Example of Inaccuracy in Floor Numbers

[PbPied]

I live in central Maine and do not walk on the snow-covered streets for safety reasons.

We had 3 snowstorms this week, so my exercise was shoveling my driveway several times each day.

The results show how incredibly inaccurate the FLOOR numbers are.

STEPS
* TUE - 13,655 steps
* WED - 16,688 steps (my biggest day)
* FRI - 11,567 steps

FLOORS
* TUE - 43 floors
* WED - 1 floor
* FRI - 6 floors

Why the huge change in FLOOR numbers? Tuesday's storm was very windy. Wednesday and Friday were much calmer. So I am no longer trusting the FLOOR numbers

[shipo]

Keep in mind, the floor counter is effectively a barometer; if the weather is rapidly changing, and those of us who live in New England know how fast that can happen, you can see significant swings in the floor count.  Case in point, there is a rail trail near my home which I run on a few times per week; one of my more common runs is an out-and-back 6.2 mile course which, on days with calm weather yields a net elevation gain of about 80'; on Saturday 24-Jan I ran that same course and the elevation track shows a nice gradual decline in elevation of about 20' through the 1.25 mile point of the run, then the weather started changing rapidly, the wind picked up, and between the remaining two miles out, and then the return trip, the chart shows me climbing over 500'.

To underscore the above point, I've been wearing a tracker with barometric elevation tracking for almost five years now, and it remains pretty consistent, if the barometer is changing, my elevation readings from my frequent hikes and runs, is way off.

[Heybales]

And to add to excellent info and example.

Floors is merely a displayed figure like Steps or glasses of water drank.

Not used in any math, just for entertainment and possible goal setting.

Though, 500' gain after 20' drop, wow, makes a goal setting not even useful.

I'll bet there is some nice statistical analysis of areas where barometer changes frequently and is really not useful as altimeter.

In which case during setup mention that fact for user profile stated location, and ask if they'd like to display a suggested weather change widget that tracks and suggests something about that, rather than inaccurate floor count.

[shipo]

If I'm not mistaken, one can derive elevation changes via GPS by plotting the Lat/Long path; that might make more sense (and be a heck of a lot more accurate) when on a long two or three hour run.

[JuanJoFitbit]

Hi everyone! Regarding the inaccurate floors readings that you are receiving, I'd like you to restart your Fitbit devices as described in this help article. After this, check out this help page, which explains how your Fitbit devices track floors climbed.

Keep me posted on the outcome.