Charge 5 distance not accurate

[Travelnblessed]

Hello David,

For Valentines Day my husband and I both received FitBit Charge 5 watches.  After charging them and watching two YouTubes on how to use them, we set out for our walk.  Returning home together his watch read 3.5 miles, mine read .67 of a mile.  I know the distance we covered.  His is accurate, mine if not.  I cannot figure how to correct mine. Please help me so we can continue our walks happily together.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Travelnblessed welcome to the community forums. You can learn more on how steps are calculated here - click to read. Were you swinging your arms while walking? These wrist based devices need our arms moving to get those steps counted. If you'd like to learn more about the Charge 5, go to this link - click - to see the user manual and related articles. 

[Danze]

"These wrist based devices need our arms moving to get those steps counted." - is that true? I find the steps count (both Charge 4/5) quite accurate in general, a lot more so than OURA ring and on par with Garmin; and with the Charge 4, I had accidentally left it a few times in my rug sack and it still managed to count the number of steps quite accurately.

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Danze  ever  push a stroller or shopping cart while your Fitbit was on your wrist? It won't get all the steps counted. When I hold something in my hand and it's not moving, the step count is lower, too. On the other hand, knitters and guitar players seem to report unusually high step count due to their movements.

[Danze]

It is quite strange that it didn't count your steps ac urately. Most of the time I don't swing my arms when I walk or run: I'm usually holding something or the dog lead when I walk outside home and when I run, I usually am holding on to the side straps of my rugsack. Like I said before, when I accidently left my charge 4 in my bag, I was surprised that it managed to count the numnber of steps I walked back from the beach (as I do it regularly) quite accurately. Maybe there is an actual hardware fault with your device?

[Odyssey13 · Accepted solution]

@Danze  actually, my Fitbit is great. You can read about the arms swinging part in this article, about half way down the page.

"For your device to count steps during a walk or run, your arm must swing back and forth as you move. If you need both hands (to push a stroller, for example), or if you hold a dog leash with the same arm that you wear your device on, consider using GPS to better calculate your distance traveled and calories burned."

[Danze]

Oh I see, so you weren't using GPS?

[Odyssey13]

Oh no, not using GPS, just walking about the house or to get my mail.

[Danze]

I see, you should turn it on, GPS works indoor too, quite accuate.

[Travelnblessed]

Thank you O13!  I'll pay attention to my morning walk today with my arms moving.  Generally I don't think I swing them, but I'll test this suggestion and 🤞

[Odyssey13]

@Travelnblessed  I have a bad habit of putting my hands in my pockets or carrying something in them, so my steps aren't as high at times.

[Travelnblessed]

I could be doing that also.  I'll pay attention today.  Thanks

[CRKen]

Wrong. My wife uses a walker and the Fitbit charge 5 has counted her steps pretty accurately, thus far. It’s the actual distance that is not being recorded accurately.

We went for two walks today and both of our steps were counted quite similarly (within a hundred or so for each walk). My distance for the walks were 2.1 and 1.7 miles, hers for the same exact walk were 0.12 and 0.23 miles.

Her stride length is listed as 2.3 feet, mine is 2.5 feet.

The map feature shows our walks to be identical as well. 

GPS is on.

How can the distance be so dramatically off? 

[Mg1431]

Did you figure out the issue? I have the same problem.