Option to turn off step count (or add "Driving Mode") to avoid erroneous steps/floors

[MacWade]

I just got home yesterday from a driving 6 hours in my car and I checked my Fitbit. I was really suprised to see it had given me almost 8,000 steps, 3.24 miles, 134 floors, & way more calories thank I burned while I was sitting in my car.  I looked on the forum to see how to easily delete the steps, miles, floors, and calories so my data would be accurate.  The only way people are fixing it is by manually logging the activity "Automobile or light truck (not a semi) driving" and entering in the duration.  I think that is a cumbersome way to fix the issue everytime I drive because I have to make sure I write down what time I get into and out of my car so I know the start time and duration.  And how does it automatically know the calories burned when everyone burns calories when they are sedentary at different rates.

I think they should add a "Drive Mode" feature that when turned on it won't add steps, distance, floors, & will only add calories burned equal to you sitting in a chair.

You could access the "Drive Mode" either on your Fitbit One or on your phone app to turn it on/off.  If you have a Fitbit One you could press the button till the "Drive Mode" icon appears then hold the button down for 2 seconds to turn it on or off.

On the phone apps you would just go to your device under "Account" and there you could turn it on or off.

You could also have the option to give you an alert when you unlock the phone that reminds you that it is in "Drive Mode" so you don't forget to turn it off when you get to your destination.  It would also be cool if you could use Siri to turn it on by saying "Turn on Fitbit Drive Mode" or "Turn off Fitbit Drive Mode".

[Averie]

This would be the best thing ever! I had about 15 thousand steps today and I did nothing but lay around and watch movies all day and ride in a car to get lunch in a drive through. I hope this is an option in the future.

[pompomgirl]

Right now the best thing ever in the $80-$125 range (from Amazon) is the Fitbit.  You can P&M and show how stubborn you are or you can get the free Drivebit and move on until something better comes along.  And anyone who gets 15K steps lying on their couch must have a very bouncy couch.  I only get a couple thousand playing my violin for two hours, with my Fitbit arm constantly moving.

[craigpd]

I think you're missing the point here. For those of us in and out of cars it's really not practical AND programming it to simply 'stop counting' is easy, so why haven't they done it? Maybe because people like you are prepared to accept it?

[Encrryptdb]

Counting steps while driving on the fitbit charge hr needs to be addressed.

[Berby67]

I would like to request a feature be added either through the fitbit app, or a software upgrade to the trackers to be able to disable the walking and climbing stairs counters while driving. As an over the road truck driver, I average 500 miles per day. In a semi, every little bump is counted as a step and changes in altitude as climbing stairs. I bought the Blaze mostly for the watch, heart rate monitor and sleep tracker, so it makes no sense to spend $200.00 for these features, then to be told not to wear it while driving, or keep it shut off so it won't track movement.

[Cam99]

Can we have a motorbike riding mode to quickly activate so it doesn't log any steps and steps climbed. Thanks

[Truckdriver]

Seems rather pathetic that we need a third party app for something as obvious as pausing so it doesn't count steps while driving.

[DeinGesicht]

Drivebit on android has suddenly stopped working and now I find that after over two years, fitbit still hasn't worked on the requests in this thread.  Very shoddy.

[alienbeing]

Drivebit has stopped working on my iphone as of this morning (8/2/16) also.

[DeinGesicht]

I was asked to open a feature request by FitbitUK on twitter last night.  When I told them there was already a request open, and that it hadn't been actioned in over two years, I didn't hear anything back.

I took the thing off this morning while driving, it's as good as I can do.  Charge HR counted 1000+ steps over a 40 mile commute and around ten floors, and there's nothing I can do about it bar taking the device off.

[cmwiss]

Unfortunately I found out about the drivebit too late, I downladed it from the app store but I can not get it to "Authenticate with Fitbit" I just get the scrolling wheel of death. Using iPhone 6s on iOS 9.3.3. As long as this thread has been going kind seems like a viable option should have been made availaibe

[durhamlou]

do not expect any action. they are all talk and no action

[DeinGesicht]

Well, I got the problem sorted re entering driving as an activity from the android app - previously it would not negate steps. 

Customer service got back and said that because I had been using drivebit, the app created a second 'driving' category within the activities list (when you go into 'log previous' in the app).  When the drop down list appeared, I was selecting the first one to pop up - which wouldn't remove steps/floors from my overall count.

Instead, when I typed in 'driving' to that list, and selected the one to appear there, it worked.  I don't know quite how it worked, but when I did this yesterday, it looks like it has overwritten the old category created by using the drivebit app, and so, it now removes any steps registered when driving.

OK, so you still have to be careful about noting precisely when you started and finished driving (drivebit widget was great for that), but it'll do for me.

[SunsetRunner]

Yes thank you

[seafea]

Plz fix ok?

[JennyJenn]

When my Charge HR erroneously shows flights of stairs that I did not do, I take off my Fitbit and climb that # of flights of stairs solely to have an accurate accounting. It's unbelievably irritating, and I shouldn't have to do this. I certainly couldn't/wouldn't do it if it were tons of wrong flights.

There is nothing I can do when my Fitbit does NOT record flights of stairs. It's not fair. I'm about to receive my 500 flights badge - but I should have gotten it days ago. It will not count anywhere from 1-5 flights of stairs daily. To get my 10 a day, I often have to climb 15. And these are the SAME flights of stairs, so it's not that they aren't 10 feet. These are also indoor stairs so wind isn't affecting anything (though I think that would add, anyway).

I would like to see the ability to edit everything - steps, stairs, whatever we want to edit. To add or to delete.

Nothing is going to be perfect, but when you're in a challenge, the edits just wouldn't count. For me, I want accuracy more than anything so I want to be able to edit my own stats. Challenges are secondary to me and every single Fitbit user shouldn't be punished because of challenges. We get our Fitbits for ourselves and challenges are a great bonus, but should be secondary, in my opinion.

Wouldn't it be simple to just let us edit everything we could possibly want to edit? Those of us that want to be super accurate can do so. Others who don't care so much won't use it. And for challenges, edits wouldn't count.

I think this would make the greatest amount of people happy and stay with Fitbit.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to take the Fitbit off to do a flight of stairs it said I did when I didn't, to later that same day have a flight of stairs not counted on the device.

My Charge HR - with all these false steps, not enough steps, false flights, not enough flights - is getting a little demotivating for me. How can I track my progress over time when I don't trust the daily stats?

Let me control my device and my stats.

[palomino698]

After more than 2.5 years use my Fitbit now needs charging every second day - it isn't surprising that the battery has deteriorated but in view of the technical team's lack of ability or inclination to sort out the very relevant issue of editing step counts that have been skewed by driving, or in windy conditions, I do not intend to get another.  As a step counter it's fun, nothing more, and when all it does well is record steps, there are cheaper pedometers available without silly gimmicks that just aren't good enough. 

[Dawgbones]

Wish there was a setting for wen I'm riding my motorcycle to where it wouldn't add tons of steps, which is not quite as annoying as the dozens of floors it also adds!

[durhamlou]

I gave up on any of that. I now just use the device to monitor hear rate

[SunsetRunner]

just e-mailed support to ask if this has been addressed in the Charge 2 and to request that someone from fitbit actually comment on this thread to update the community

[Jojoflojo]

Yes great idea for the surge as well which could be added to the main menu screen on the watch!

[SunsetRunner]

Yes please  

[mad_mike]

I just leave my fitbit at home, I'm operator off bobcat one hour gave me 20,000 steps an 200 flors driving mode is a  must,  now I carry only a few hours after work, so I wonder about something else microsoft band maybe it would be more useful during day for me 

[Cameron2and]

Please include drive mode. In an hour of driving my truck, I get about 1k extra steps.

[Baxman]

My Surge is counting miles and steps while driving, even on non-bumby regular office rides. Given it's a widespread problem (based on what I read in forums), what's the plan for resolving this? My miles always jack up after I return from work. Workarounds like cancelling out readings from certain hour thru' app are cumbersome. Need the device to be update with the bugfix for it to be accurate enough.