Charge 5 not recording distance or showing exercise by category

[Louza12]

For about 3 weeks to a month my Fitbit charge 5 has stopped recording distance and doesn't record exercise by category. Runs, swims etc are no longer shown in the app. Trh battery has also started running low very quickly. I've noticed that many people are reporting similar things. Are these common issues? Is there a solution?

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Louza12 for the distance and exercise issue I would recommend giving your Fitbit a restart .  A restart is the first troubleshooting step whenever your Fitbit is not behaving as expected.  Do also make sure that the Fitbit firmware is up to date on your Charge 5 (check for an update in the app - if there is an update available for you you will see a pink arrow when you click on your Fitbit device in the app).

The battery issue is likely unrelated.  The Charge 5 is getting to be an older device and, as I expect you are aware, all rechargeable batteries deteriorate over time.  You can slow this process down by avoiding, as much as possible deep discharges.  If you always wait until the battery is critically low before charging it the deterioration will be more rapid.  Charging little and often is the best approach - many people find that if they charge their Fitbit for 10-15 minutes each day - maybe while you are having your morning shower or relaxing by the tele in the evening - their Fitbits do good service for several years.

[Louza12]

Hi

I have done a restart and completed updates .
Still have same issues.


Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Louza12 , a restart and update will not restore missing back data, but hopefully should be working properly in the future.

[MKJones1974]

Same.problem, not tracking distance. I updated the stride distance, so it works when using an activity, but doesn't track distance when activity isn't being used. Been happening for weeks, fitbit not addressing it. There's another thread on this subject that's been going on for weeks with no resolution. Google did something with automatic tracking that messed up tracking distance, but still has no fix.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @MKJones1974 , unfortunately that is by design (although I have no idea why!).  If you use the exercise app to track a specific exercise you will have your distance recorded.  However, if you rely on automatic tracking (“SmartTrack”), letting your Fitbit start and stop your activity manually and then record it in the app, it will not show distance.  This is not a bug - it is a decision that Fitbit made when it first introduced auto tracking.

If you want to see this changed you could vote for this feature suggestion which I myself created 8 years ago!  Unfortunately it is listed by Fitbit as “not currently planned”.  This is not a change Google made.

The bottom line is that if you would like to see your distance (either via GPS or stride calculation) you must track the activity using the exercise app on your Fitbit and not rely on auto tracking.

[Louza12]

I have done restarts several times and there is no change. Have you found anything else that worked for you

thst you might suggest? 

[MKJones1974]

Nothing works. They need to fix a bug and push out an update. There's another whole stream of people complaining saying the same thing.

[Noorwint]

I think I have the same problem.

When I start (manually) recording a training, it looks like he's recording. When I Pause or Quit, I see the average and max BPM. But when I synchronise my Charge5 with the app on my phone to see the details, everything is gone.

I noticed that previous recorded trainings are also no longer available.

Edit:I did found my data, but I'm not happy: it used to be in a list I accessed through the "active minutes"-tile. There I saw a list of activities that were all connected to a heart zone graphic.

Now there is a separate tile for activities. Why was it so hard to find this myself? Why isn't there an easy tutorial to help us when you change everything?

And why do you keep changing all the time? Nobody asks us if we need you meddeling with our data. To my surprise not all the activities record heart rate anymore. For example: when I go swimming, there is no heartrate information available. As a patient with cardio spasms, I want to see my heart rate during every acitvity. Now my watch got blocked with this stupid "you are burning fat"- message, and it keeps buzzing when a zone changes. I don't want an interpretation and getting distracted with that nonsens. Just give me the freaking data!!! I need to get out of the water if things go weird; I do'nt want to be patted on the head that I'm training very well if my heartrate goes way up for the wrong reason.

• Today I recorded swimming for 38 minutes. No heart data, and the app switched meters for KM's! There were no lanes measuring 25 m but thas could not be adjusted.

 

 

 

[Kk1982]

All of a sudden this week I have little to bo distance being tracked on the watch /app.

This is definitely not to do with the app needing an update of watch to be restarted as I’ve already checked both of those.

Seem to be a constant flow of issues. First the battery not holding any charge and having to argue over getting a free replacement. Now the app glitching. You are a fitness tracking company, it should not be this hard to have a fully functioning device and app.

[Paz1981]

Agree.  The radio silence over the distance tracking has been shocking.

We should be getting regular updates but nothing.  Paying for a service but not receiving the expected standards, this is poor.

[RiekoC]

Hello @Paz1981 , @Louza12 , @Kk1982 , @MKJones1974 

There is a known issue with distance tracking for some Fitbit devices. The Fitbit team is aware of the issue and, as far as I know, they are working on a fix.

One user doing troubleshooting discovered that distance tracking resumed when they disabled Automatic stride length and manually entered their stride length in the Fitbit app. If you would like to try this workaround, this page has the steps to follow: How do I manually set my stride length in the Fitbit app (<-- click link)

That said, some users have reported that this workaround did not work for them. If you decide to try the workaround, please let us know if it was successful in getting your distance tracking back.

[Charri]

I finally tried pushing the button on my charger. Its on the usb part. Press 3 times in 1 second intervals, then wait about 5 to 10 seconds for a logo to appear and a restart screen after that. This fixed my issue after trying everything else. 

[Kk1982]

Nope this did nothing to fix it. They need to fix the software, but this time without bricking people’s devices.