Exercise not captured, but manual loses steps

[NicoleKB]

I've had several instances where my Charge 5 doesn't capture a run/walk as exercise, even though steps and active minutes are accurately captured. To hit my exercise goal, I can manually add the run/walk, but when I enter in accurate information (based on the time/distance from treadmill screen after workout), it will then decrease my total steps by ~1000, which then makes it harder to achieve the daily step goal. Why does this happen? I shouldn't have to choose between losing steps or not having the exercise show. To try to resolve, I've already logged out/in to the app, cleared app cache/cookies and restarted my phone, but exercise today still doesn't show.

[LZeeW]

Hello @NicoleKB and welcome to the Community forum.  I don't wear a Charge 5, but I have a lot of experience with exercise auto-recognition (SmartTrack) and the Exercise App.  I hope I can give you some insights.

• Some users get better results with SmartTrack by changing the minimum time to recognize an exercise to 10 minutes.  It doesn't seem like this should make a difference if your walk or run is 30 minutes, but sometimes it does.
• Sometimes there is a lag time between the end of an auto-recognized exercise at its credit in your Fitbit app.  Your Fitbit needs to see a change in your movement patterns and "decide" that you are done.
• I need to be a little blunt, but true.  SmartTrack sometimes isn't as smart as Fitbit believes.
• Treadmill isn't tracked by SmartTrack.  It's not one of the listed activities.  I recommend using the exercise app with the Treadmill shortcut.  If all of these run/walks were on your treadmill, then this might explain why you got no credit for an exercise.  I don't use a treadmill, so I can't give personal experience.
• Your treadmill distances and Fitbit distances will never agree.  Your treadmill distance is based off the belt movement.  You Fitbit distance is steps x stride length.  You will change your stride length depending on your treadmill speed and incline.  It's what we do to stay in the right place on the belt.  Just accept the Fitbit results and don't try to edit them.
• Don't log an activity manually, after the fact, if you were wearing your Charge 5.  Manual logging will overwrite the data that you already collected.  This is why you lost steps.  Manual logging should be used ONLY if you couldn't or forgot to wear your Fitbit.

It's disappointing to set a goal for your weekly exercise, then not get the results you expect.  Especially when you did the work.  SmartTrack has limitations.  The sure fire way to make sure you get credit is to use the Exercise app.  How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?