Not tracking SmartTrack activities and exercise goals

[QueenBFE]

I did a 2 mile (30min) Leslie Sansone walking video today and my Flex 2 did not recognize the miles or the exercise.  It only registered the steps.

Moderator edit: Updated subject for clarity

[SunsetRunner]

I'm seeing so many of these posts all over the community for many of the trackers.  I'm wondering if this issue isn't related to the March 9th update that seems to have had some bugs?  I'm hopeful that Fitbit is working hard to fix these problems.  I just can't see dozens and dozens of folks all reporting the same issue with "exercise recognition", "lost tracks" and "sleep data pieces missing" and it's all since March 9th.  It's always good to eliminate the easy possibilities, but at some point the sheer volume of complaints should be a good indicator that this is NOT operator error, stuck trackers, bad phones or the need for restarts, resets or re-installs.  My money is on the March 9th update.  I mention this because there is no way to keep up helping all the requests I see for these things.  They came quickly and there are too many NOT to think something WIDE SPREAD is in play.  Just my thoughts. I will look forward to hearing something official from FITBIT on Twitter or by means of another update. 

[NellyG]

Try restarting your flex 2. Let us know if that helps.

RESTART PROCEEDURE
Put your tracker into the charger so it has the charging lights showing. Then press the small button on the back of the charger 3 times within 5 seconds. It will vibrate with each press and then when all three are done it will very briefly flash all lights and then go back to charging lights and it is all done

Full instructions
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186

[Kreera]

I didn't use to pay attention to the exercise tracker as i was more interested in the step and sleep tracker, but am now recovering from a longer illness and have been set goals by my doctors. I have set "walk" in the auto-recognized exercises to 10+ minutes and I go for a walk outside almost every day for at least 30 minutes or longer. The steps are recorded fine, but the exercise is recognized only randomly. I've read somewhere that moving my arms freely while I'm walking would help and I have tried that, but that doesn't appear to make any difference. I have reset and re-synced the device. I have changed the minutes in the auto recognized exercises screen and synced the device, all to no avail. Does the feature simply not work? Note: If I manually log my walking time when the the exercise tracker failed to record it, that then adds an estimated number of steps to the step counter, which is then also incorrect. I'm at a point where I think I need to turn off auto recognizing exercises and just manually track them, which is sad as this was one of the features I liked about this tracker. 

[NellyG]

@Kreera If you are sure you have restarted the flex 2 correctly (Flex 2 into charger, 3 presses on the button on the charger within 5 seconds, vibration with each press, then a couple of white lights then a very brief flash of all lights before going back to charging lights), try doing the whole procedure three times in a row (ie three restarts).  If that doesn't help contact support. Let us know how you go.

Customer Support

[Sithmaith1]

I am having a similar problem, I walk, not jog at all, but although I am logging over 30 exercise minutes per day and my goal is set at 30, it isn't updating the weekly exercise log or registering 'walk' under exercise.  It worked beautifully up until I changed from an Alta to a One tracker, because I became sensitive to the Alta band.  It is as though the minutes and exercise logs aren't talking to each other for the last couple of  days.  I have changed the app, so I know it is the latest version and the One tracker is brand new.  I loved the Alta, but feeling disappointed at these teething problems with the One.  I am using the windows 10 version of the app, if that helps.

I have just managed to log the walk manually, but why isn't this being logged automatically?

[cherann]

My Flex 2 hasnt recorded any walking i did for the last 3 days. I walk a mile a day and do gps tracking and it doesnt even register.

[cherann]

I have been having the same issues for the last 3 days. I go for a walk every morning and it tracks it while walking but then when i finish it the gps tracking isnt logging under my activities to count towards my weekly goal. I will try to do the restart and see tomorrow morning when I walk again.

[AngieKF]

I changed the recognition time to 10 minutes when I first was setting it up, yes. I will try the reset option this weekend!

[SunsetRunner]

If I do 30 active minutes (walking), should that also be recorded as 1 day of meeting my exercise goal (15+ mins walk)? I am sure it has done that in the past but this week I've had 2  x 30 minutes active minutes walking and nothing recorded in my exercise goal tile.

[NellyG]

The active minutes is a decidion made on what the fitbit definition of active is. It is a combination of doing exercise and exercise intensity. Sometimes  when I walk it is not intense enough to meet the criteria for active minutes.

What are Active Minutes?

Or are you saying that it is not recognisingbthe activity as walking? If that is the case, try restarting your flex 2

Let us know how you go.

RESTART PROCEEDURE
Put your tracker into the charger so it has the charging lights showing. Then press the small button on the back of the charger 3 times within 5 seconds. It will vibrate with each press and then when all three are done it will very briefly flash all lights and then go back to charging lights and it is all done

Full instructions
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186

[Pisti]

Hi Cherann,

I have the very same issue with my Flex 2. I just came back from hiking today and when I stopped my GPS tracking within the app it was added to my activities (with the map and other details) but after I synced my tracker with the app the log has changed and it is showing only a "walk" activity without the map and other details (pace, distance etc.) I am gonna write for the support team to ask for their help.

Will get back to you if I received anything. 

[cherann]

Thank u so much. Cause i went for my walk this morning and it didnt log it
either. Thank you.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi NellyG, thanks for your reply.

Yes, my active minutes are recorded, but nothing has been recorded as
exercise. For example this morning I went walking and it recorded 23
active minutes (on the active minutes tile). During last week it recorded
30 active minutes on Wednesday and 30 active minutes on Friday. These were
all a result of walking. None of this has been recorded as walking (or
anything else) in the 'track exercise' tile. As one of my auto-recognised
exercises is 15+ minutes of walking, I would expect this to be tracked and
recorded.

The last time exercise was automatically recorded and shown on the 'track
exercise' tile was Saturday 25 March. (23 minutes walk).

I reset as instructed but it has made no difference.

If this can be explained I would appreciate it.

[NellyG]

Ok I understand what you are saying. But I have no explaination for it! I would think it is possibly the app rather than the tracker so I would suggest you try removing the flex 2 from the app, uninstalling the app, reinstalling it and then re add the tracker and see if that fixes it. This probably wont change what is already recorded but hopefully it will stop it recurring. Give it a go and let us know how you go.

[Pisti]

Hi again cherann,

I just got the below reply from the FitBit support team:

"Hi Istvan,

It'll be a pleasure for us to assist you regarding your Fitbit Flex 2's exercise logging issue. Thank you for letting us know that you have already tried to troubleshoot the situation before contacting us and for giving such a complete explanation about what's happening.

Upon checking our records, we could see that your Fitbit Flex 2's firmware version and the Fitbit mobile application are both up to date.

Istvan, in order to provide you with the most complete assistance, we'd like to let you know that your Fitbit Flex 2 automatically tracks activities like walking, running, outdoor biking, elliptical, swimming, sports, and aerobic workouts. At the moment, as hike cannot be tracked by the device, we recommend our customers to manually log this activity on their Fitbit app or fitbit.com dashboard. Please note that when you manually log an activity, its steps and calories data override the data automatically detected by your tracker during the same time period.

That being said, we suggest you to do the following instructions that should help fix the issue that you're experiencing:

1. Do the Hike exercise without starting it on your Fitbit dashboard.
2. Once you have finished the activity, sync your Fitbit Flex 2.
3. On the Fitbit app dashboard tap the Exercise tile to open your exercise history. This is the tile that says "Track exercise" or shows how many days you've worked out this week.
4. Tap or click the "+" icon on the bottom.
5. Select a recent activity (Walk) or search for an exercise type.
6. Adjust the activity details (such as name) and tap or click Log.

We really want to make sure that you have a heartwarming Fitbit experience. If the provided troubleshooting didn’t work for your Fitbit Flex 2, please get back to us and we’ll investigate further options. 
 

If you have any additional questions, please let us know. We are here for you."

So if I read between the lines it says that at the moment there is an issue with the activity tracking from the FitBit app.

Anyway I wrote them back when can we expect the fix for this bug.

When I receive any news will get back to you.

[Kreera]

@NellyG I have not done a triple restart and will give it a try. I have only done single restarts: two months ago at the beginning of February when the tracker didn't reset at midnight; again when DST changed and the tracker got "confused"... the odd thing in my opinion is that it works occasionally, just not reliably.

[cherann]

Thank you for your updates. That is crazy to have to do more steps to track
ourselves. But appreciate it.

Cherann

[KayFamblyMom]

In the last couple weeks,  the app is not adding my "days of weekly exercise" properly.    

It is counting my activity as exercise ON the day I earn it, but its not carrying over to the Weekly Exercise in that section of the app or the "sepagon" on my dashboard that says how many days I have met of my seven-day a week goal.    I tried deleting the app and redownloading it but that didn't help.  

[LillysMomma09]

Hello, 

My Flex 2 isn't recognizing activities other then just regular steps. 

It doesn't detect when I speed walk for over 10 minutes. Yesterday I did aerobics for 20 minutes and only got calories burned for the steps I took during that workout not that it was actual activity with more calories burned like it should have. What am I doing wrong? It will detect when I'm on the elliptical however I feel the calories it says I'm burning isn't correct when compared to MFP or the machine itself. 

I've read other posts where you suggest to restart your fitbit which I did last night and it did not fix the problem. I did another speed walk this morning for 10 minutes and it was not recognized as activity at all. 

I know people who also have non HRM fitbits and there is no issues, detects the active steps compared to non active and gives calories accordingly and syncs right to MFP like it should

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

[SunsetRunner]

Mine doesn't either. 

I did twenty minutes of pump it up, Dance workout and recognised nothing. What's the point. You could just use Myfitnesspal pal end log everything manually.