles, so I restarted the "run exercise" option and it went for another 1.5 miles or so and stopped tracking and I reset is a third time and that time it tracked to the end of my run and I stopped it but the first 3 miles that it quit, none of that was tracked.  I also noted that the run that it did actually track, the map of the run was WAYYYYY off.  I have gone through the steps noted above and made some adjustments and need to run again in a couple of days.  I am wearing mittens as it is -1* outside but it really should not stop if something rubs against it, right?   It should not be affected by temperature, can it?  This is the first really cold day....I did have issues however previously when it was not this cold but I was wearing mittens again.  Restarting the tracker should not be the only solution.  It worked fine before so I am thinking that something got messed up with the last update???  My Charge3 is never below 85% so it cannot be that.  I will continue to monitor this forum and I will see what happens on my next run.

[Sally32]

UPDATE;

Went for another run and all worked well.  The tracker did not stop and it tracked my route correctly via the GPS and showed an accurate mapping of the route.  Also, I noted that an improvement to track the pace of a partial mile was also included which was something that did not work previously so I thank you for that!!!!!!