Treadmill Exercise Logging Issues

[SunsetRunner]

I have a Fitbit Charge 2 (yes I know it's old but it still works great), and I just bought a treadmill to keep walking during the winter.  I've had it for a couple of days and I have very inconsistent logs when it comes to the exercise.  The first time I tried it, I only walked for 30 minutes and when I checked my Fitbit dashboard later, it was logged as an elliptical for only a portion of the time.  I deleted it and tried to manually add in a previous exercise because I took a picture of my distance/calories/pace from my treadmill, and I swear it doubled my step count.  Last night I walked for an hour and the exercise log was almost spot on.  It recorded a 59 minute walk so I thought it must have been okay.  This morning I walked for 35 minutes (1.6 miles and around 250 calories burned) but my exercise log shows 20 minutes on the elliptical for 101 calories.  I'm so frustrated!  How in the heck am I supposed to get the treadmill time logged correctly?  I have walking auto recognized for 10 minutes and elliptical for 15 minutes.  I am swinging my arms, and although I do grab onto the bar or stop my arm for a few seconds to adjust my phone volume or grab a drink of water, or just to steady myself if I change speed quickly...I don't see why it would just ignore 15 minutes.  

I would assume even if it's not giving me credit for the "exercise" time, the Fitbit has to know I'm still walking and burning calories based on my heart rate, right?  Is it silly to be worried that I'm not getting exercise credit?  I am considering upgrading to a Versa 2 or 3 and before I do I just want to know if this treadmill thing is going to keep happening.

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

Whether or not it is recognizing it as the correct, or any, exercise session, it still credits steps, calories, etc to daily totals.

The obvious solution is to use the Exercise App instead of relying on auto-recognition.  That way you tell it you are doing Treadmill, and tell when starting and stopping, so you always get full time credit for the correct exercise type.  As a long-time fit-bitter, have you ever used the Exercise App, or always just relied on auto-recognition?  If you are willing tot try but don't know how to use Exercise App, I could point you in right direction but would have to review Charge 2 first to remember how it works there.  Just off the top of my head, I think I remember you press side button until it gets to Exercise, then tap screen to get to preferred workout type.

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you!  I tried to use the exercise tracking option in my app first, but it wants to use GPS so that really confused it.  But I just pressed the side button on my Charge 2 and it does show me treadmill then says hold to start.  I had no idea!  I'll try that when I go back down for my next walk tonight.  Thank you so much!