Charge 5 not picking up steps in exercise over 20 minutes.

[Aheis1130]

I did two different 20 minute walks yesterday. It showed that I walked about 7,500 steps. But under the exercise they weren’t listed. So I put them in manually. Then I looked at the total steps listed for yesterday and it had been reduced by 5,000 steps. Why?  The 5,000 steps were part of my exercise for the day. It doesn’t make sense. 

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[DavideFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community forums, @Aheis1130. 

Thank you for sharing this information about the problem you experienced with your Charge 5. 

Could you please confirm if this happened only once or if it's happening constantly? In the meantime, I recommend that you try restarting the device using the three pulse restart method mentioned here below, instead of the restart option found on the Charge 5 itself: 

1. Connect your device to the charging cable. For instructions, see How do I charge my Fitbit device?
2. Press the button located on the flat end of the charger 3 times (end of the USB cable), pausing for 1 second between presses. Then wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.

Unfortunately, it would not be possible to recover any lost steps, but in the meantime, you can add an activity manually to compensate for the missing steps during that period of time. 

I'll be around. 

[Aheis1130]

The really distressing things that are happening are:
1. It did not pick up 2 15+ minute walks even when I manually synced over and over again. When I finally put them in manually, it could see that I had walked by showing cardio, but it then took the steps out of my daily numbers. It went from 7,000 to 2,000. Why?
2. My sleep numbers are not coming through either at all or way off until I manually put the times in. When I put the times in that I know I went to sleep, I.e., 11:45, not 3:45 am, it does pick up my deep and REM sleep—but not until I add the correct time in manually.
3. Now, the most recent thing is showing —no readiness score— and saying I should wear my device. I do wear my device. Constantly. My daily exercise shows as 5 out of 5 days.
So what’s wrong? I’m paying for premium and not getting the service I should.
Angeline Heisler
Amheis1130@gmail.com
312-203-6567

Sent from my iPad

[Rich_Laue]

If you remove those manually added exercises, you should see a return of your steps. 

[Aheis1130]

Thanks. That worked. So it can’t count steps in a manually entered walk AND steps for the day. I still wonder why not. Steps are steps aren’t they.

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

With a manually entered walk, Fitbit assumed that tye user was not wearing their fitbit. Fitbit used the inspired distance and divided it by the users stride setting to come up with the total steps. 

Most likely the stride has not been set or is wrong and fitbit is using the users height, she, gender, to take a guess on the stride. 

Therefore yes with a manually entered, through the app, fitbit doesn't look at tye step count from the tracker.