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Manually logged steps don't count for challenges or lifetime

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I think this needs to be reconsidered FitBit!
 
https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Fitbit-com-Dashboard/Manually-Logged-Steps-Not-Counting-Towards-Lead...
 
Manually logged steps do not count towards your 7-day leaderboards, in addition to Activity Groups. This change was implemented in order to mirror the behavior of Challenges, where only tracker data is pulled into the equation- this helps keep things fair.
 
I think it is BS that you are looking to cater towards the small number of people who will cheat just to win a challenge that proves nothing. When a company is tailoring it's product ideas towards cheaters and not towards the thousands of dedicated and motivated fitness users subscribed to their product, the company should take a long hard look at themselves.
 
You are greatly affecting people who use other methods of exercise other than "Steps". For example, swimming, cycling, treadmill and any others that appear in the above post.
 
I have also emailed you a formula to use when adding steps for Swimming and Cycling, as used by the Global Corporate Challenge.

 

Moderator edit: Format & updated subject for clarity

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Hi there @Jemitch. Good to see you in the Community! 🙂

 

I can recommend taking a look at this quick search that I made for non step based challenges for any option you might find helpful to add your vote and comments there.

 

Anything else, let us know!

Ferdin | Community Moderator, Fitbit

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Hi @Jemitch hope @FerdinandFitbit research options helped out!

 

I definitely agree that Steps are not always the best to determine the most active. Specially if you end up logging a bunch of activities in your account. However given all the different activities and different ways one can be active there would be too many different factors to determine a classification. How to determine if the person that was swimming for an hour has more exercise than the person that played a soccer match?  In the end steps are the data that is the same for everyone. You either took it or not, and if you took it the tracker tracked it. 

 

There is also the fact that activities can be manually logged and there is no way to know if the activity took place or not. This could prove too much of a temptation for overly competitive challengers. 

 

Hope this clarifies a little. Let me know if you have questions.

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On this, there is a university study that has listed about 50 or so
activities that indicate how many steps for that activity.

http://www.purdue.edu/walktothemoon/activities.html

FitBit could use this
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@enkerkee Thanks for your feedback and your contribution! This type of feedback helps us to keep improving our products and services.

 

I'd like to invite you to visit our Discussions board, where you can create new topics, share your experiences and meet people.

 

Hope to see you in the Community more often my friend! Smiley Happy

JuanJo | Community Moderator

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I actually dont use my FitBit anymore. I'm not happy with the way FitBit
dont listen to what their customers want.
It is bleedingly obvious that people want these features added to the
challenges and their lifetime step count.
If this gets added in, ill start wearing it again.
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Hey @enkerkee, It's nice to see you here! Smiley Happy

 

Sorry to read that you no longer use your Fitbit and I really appreciate you took the time to give this suggestions to us. It could be a good idea voting for this feature requested by @THitch in our Feature Request board so our engineers can take this into consideration in the future Dashboard updates.

 

I'll see you around the Community! Smiley Very Happy

Marlen S. | Community Moderator

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I understand that it may have something to do with integrity and all that but I'm just irritated because I had to leave my fitbit at home to charge when I went out to eat dinner (because it was really low battery). Now I am behind on all my challenges which say I've done 2000 less steps than I actually did (I know roughly how many KM I did because I was using a charity app that donates money as you walk called Charity Miles). I've been trying to get the trophy for completing my goal everyday this week but now I'm worried it won't count it and I've been trying really hard so far. I'm not going to stop using fitbit but now my motivation is kind of dying for this week.
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FitBit's decision to prevent manual entries from counting toward a challenge is a poor one.  There are a number of valid reasons that users may need to make adjustments or entries.  Instead of disallowing for all, a much better solution to the issue would be for each challenge fo have an 'administrator' and allow the administrator to decide some of the rules and regulations for each challenge.  

 

Restricting manual entries may make sense in some situations but when families or friends are competing with one another, cheating doesn't really come into play and the option to account for manual entries should be permitted.

 

Easy fix to a really poor decision.

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FitBit!

Again, here are two more people saying fix it!

We dont want to vote for feature release, i think there are enough
responses on here alone to justify escalation to the decision makers.

Come on, dont let us customers down!

Neil
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I get the point with cheating, but if you will not allow manually logged steps to count, then you should fix the battery issues.  I have to change my battery monthly, and lose a day of steps.  it does tend to kill the fun, if it becomes impossible to count my steps. Can't you make the steps feed from IoS health then if you are concerned about accuracy and fairness?  I have friends who beat me when they clap at ballgames... I just laugh knowing I am getting exercise. I am 1. sick of changing the battery on my fit, and 2. sick of losing a day of activity with my friends. The system you have created penalizes me when my own intent in personal accuracy.

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Hi everyone! Also, welcome to the Forums @kfitz13

 

We truly appreciate all of your feedback on the matter. The very best way to make your voice heard on this would be to visit the link that our very own @MarlenS posted. Having said that, please do now that you're feedback is not going unheard.

 

@kfitz13 Regarding the battery issue you mentioned, have you tried contacting our Customer Support team about it? I'm sure they will be happy to help you.

 

Hope to see you all around the Community.

Lanuza | Community Moderator

Remember to vote for posts that helped you out! Tired of the same workout music? Try a Podcast! 🙂

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Well it is going unheard, because the status of this Feature Request says
DECLINED!

Why arent you listening to us FitBit ? No wonder Garmin is flogging you!
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Hello @enkerkee!

 

Thanks for reaching back and for all of your feedback on the Challenges.

 

Hope to see you around.

 

 

Lanuza | Community Moderator

Remember to vote for posts that helped you out! Tired of the same workout music? Try a Podcast! 🙂

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I just encountered this issue also because Fitbit doesn't import my gps tracked workouts from mapmyhike...Fitbit should implement tracker validation for the challenges or provide import functionality from other verified apps data

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i don't know how you can cheat? your steps are not used for your daily count or your lifetime? and I do forget to log walks all the time and I don't get these counted. I do not know why anyone would cheat. I no that a lot of the walking is arm movements and I have to actively do more just so I know that its more walking that arm movements. eg 10k a day I will do more if I can so I no I have def done at least 10k at a complete guess as im sure I use my arms without walking. if someone wants to cheat I couldn't care less if that's what they want to do then they are only staying unhealthy and wasting there time and money.

 

I want to see my steps counted in all things if I log them as I forget to wear mine sometimes and its frustrating as I don't get to see what I did on the lifetime steps its only the days I wore my wristband!

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@VioletJenIt is sad that Fitbit had to closeup a loop hole. But anything like this always hurts the honest and innocent.  Fitbit don't say too much about it but just say "it was an oversight"...

 

But many months ago, Fitbit had some unwelcome type/s infiltrate the Groups in Fitbit. The technique was to add millions of steps in one day by using a manual entry for Distance and that back calculated the steps. Their name went to the top of all of the Group boards and started a dialogue between members and then the propositioning/suggestions went to the females in the Groups. When this occurred some Friended and the cycle commenced.

 

I changed one of my accounts to a female name, sent a friend request,  and then was propositioned via the Friends messaging system including phone numbers..

 

Whether they were "sick" or doing it for "kicks" we don't know, but Fitbit had to act swiftly because my Group count at the time, the perpetrator/s were members of over 300 groups and counting.  in one day......

 

 

Colin:Victoria, Australia
Ionic (OS 4.2.1, 27.72.1.15), Android App 3.45.1, Premium, Phone Sony Xperia XA2, Android 9.0
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Wow thanks for the explanation

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I tried the Blaze 2 and got Sych issues and was planning to try a different model but after seeing how badly the Fitbit team does not listen to the community and punishes everyone for a few bad apples, there is no way I am going to support the Fitbit company. Even if I did have a Fitbit that worked properly there are always going to be times where I am going to need to manually enter steps.

 

Although someone mentioned Garmin, might have to look into them.

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Hi @Thorinator707. Good to see you in the Community Forums!

 

I'm sorry you had problems with your tracker though. Now, I'd like to know exactly which tracker you were using as Fitbit has not released a Blaze 2 model or at least there is no information about this. Do you have an idea of which tracker you might have been using?

Ferdin | Community Moderator, Fitbit

Help others by giving votes and marking helpful solutions as Accepted

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Sorry, I used a Charge 2.

 

Blaze, Charge, close enough 😛

 

Edit: More info if anyone needed it. I tried it on an LG L22C using Android version 5.0.1 Only Synched 3 out of 30+ tries.

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